If I were to ask you to give an example of stewardship, what would come to mind? One example of poor stewardship that would likely come up would be that of Enron Corporation. Public records tell us that their senior management, accounting staff, and auditor all knew that past earnings were exaggerated by millions of dollars, and liabilities were understated by far more than that. As a result of poor stewardship within what was the seventh largest company in the United States at the time, we've seen one of the largest bankruptcy filings in American history, and the lives of numerous innocent people changed for a long time to come (Marr, Steve, "Enron Scandal Offers Important Lessons to Christians in Workplace," 2-11-02, www.thegoodsteward.com. Also, "the Layoff Tracker Archive," www.forbes.com).
In the Bible, the word "steward" primarily indicates the manager of a household or estate (Vine, W.E., Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words). His job was to manage all the affairs of his master, attend to receipts and expenditures, and portion out to each one of the household what should come to him. His function also seems at times to have included the care of children or minors, as well as property Orr, James, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia).
If we were to try to find a Biblical example of good stewardship, one name that comes to mind immediately is that of Joseph. Beginning in Genesis 39:1, we read that, "...Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there. The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the LORD was with him and how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge. It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house on account of Joseph; thus the LORD'S blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field. So he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate."
Joseph was an excellent steward; his master put him in charge of all that he owned, and under Joseph's hand and with the help of God in Heaven, his house was made to prosper. It's natural to think of stewardship in terms of finances; but really, it has a much broader application.
Anyone that has been entrusted with the care of something can be thought of as the steward of that item. For instance, if I am a maintenance technician in a factory, I am entrusted with far more than a box of tools. When working on a machine, I am responsible for the parts I use to repair or maintain it. Parts can be expensive, and if I am careless with when installing them, I can break them. If I don't diagnose the problem correctly, I could replace the wrong part--one that didn't need replacing. I'm responsible for the machine itself that I'm working on (some of which can be worth thousands, or hundreds of thousands of dollars). A sloppy technician can ruin the very machine he's trying to fix. I'm also responsible for the time which I use to repair or maintain it. The time that the machine isn't running represents lost income for the company. In this case, time is money--and sometimes, quite a bit of money! As a technician, I have been entrusted with the care and use of a machine, repair parts, and company time as well as a box of tools--and my employer expects me to behave wisely with all that has been entrusted to me.
The same principles apply with respect to the God of Heaven. There are things that each of us have been given by God, and He expects us to make wise use of them.
Turn over to Genesis 1:26. One area in which God expects man to act as a steward is with regard to the Earth itself. We read, "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" God created man after His own likeness, and gave him the rule over all the creatures on the Earth--he was put into a position of stewardship. Man tends to act as though the earth is a personal possession, rather than something that was entrusted into his care. God still owns all there is: as we read in Psalm 50:10, 11, "For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine."
He gave us dominion, not a right to exploitation; of course, we can also see in that same verse in Genesis that animals are not equal to man--we are not brothers to the rest of creation. In fact, a few chapters later in Genesis 9:1, shortly after the global flood of Noah, we read that, "...God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.'"
The reign over creation was given to us that we might be good and gracious managers of God's creation (Some information drawn from Bugg, Charles, "Stewardship," in Butler, Trent, ed., Holman Bible Dictionary, Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1991, p 1303); and the awesome responsibility of that rule can be seen when we read from the eighth Psalm, beginning verse four: "What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas."
There are many other examples of stewardship in the scriptures. Paul the apostle wrote in Galatians 2:7 that he, "...had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised..." Now, he was given a stewardship because he was entrusted with this Gospel, or good news, to the uncircumcised. God had given Paul the special work of carrying the Gospel to the gentiles, and expected him to behave wisely in doing so.
In Titus 1:5, we find that the leaders in the church--the elders--have a stewardship. The apostle Paul reminded the young preacher Titus, "For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. For the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward..." Since the overseer, or elder, has been entrusted with watching over the house of God, that is to say, God's children, Paul wrote that they must be men that have done nothing that people can make an accusation about.
He spoke of another stewardship in 1 Corinthians 4:1: "Let a man regard us [speaking of himself, Apollos, and Peter] in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." Now, we would ordinarily use the word "mystery" in the sense that it is something we can't comprehend; but that isn't how it's used in the Bible. There, it simply means something that is "concealed," or "hidden;" and in this case, there were truths that were hidden until the coming of Jesus the Christ (Barnes, Albert, Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible). In context, Paul was saying that all preachers of the Gospel including himself had been entrusted with those things that had been revealed, and so were stewards. He continued in verse 2, saying that "...In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy..." He also knew, that unlike stewards of earthly things, the judge of his stewardship was the Lord--as we see in verse four, where he says, "...the one who examines me is the Lord."
But, not only did God entrust Paul, the leaders in each congregation, and those who preach the Gospel a stewardship, but really all Christians are stewards with the good gifts that God has entrusted us. The apostle Peter commanded in 1 Peter 4:10, 11, "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." God has given every Christian differing abilities; yet whatever abilities we have been entrusted with, we are to use them to the fullest extent, in service to one another--knowing that we have been given a stewardship. If we carry out our stewardship faithfully, it will result in glorifying God.
There is yet another stewardship that has application for all Christians, and it is found in Matthew 25:14-30. Here Jesus spoke about, "a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents [a talent, in this case, is a sum of money], to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability [i.e., each one was only given what he could be expected to handle]; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. [Now, this slave was honest in that he wanted to return to his master what was entrusted to him; but he was not using the ability that he had for his master's sake--to earn more money.] Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, 'Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, 'Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.' [Really, he offered nothing but excuses.] But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'" Friends, the slaves with the five and two talents had differing abilities, but faithfully used their means, time, and opportunities in the service of God; while the lazy slave devoted his time, talent, and opportunities to himself, and failed to serve God (Boles, H. Leo, A Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew, Gospel Advocate Company, Nashville, Tennessee, 1989, p. 485).
One of the central themes of the scriptures is that of commitment. God doesn't expect simply a portion of our attention, but rather, all of it. In Mark 8:34-36, Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?" When Christ becomes our Lord and Master, we must make Him Lord of our finances, our time, our abilities--everything. As Paul wrote in 1 Cor 7:23, we were "bought with a price"--not with silver or gold, but with "precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." (1 Peter 1:19)
