This is the idea that humans are in charge of the world on behalf of God. Some Christians who have a literal interpretation of the Bible believe that this gives humans the right to use the world's natural resources for their own benefit. In Genesis , God creates humans and gives them the Earth to care for.
By giving humans dominion over the land and animals, God is giving humanity the right to control and have power over all other living beings. You might be reading this on a device that you paid for. They were made with his materials using hands he made, and they were purchased with his resources—which he allows us to have and use.
Since God owns everything, all that we have comes from him. Not just our resources either. Wealth, honor, strength, power, and authority belong to him too. This is one of the most challenging aspects of biblical stewardship that Christians have to grasp.
We can invest them all in ourselves and use them on things that only matter to us. But God is trusting us to do much more than that. We need to invest them in kingdom causes and use them to provide for the needs of others.
The Bible is full of passages instructing us to use our resources to care for the poor and those who are in need 1 John —18, Proverbs , 1 Timothy But numerous passages provide insights into our role and responsibilities as stewards.
Here are a few of the key passages that should shape our understanding of biblical stewardship. In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus tells a story about a man who entrusts three servants with bags of gold or talents and then goes on a trip.
When he returns, two of those servants have doubled the money their master gave them, and he rewards them handsomely. But the third servant hid his gold, so the amount neither increased nor decreased.
Even though none of the gold was spent and it was all returned to him, the master is far from pleased:. Jesus tells this parable in the context of preparing for his return.
We need to ensure that God gets a good return on his investment. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us that when we give to the needy and practice righteousness, we can either receive our reward from people or from God Matthew —4. Later on, he says:. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We can choose to accumulate wealth and glory for ourselves here on earth, where it will not last, or we can use what God gives us to store up treasure in heaven, where it will last forever.
Which type of treasure we pursue and invest in will reveal where our hearts are. Are we prioritizing our lives and our resources around the investments God cares about, or are we reaping our rewards now, on earth?
They shared everything Acts and even sold homes and property to meet the needs of the poor. The church understood that everything in their possession really belonged to God. Pooling their resources together created an opportunity to trust God to provide and reveal his extravagant love to others.
And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Not a single person in the church was in need. We are called to use our resources to meet the needs in our own communities. Peel suggests that there are four important principles about biblical stewardship we must understand:.
The psalmist begins the 24 th psalm with,. In the beginning of Genesis, God creates everything and puts Adam in the Garden to work it and to take care of it. It is clear that man was created to work and that work is the stewardship of all of the creation that God has given him. This is the fundamental principle of biblical stewardship. God owns everything, we are simply managers or administrators acting on his behalf.
Therefore, stewardship expresses our obedience regarding the administration of everything God has placed under our control, which is all encompassing. In explaining responsibility, Peel writes ,. Nothing really belongs to us. While we complain about our rights here on earth, the Bible constantly asks, What about your responsibilities? Owners have rights; stewards have responsibilities. While God has graciously entrusted us with the care, development, and enjoyment of everything he owns as his stewards, we are responsible to manage his holdings well and according to his desires and purposes.
A steward is one who manages the possessions of another. We are all stewards of the resources, abilities and opportunities that God has entrusted to our care, and one day each one of us will be called to give an account for how we have managed what the Master has given us. This is the maxim taught by the Parable of the Talents.
God has entrusted authority over the creation to us and we are not allowed to rule over it as we see fit. We are called to exercise our dominion under the watchful eye of the Creator managing his creation in accord with the principles he has established. Like the servants in the Parable of the Talents, we will be called to give an account of how we have administered everything we have been given, including our time, money, abilities, information, wisdom, relationships, and authority.
We will all give account to the rightful owner as to how well we managed the things he has entrusted to us. In Colossians Paul writes:.
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