Often when we hear the word stewardship we think of money and how to handle it accord­ing to the Bible. However, this is too narrow a view. If it is right, we should see ourselves as stewards of everything that God has been pleased to give us: health, breath, time, chil­dren, possessions, country, and we could go on and on.

1. The Principle of Stewardship⤒🔗

1. The basic truth is — God is the Owner of all things; man is responsible for his use of these things in keeping with God's pur­pose; and man must give account for the quality and results of his management.
    
2. The NT words steward and stewardship signify 'house management'. A steward was a trusted and responsible servant with authority in handling the household or business affairs of another. The NT appli­cations include stewardship of the gospel and of the office of minister (1 Cor 4:1; Titus 1:7; 1 Pet 4:10). Stewardship involves responsibility for all that is entrusted to us. It encompasses all of life.
    
3. Stewardship is based on the fact that God created all things and retains sovereignty over all. He made man after his image and made him his steward. He put him in charge of a garden (Gen 2:15). Gardening is a perfect picture of man's stewardship on this earth. Adam was to learn to see the whole created order as, so to speak, the estate which he, as God's gardener, was responsible for cultivating. Man was not made to be a barbarian but to be God's steward.
    
4. Christian faith affirms that God's creation is 'good' as asserted in God's own declara­tion on six occasions as reported in the creation account in Gen 1 (vv 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). God means us to live in avowed acknowledgement of the goodness of what he has made. However conscious we may and must be of how God's creation is abused through human self-seeking, and how needful it is to eschew all forms of self-indulgence, we must never loose sight of the goodness of the created order itself, or we dishonour its Creator.
    
5. This is in strong contrast to pagan concepts of the material world. For example, what does the Buddhist think about the mate­rial realm — it is valueless and harmful, since it contributes to desire. What does the Hindu think about it? He sees it as a worthless illusion. On the other hand, the Marxist thinks of material around us as having absolute and ultimate value. Do you see how different these views are from the biblical view?

2. The Perspective of Stewardship←⤒🔗

1. Old Testament←↰⤒🔗

What was Israel taught to think about the world around them?

1. There was the priority of the Lord's portion. Having taken His people out of Egypt, God said to them "Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast: it is mine" (Ex 13:1; cf Ex 22:29; 34:20; Lev 27:26-­28). The Lord God taught His people that the place of priority and primacy belongs to God, and not to man.
    
2. The Old Testament emphasis on the tithe, or tenth part (Lev 27:30, 32) is such that the tenth was a part symbolising the whole. The giving of the tenth was symbolic of the offering to God of the whole. Leviticus teaches us that "We must sit loose from earth...This giving up of our possessions at God's call teaches us to live a pilgrim life" (A.A. Bonar, Leviticus, 494).
    
3. As individuals, we are answerable to God for the lives we lead. Various examples of stewardship in this area may be given.

1. The first commandment calls us to honour God by our loyalty.
2. The second commandment calls us to honour God by our thought-life.
3. The third commandment calls us to honour God by our words.
4. The fourth commandment calls us to honour God by our use of time, in a rhythm of labour and rest; six days for work crowned by one day for worship. God's claim in this commandment teaches us and reminds us that all our time is his gift, to be given back to him and used for him. "Take my life, my moments and my days, all of it...." This is where true obedience to the fourth commandment begins.

2. New Testament←↰⤒🔗

The NT develops and intensifies personal stewardship quite significantly. The NT says very little about the tithe, but goes beyond it in terms of commitment (1 Cor 8-9). The pattern for giving is the radical self-offering of Christ. Sacrificial giving for the benefit of others must, Paul urges, be the way that Christians approach the distribution of their wealth.

Perhaps it is in the area of talents, however, that the NT shows its greatest advance upon the OT. All members of Christ's family have talents and abilities to offer, and we must use them gener­ously in His service (1 Cor 12).The second level of stewardship in scripture concerns our rela­tionship to God's creation and to one another.

