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Psalm 24:1
“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.”
The next topic we will cover in our look at Christian discipleship is a concept that is all over the Scriptures but can be easily overlooked. We readily understand that basic discipleship practices include such things as Bible study and prayer, but how often do we think of stewardship as a core element of following Jesus as His disciple?
Stewardship, or the faithful managing of the resources that God has entrusted to us, actually appears right at the beginning of human history. Genesis 2:15 records one of the first instructions that the Lord gave to humanity: to “work” and “keep” the garden of Eden. Adam was to take care of Eden as part of his vocation from the Lord. We know that Eden ultimately did not belong to him, for texts such as Psalm 24:1 explain that the fullness of the earth belongs first and foremost to God. Yet God entrusted Eden to Adam so that he would manage it unto the Lord’s glory. Although our Creator calls us to be industrious workers and although our resources generally come to us through diligent labor (Prov. 28:19), it remains true that we as creatures have nothing that we did not receive from God (1 Cor. 4:7). Because our resources belong ultimately to Him, we must be wise in how we use them. This includes all our resources—our time, our money, our skills, even our very lives.
Frequently when we are talking about stewardship, we are thinking of financial management, and with good reason. The Greek root for the words steward and stewardship in Scripture is the same one as for the English words economy and economics. Scripture has much to say about how we use our money and other financial assets. God’s Word prescribes a tithe for the support of ministry (Num. 18:21), and we are to give funds to carry out the work of the church and to pay its ministers, since laborers deserve their wages (1 Tim. 5:18). The Lord considers our responsibility to tithe so serious that He says that a failure to give constitutes robbery of Him (Mal. 3:6–12).
In modern Western culture, people are often encouraged to be anything but good stewards and to spend money that they do not actually have. God’s Word, on the other hand, exhorts us to live within our means and to invest in the kingdom of God (Prov. 22:7; Matt. 25:14–30). Faithful discipleship demands godly stewardship, so let us seek to use our resources unto the glory of God.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
God commands us to be good stewards of the resources that He gives us. Thus, we must pay attention to how we spend our money so that we will avoid waste and will be able to give to the work of the church. Stewarding our resources well evidences an awareness that all we have belongs to God, and it helps us better understand just how much we depend on Him.
for further study
- Deuteronomy 8:18
- Proverbs 13:11
- 2 Corinthians 9
- Hebrews 13:5
the bible in a year
- 1 Chronicles 27–29
- John 11:45–57