(This is Part III in a three-part series. We strongly recommend starting with “The Estate Steward – Part I: The Search”)
Written by Stephen Rohrer
In this series we have explored stewardship, but not from the perspective of the steward. Instead, we imagined being the lord of an estate searching for a steward, setting objectives, and then dealing with the steward’s mismanagement of those objectives. As we conclude this series, let’s look at how these objectives align with principles of stewardship in Scripture.
1st Priority: Give (The Master’s Share)
At the Life Financial Group, we teach in our Stewardship Seminars the Five Biblical Priorities for our finances. Like the steward in our analogy, our first priority must be giving God, our Master, the first fruits of the resources we steward. We must “honor the Lord with [our] wealth, with the first fruits of all [our] produce” (Prov. 3:9). This trains our hearts to remember that we are stewards and are here to build Christ’s kingdom. This looks like tithes to our local church because that is where we are ministered to. It is also where we should be directly involved in building the kingdom. The New Testament does not specify a tenth, but because Abraham gave a tenth to the High Priest Melchizedek before the law of Moses, a tenth seems to be a good place to start from.
2nd Priority: Save (Prepare for the Future)
The second priority is saving to meet planned and unexpected expenses or obligations in the future. “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it” (Prov. 22:3). The fact that there will likely come a day when we are too old or feeble to work should not take us by surprise. If we have daughters, the possibility that they will get married and the subsequent obligation to help pay for a wedding should not startle us. There are also many things that will not last forever: our roof, our cars, our furnace, etc.
We must set aside funds for these known expenses but also just to have reserves for the unknown. King Solomon said that “Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.” (Prov. 21:20). Note that he says these reserves are in a wise man’s dwelling. It is simply a mark of wisdom to have extra saved up. This is not only for the wealthy.
3rd Priority: Spend (Keep the Lights On)
Third, we must pay our current expenses in a timely manner. This includes paying for rent, groceries, utilities, making debt payments, etc. Paul makes it clear that “if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Tim. 5:8). Your family and property are God’s servants and property that He has entrusted to you. These servants and property are specifically in your care–not the whole earth and everyone in it. We are finite and our priority from God is to provide first for those immediately in our care. It is good and right to have a heart for others, but God makes it clear in this verse that we cannot help them at the expense of those He has placed under our care.
Paying our bills also brings honor to our Lord. I remember talking with a local landlord who was not a Christian, but he remembered someone in our church who rented from him twenty years ago because they always paid their rent on time. Whether we realize it or not, this is a part of our Christian testimony.
4th Priority: Offerings (Show Generosity)
Fourthly, we must make room for giving above our tithes. “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). This could be supporting ministries, generosity to those in need, or even hospitality.
As for supporting ministries, we should make sure that we give offerings to those who have ministered to us – whether that be a guest preacher in your church or an online ministry that has strengthened and challenged you. As the Apostle Paul says in 1 Tim. 5:17-18, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.” Another key method for us to further the kingdom is by supporting mission work.
Generosity can be another form of offerings. In fact, generosity to those in need is such a powerful demonstration of love that the word, Charity, which only means love, has become synonymous with generosity. God does give us guidelines for our generosity because we cannot meet every need everywhere. For instance, Paul tells us, “so then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Gal. 6:10). We must do good to all, but we should especially seek to bless fellow believers. God also speaks often about hospitality because it is another way to show God’s love. This is why He commands us to “show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” (1 Peter 4:9). You can read more about guidelines for generosity in our articles here.
5th Priority: Luxuries (To Beautify, Order, and Enjoy)
Lastly, what of those things that we can survive without having? What does our Lord have to say about them?
Our Master wants us to bring order, beautify, and enjoy what He has given us. God is a God of order and peace – not disorder or chaos as Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 14:33. This means we should put effort into making everything He gives us to steward more orderly. This was the first mission given to Man: God commissioned us to “. . . have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth . . .” (Gen. 1:26). If we do not keep our property, animals, and persons in good order, we are neglecting the Dominion Mandate and not reflecting the character of God. Suddenly, mowing our yards and weeding takes on a whole new significance.
Not only should it be in order and well-kept, but it should be lovely because God is also a God of beauty. The Hebrew word used by God to describe His new creation is “tov”. It means good in all ways; both morally and pleasing to all the senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch). He could have made fruit purely nutritional – a gray blob of grit. He could have made flowers mere functions of plant reproduction, but instead He made them so that “even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:22-31). As we are able, we should reflect God’s nature by making what He has given us more lovely and pleasing to the senses.
Like the people of Israel who “delighted themselves in [God’s] great goodness” (Neh. 9:25), we should also enjoy the world that God has made and things in it. However, this enjoyment must flow out of and enrich our appreciation for God. “The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.” (Ps. 89:11). The two primary dangers, of course, are that we will: 1) Come to love the blessing more than we love our Lord who has blessed us, and 2) That we will begin to think that our prosperity is our own and not due to God’s grace on our lives.
Conclusion:
When we start to explore all that God has called us, His Stewards, to do in His behalf, it quickly becomes obvious that we have a lot of work to do. We could view it as a burden, but we should not view it that way. Instead, we should be invigorated. There is so much to be done for our Lord and His kingdom. But realize that the Steward’s Objectives require money – that is how God made the world. This means we must work diligently like Paul who “worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.” (1 Thess. 2:9). We should be “doing honest work with [our] own hands, so that [we] may have something to share with anyone in need.” (Eph. 4:28b). God gave us work in the perfection of the Garden of Eden before the Fall. It is a blessing to us and how God enables us to bless others and build His kingdom.
All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.
