Day 3: All We Have Belongs to God

When most of us think about our relationship to our home, or stuff, or money, we don’t think of ourselves as the caretakers; we believe they’re all ours. But that is not actually the view of Jesus. Almost half of Jesus’ parables have to do with how his disciples are to steward their resources.

There are three basic components to the biblical theology of stewardship.

The first is that God owns it all. God is the owner, and we are the caretaker.

In the first story in the Bible, God creates the “heavens and the earth,” a Hebrew way of saying everything! The universe is his creation. Then he creates a garden, and he literally breathes air into Adam’s lungs; life itself is a gift. Then he puts Adam and Eve in the Garden “to work it and take care of it.”

The second component to this is that we are entrusted by God with resources to do good. God owns it all, but he entrusts it to you and me to steward.

But we don’t realize that not all our money is for us.

Some of it is for us to live! To provide for our families, to put a roof over our heads, and food on the table.

But some of our money is to give away to the poor and the needy, to the church and the Gospel. And some of it is to build for the future.

Which leads us to the final component of a biblical theology of stewardship: God blesses us to give more, not just to have more.

You see this idea in all of Jesus’ parables on stewardship: Those who steward the master’s resources well are given more resources to steward.

Paul explains this in his second letter to the Corinthians.

9v7-8; 11: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work … You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

This almost sounds like the prosperity gospel. But two words separate Paul’s theology from the prosperity gospel heresy, “so that.” When we give and are good stewards of what has been entrusted to us, God often does give us even more. But the purpose is not to make us rich, but to make us even more generous.

But this raises all sorts of questions.

What do I keep? What do I give? And where? And to whom? What’s an appropriate standard of living?

I get how complex this is. But these are the right kinds of questions.

And the New Testament does not spell it out for us. Instead, it calls us to discernment; to listen deeply to God with a singular desire: to know and do his will.

That said, there are six basic guidelines from Paul in his letters to the Corinthians. Our giving should be:

1. Regular, not sporadic. He writes, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money.” (1 Corinthians 16v2a)

2. Proportional: “Each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income.” (1 Corinthians 16v2b)

3. Sacrificial: “They gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability.” (2 Corinthians 8v3)

4. Voluntary: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion.” (2 Corinthians 9v7a)

5. Joyful! “ … for God loves a cheerful giver.”15 (2 Corinthians 9v7b)

6. And motivated by apprenticeship to Jesus: (not religious duty or even philanthropy) “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8v9)

So we’re not flying blind. There are guidelines.

But the lack of a clear rule to follow means we have to listen to the Spirit of God in our heart — to regularly come to quiet before God and ask him, “Father, thank you for the gift of these resources. What do you want me to do with them?

Many of us don’t listen to God because we’re scared of what he may say.

We still believe the myth that more money equals more happiness, and we’re scared God may ask us to give our money away. And we don’t yet believe in God as our Father-provider.

So the invitation this week is to radically rethink your relationship to your money and resources, not as owner or non-owner, but as caretaker. And to begin a lifelong journey of learning to listen to the voice of your loving, generous, joyful Father and provider.