Question:
"What is biblical stewardship?"
Answer: To discover what
the Bible says about stewardship, we start with the very first verse: “In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). As the Creator, God has absolute rights of
ownership over all things, and to miss starting here is like misaligning
the top button on our shirt or blouse—nothing
else will ever line up. Nothing else
in the Bible, including the doctrine of stewardship, will make any sense or
have any true relevance if we miss the fact that God is the Creator and has
full rights of ownership. It is through our ability to fully grasp this and
imbed it in our hearts that the doctrine of stewardship is understood.
The biblical
doctrine of stewardship defines a man’s relationship to God. It identifies God as owner and man as manager. God makes man His co-worker in administering all
aspects of our life. The apostle Paul explains it best by saying, “For we are
God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9).
Starting with this concept, we are then able to accurately view and correctly
value not only our possessions, but, more importantly, human life itself. In
essence, stewardship defines our purpose in this world as assigned to us by God
Himself. It is our divinely given opportunity to join with God in His worldwide
and eternal redemptive movement (Matthew 28:19-20).
Stewardship is not God taking something from us; it is His method of bestowing
His richest gifts upon His people.
In the
New Testament, two Greek words embody the meaning of our English word “stewardship.”
The first word is epitropos which
means "manager, foreman, or steward." From the standpoint of
government, it means “governor or procurator.” At times it was used in the New
Testament to mean “guardian,” as in Galatians 4:1-2: “What I am saying
is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave,
although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees
until the time set by his father.” The second word isoikonomos. It also means "steward, manager, or
administrator" and occurs more frequently in the New Testament. Depending
on the context, it is often translated “dispensation, stewardship, management,
arrangement, administration, order, plan, or training.” It refers mostly to the
law or management of a household or of household affairs.
Notably,
in the writings of Paul, the word oikonomos is
given its fullest significance in that Paul sees his responsibility for
preaching the gospel as a divine trust (1 Corinthians 9:17). Paul
refers to his call from God as the administration (stewardship) of the grace of
God for a ministry of the divine mystery revealed in Christ (Ephesians 3:2). In this context,
Paul is portraying God as the master of a great household, wisely administering
it through Paul himself as the obedient servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Also
significant in what Paul is saying is that once we’re called and placed into
the body of Jesus Christ, the stewardship that is required of us is not a result of our own power or abilities.
The strength, inspiration and growth in the management of our lives must come from God through the Holy Spirit in us;
otherwise, our labor is in vain and
the growth in stewardship is self-righteous, human growth. Accordingly,
we must always remember the sole source
of our strength in pleasing God: “I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NJKV). Paul also said, “But by
the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without
effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God
that was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
More
often than not, when we think of good stewardship, we think of how we manage
our finances and our faithfulness in paying God’s tithes and offerings. But as
we’re beginning to see, it’s much more
than that. In fact, it’s more than
just the management of our time, our possessions, our environment, or our
health. Stewardship is our obedient witness to God’s sovereignty. It’s what
motivates the follower of Christ to move into action, doing deeds that manifest
his belief in Him. Paul’s stewardship involved proclaiming that which was
entrusted to him—the gospel truth.
Stewardship
defines our practical obedience in the administration of everything under our
control, everything entrusted to us. It is the consecration of one’s self and
possessions to God's service. Stewardship
acknowledges in practice that we do not have the right of control over
ourselves or our property—God has that control. It means as stewards of God
we are managers of that which belongs to God, and we are under His constant authority as we administer His affairs. Faithful
stewardship means that we fully acknowledge we are not our own but belong to Christ, the Lord, who gave Himself
for us.
The
ultimate question, then, is this: Am I
the lord of my life, or is Christ the Lord of my life? In essence, stewardship
expresses our total obedience to God
and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Four Principles of Biblical Stewardship
Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your
limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment
of your whole life exclusively to His service, you could not give Him anything
that was not in a sense His own already.
– C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
In a recent blog on stewardship we asked the question, “What does stewardship
look like in our lives today?” Unfortunately many Christians today only
associate the idea of stewardship with sermons they have heard about finances.
. We believe it is where the concepts of faith, work and economics
intersect.
Peel suggests that there are four important principles about
biblical stewardship we must understand:
1. The principle of ownership.
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all
who live in it.
In the beginning of Genesis, God creates everything and puts
Adam in the Garden to work it and to take care of it. It is clear that man was
created to work and that work is the stewardship of all
of the creation that God has given him.
This is the fundamental principle of biblical stewardship. God
owns everything, we are simply managers or administrators acting on his behalf.
Therefore, stewardship expresses our obedience regarding the
administration of everything God has placed under our control, which is all
encompassing. Stewardship is the commitment of one’s self and possessions to
God’s service, recognizing that we do not have the right of control over our property
or ourselves.
Echoing Deuteronomy 8:17, we might say: “My power and the strength of
my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But Deuteronomy 8:18 counsels us to think otherwise:
Remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability
to produce wealth.
2. The principle of responsibility.
In explaining responsibility, Peel writes,
Although God gives us “all things richly to enjoy,” nothing is
ours. Nothing really belongs to us. God owns everything; we’re responsible for
how we treat it and what we do with it. While we complain about our rights here
on earth, the Bible constantly asks, What about your responsibilities? Owners
have rights; stewards have responsibilities.
We are called as God’s stewards to manage that which belongs to
God. While God has graciously entrusted us with the care, development, and
enjoyment of everything he owns as his stewards, we are responsible to manage
his holdings well and according to his desires and purposes.
3. The principle of accountability.
A steward is one who manages the possessions of another. We are
all stewards of the resources, abilities and opportunities that God has
entrusted to our care, and one day each one of us will be called to give an
account for how we have managed what the Master has given us.
This is the maxim taught by the Parable of the Talents. God has
entrusted authority over the creation to us and we are not allowed to rule over
it as we see fit. We are called to exercise our dominion under the watchful eye
of the Creator managing his creation in accord with the principles he has
established.
Like the servants in the Parable of the Talents, we will be
called to give an account of how we have administered everything we have been
given, including our time, money, abilities, information, wisdom,
relationships, and authority.
We will all give account to the rightful owner as to how well we
managed the things he has entrusted to us.
4. The principle of reward.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for
the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from
the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
The Bible shows us in the parables of the Kingdom that faithful
stewards who do the master’s will with the master’s resources can expect to be
rewarded incompletely in this life, but fully in the next.
We all should long to hear the master say what he exclaims
in Matthew 25:21:
Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with
a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your
master’s happiness!
As Christians in the 21st century,
we need to embrace this larger biblical view of stewardship, which goes beyond budgets,
though important; it connects everything we do with what God is doing in the
world.
We need to be faithful stewards of all God has given us within
the opportunities presented through his providence to glorify him, serve the
common good and further his Kingdom.
Luke
12:16-21
16 Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm
that produced fine crops. 17 He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I
don’t have room for all my crops.’ 18 Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear
down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my
wheat and other goods. 19 And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My
friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat,
drink, and be merry!”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then
who will get everything you worked for?’
21 “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a
rich relationship with God.”