Properly understood the principle includes all of life; all men's actions and attitudes; person­ality and personal influence; in money matters, the acquisition, handling, spending, saving, investing, giving, and final disposition; use of the land, resources and tools; one's profes­sion, job, or place of service; one's worship, the witness of his life, his personal testimony, his purpose and goals in life.

Simply stated, stewardship prompts one to ask: What is God's purpose for me in my specific interpersonal relationships, my use of resources, my attitude toward and my use of this created universe?

3. The Path towards Stewardship←⤒🔗

One can only be made stewards by Christ and the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit makes a man a Christian, he takes him off the throne and gives his heart a steward-attitude.

1 Cor 6:19, 20: "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor 6:20). Similarly in Romans 14:7, 8, and it reads: "For none liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's."

The Christian must regard himself as belong­ing to the Lord. We are His as the very spoils of victory. This is the meaning of Is 53:12: "He shall divide the spoil with the strong." We have been delivered out of the hand of the de­stroyer, and therefore, we belong to Him. His we are, and henceforth Him we serve.

This is what it means to be the "peculiar trea­sure of the Lord." Exodus 19:4-5: "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine." The expres­sion "a peculiar treasure" re-occurs in Malachi 3:17, though in the AV it is rendered "jewels". "They shall be mine ... in the day when I make up the jewels". The thought is carried over into the NT, and in 1 Pet 2:9 Christians are called "a peculiar people" (= a people for God's own possession). This is what we have seen already in Paul's expression in 1 Cor 6:19, "Ye are not your own."

The conclusion to be drawn from all this is that of our personal dedication. There is to be but one attitude of mind for us all in the light of these great things. We must say with the apostle Paul at the time of his conversion, "...Lord ... what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). Or we may use the words of the old-time prophet Isaiah, whose response to the call of God was, "Here am I; send me" (Is 6:8). This is the kind of dedication that must be made. Without any qualification or reservation in our hearts we be ready to do His will.

4. The Practice of Stewardship←⤒🔗

The practical application of this means  all that follows and much more.

1. Your body is His. Every part of you; your eyes, your voice, your ears, your hands, your feet; all belong to Him. "Keep thyself pure", Paul wrote to Timothy (1 Tim 5:22).
    
2. Your strength is His. How appalling it is to see the strong going their own way, while the service of God is left to so many who are weak and frail; in physique. Dedicate your strength to Jesus.
    
3. Your youth is His. The vigour of your youth, its zeal, its ambition, its enthusiasm: all these are needed in the work of God. Remember that the Saviour has redeemed your youth. Render it to Him therefore.
    
4. Your age is His. You are an older person, and perhaps you have but recently come to a knowledge of Christ. In that case, the ripe experience of the years is something that belongs to the Lord. The Church needs the advice and counsel of those who are ma­ture.
    
5. Your intellect is His. Are you monopolizing this for your business? Are you using it to attain some personal ends? Remember it is Christ's. Let your intellect work for Him. The work of the Gospel needs those who will 'think' for Christ. It also needs the talents of business ability in its administra­tion.
    
6. Your time is His. We need a right view of time. Beware of the sin of 'killing' time. It is sacred to Christ.
    
7. Your money is His. For this also, a right viewpoint is needed. All your money's is God's. The practice of giving one tenth of your income is a good one in order to secure that necessary channeling of our money into the work of God, but we do not understand things aright until we acknowl­edge that all our possessions are His in the very first place.
    
8. Your talent is His. To everyone of us God has committed some gifts, and these gifts are to be employed for Him. Only one reputation matters, and that is the Lord's reputation.
    
9. Your heart is His. This is the center and, indeed, the solution of all. The Lord said to Simon, "Lovest thou me?" (Jn 21:16, 17). He wanted this affection first and foremost. The words of 1 Cor 3:23 must ever be pres­ent in your mind throughout all your days, "Ye are Christ's".