Stewardship: Understanding Nothing is Ours
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“My plan had finally come together: from there on out, I was on ‘easy street’”
When I was 18 years old, I was seven months into a job that didn’t matter to me much at all. My primary reason for having this job was simply so I could have money for gas and skateboards. I worked at a pizza bar and had successfully, while in view of my boss, worked harder than everyone else so I could receive the privilege of switching to the daytime shifts. This meant that Monday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm I got to manage the entire store all by myself. I knew this was a fairly easy role because on most days we had zero customers before 4 pm. I was able to work these shifts because I had managed to get into the work release program halfway through my senior year in high school.
My plan had finally come together: from there on out, I was on “easy street,” completely unaware of dead ends on the road ahead. After about three months and two new skateboards, I had completely settled into my new routine. I had become so good at my responsibilities that I even decided to give myself a half-hour break every day around 11:30. This involved me pulling up a chair just outside the kitchen, cooking myself a pizza with my self-appointed full employee discount, and taking some time to scroll through my social media feeds; this wasn’t the type of job where scheduled breaks or employee discounts were a thing. But, how could I get away with doing this? My 18-year-old self didn’t care because the time I spent formulating this plan felt like real work. It was an accomplishment, and no one could convince me otherwise.
One day while enjoying my break, I was startled by the sound of my boss’s fist slamming into the bar counter. I stood up, dropped my slice of pizza, and made eye contact with the man who had entrusted his establishment to me for the last three months. Without any control of myself the words “you’re not supposed to be here” came out of my mouth. These words were met with him angrily telling me that he’d watched me make myself a pizza and sit on my butt for nearly 20 minutes. This infuriated rant ended with the question, “Is this what I pay you for?” Failing to answer fast enough, he suggested that I leave for the day. I left a little upset but quickly rationalized my behavior. It was easy to convince myself I didn’t do anything wrong.
The next day I would proceed to return to my place of employment with my uniforms in hand, ready to end this journey on my terms. As I approached the building, my boss met me in the parking lot, which I assumed was to either fire me or to tell me that I was getting switched back to the evening shifts I had worked “so hard” to get out of. Before he could even begin his sentence, I told him, “I think I’m done working for you.” I turned over my uniforms and quit my job that day. High school graduation was two weeks away and again, I felt accomplished in finding an alternate route that led me right back to “easy street.” If nothing else, I just learned that I needed to keep a better watch for dead ends along the way. With nearly ten years to reflect on this period in my life, it’s clear that I was an ignorant, selfish kid. I got caught in the act of dodging responsibilities and expectations when given oversight of someone else’s property. From my example, we have a real-life case of poor stewardship and a guide on how not to be like my old self.
“All too often do we find ourselves slacking off in our current responsibilities, just so we can string together a last-minute plan”
“Stewardship” and “we need to be good stewards of this” are those words and phrases we all hear frequently throughout church and ministry. Generally, they come up in conversation when something related to finances is being discussed or when there is a service opportunity and volunteers are needed. For the most part, these are appropriate times to reference being a good steward. The truth is though, if we as believers limit our comprehension of these terms, we altogether dismiss how they are used biblically and run the risk of conforming to the habits of the world. So, let’s take time to learn what exactly stewardship means and come to a place where we can apply being a good steward to every aspect of our lives.
Biblically the word stewardship, from the Strong’s definition, is defined as, “the management of a household or of household affairs, specifically, the management, oversight, and administration, of someone else’s property.” The word steward can simply be translated to the word manager by using the previous definition. Understanding how the Bible defines these words is one step in the right direction. Along with that, we must reckon with the fact that everything we have in life is a resource that God has provided us as individuals.
We see this in Psalm 50:10-12, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.” It is of the utmost importance to note that the individual resources we’ve been given are not ours to take ownership of but to take management of as long as we have them. This is seen in Ecclesiastes 5:18-19, “Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.” We as believers are called to be managers of the materials and opportunities that God has provided for us. This means that regardless of our age, our place in ministry, our titles in our jobs, or the career paths that we’ve chosen, we have a responsibility to attend to all that we’ve been entrusted with, with care.
The word stewardship is only mentioned three times throughout the entire King James Bible, and each of those mentions happens consecutively in Luke 16:2-4. In Luke 16, Jesus presents the parable of the unjust steward to his disciples, which provides us with several examples of what being a good steward is not. In the parable, we are told of a rich man who finds out that his steward has done his job irresponsibly and wasted the resources that he had been entrusted with. After demanding the steward to account for his actions, the rich man essentially fires the steward, relieving him of his prior duties. The following verses in this passage consist of some inner dialogue where the steward creates a plot to dodge the further responsibility of finding new employment. He then decides to get on the friendly side of all the people who owed the rich man debts by discounting whatever it was they owed him (v3-7). In taking this action, the former steward of the rich man acted in a clever but deceitful manner, which would allow him to call on favors to all those debtors once he was fully let go from the job he had done poorly in the first place.
Unfortunately, what we see in this passage is a common pattern among all people of the world: believers and non-believers. All too often do we find ourselves slacking off in our current responsibilities, just so we can string together a last-minute plan. A plan disguised as the resolution to an issue we created for ourselves brought on by poor stewardship in the first place. For a lost person with the ability to do this well, is something to find glory in. This is someone who regularly repeats this pattern and narrowly escapes the complete meltdown of any situation. My 18-year-old self fell into this category like a piece of a worldly puzzle. For a Christian though, someone who knows God’s will over their life, living out this pattern is something that should cause conviction and something we should be judging ourselves for. Being a good steward isn’t always easy and no one is going to be able to do everything correctly 100% of the time; this is okay because God knows our hearts and intentions. But if you’re someone that has developed a habit of dodging responsibility and glorying in your ability to do so, God knows your heart as well. Good luck accounting for your intentions of what you did with what he gave you when that time comes (Matt 25 & 1 Cor 4:2).
“God’s economy, when functioning according to his will, produces accountable and capable laborers for his name’s sake”
An important distinction to make while considering stewardship is that our main focus cannot be about our resources or gaining more of them. Luke 12:15 tells us that we should beware of covetousness because a man’s life is not about the quantity or quality of goods he possesses. God wants us to develop an eternal perspective on all matters of life. When it comes to the resources he has given us, his expectation is that he would be glorified through our stewardship of those resources. This is precisely why God values a good steward; they are profitable for his kingdom.
Managing the resources God has given us can be profitable for his kingdom in several ways. In Luke 6:10-13, a crucial point is made to the believer and should be applied to their daily lives. In verse 10, we’re called to be faithful stewards of everything that we are given, paying no mind to how big or small of a thing it is. In verse 11, it is made clear to us that the way we care for our physical responsibilities will reciprocate how much spiritual responsibility God will entrust to us. In verse 12, we are given the reminder that what we have is not ours and that if we can’t be good at managing someone else’s property, then we will always fail to manage the property we consider to be our own. Rounding out the previous verses, Jesus gives us verse 13; we are given the sobering message that we cannot be servants to God and our physical belongings. It is always one or the other. If we are serving physical belongings, then we are serving our flesh. But if we are serving God, then physical belongings regardless of our age, our place in ministry, our titles in our jobs, or the career paths that we’ve chosen can be used to prop up the gospel for the glory of Jesus Christ.
In Philippians 2:14-16, we are given a good picture of how to use our lives to be profitable for God and good stewardship cannot be separated from this passage. Paul calls out the church at Philippi to do all things without murmurings and disputings. He also calls them to be blameless and harmless in the midst of a nation that finds righteousness in their flesh. He tells the church to shine as lights amongst this nation and to hold forth the word of life, so we can rejoice in the day of Christ knowing we did not run or labor in vain. I’ve paraphrased what Paul communicates to the church in this passage but we can see that being a good steward means holding forth the word of life in the midst of those that do not have it. The word of life is something that should be held forth by the believer with both hands. The hands of the believer should gain the strength and ability to do this because of experience gained from taking part in church ministry and the continual management of God’s resources. God’s economy, when functioning according to his will, produces accountable and capable laborers for his name’s sake. In other words, the output of proper stewardship comes from a fruitful disciple of Jesus Christ whose accomplishments in life reflect righteousness in Jesus alone.
“Stop lying to yourself about how you’ve maintained the physical things in your life”
If something mentioned previously up until this point does not make sense, I encourage you to study it out for yourself. Not only will this help with further understanding but studying scripture and applying it to your life in real-time is perhaps the most important practical step a Christian can take when it comes to becoming a good steward. Applying God’s word to your life and allowing yourself to be held to his standard, if you are serious about it, will lay the foundation for proper stewardship.
Some other practical steps to take and ideas to keep in mind when thinking about stewardship are maintaining a budget for your household, having an appropriate balance of time spent in ministry, school/work, and hanging out with friends. In addition, you should be judging yourself in all things along the way.
If you have income and are responsible for paying more than a single monthly bill, you should have a budget. They are hardly any fun to make but immensely beneficial when it comes to keeping track of your finances. When building your household budget, work your tithe into that before anything else and remember that if we can’t trust the Lord with our finances, we have no business saying that we can trust him for anything else.
If you are also someone that prioritizes “fellowship,” which in most cases means hanging out with friends and doing whatever before ministry, work, and school responsibilities, then it is probably time to step into adulthood and take care of things that reflect characteristics of Jesus to others in your life. True fellowship means glorifying and worshiping God with other members of the body and the best place for that to happen is in ministry work. Start planning your hangout time around everything else God’s put in your life and watch as God makes a responsible minister out of you.
Lastly, when you’re doing a poor job of managing the materials and opportunities God’s given you, as long as you aren’t intentionally distracting yourself from that truth, you will eventually have to take notice of your habits. Stop lying to yourself about how you’ve maintained the physical things in your life. Take notice of how you’ve been unable to establish and hold down a job. And if your walk with the Lord has produced little fruit and has been a consistent struggle with obedience, this is only going to further the time it takes for you to become a good steward. Take notice of your habits and choose God over yourself at every opportunity (Col 3:9-10).
“In obedience to the Lord, let’s take responsibility of what God has given us”
In closing, I’ll just say that God’s grace is sufficient in all things, and our failures as men never surprise him (2Cor 12:9). Let’s always be reminded that God is not impressed by what we do with our own hands. Coming to a place of faith is how we were brought into his family in the first place (Eph 2:8). Let’s also be reminded that as members of his family and as representatives of who he is, there are expectations for how we carry out our affairs. Seek wisdom and guidance from God’s word, the leaders in your life, and glean as much as you can from the ensamples God has given you. You can then share what you’ve learned with brothers and sisters who need what you were desperate for at one point, so they can give that to others, too. Be fruitful (2Tim 2:2).
The word responsibility means being solely accountable for something. In obedience to the Lord, let’s take responsibility of what God has given us and be living examples of what the church can accomplish for God’s glory through biblical stewardship.
Nick Hatton is a member at Midtown Baptist Temple and a leader in C&YA. He is on the discipleship team and is also involved in the Grandview men’s Bible study.