Basic Principles Of Biblical Stewardship - Part 1
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Jesus Christ often speaks in parables. Parables earthly stories with heavenly meaning. Often, Christ most important lessons are revealed in his parables.
Christ teaches us about the principle of stewardship through His parable of the talents as written in Mathew 25:14-27. The importance of Stewardship is emphasized by the fact that except for the Kingdom of God, Christ talked more about stewardship than any other topic.
A steward is a person who manages and administrates what has been entrusted to him by another. As Christians and as human beings we are stewards as we are to manage what has been entrusted to us by God. In Genesis 1:28, when God first created man he gave him instructions that he should “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” The New Testament is replete with verses reminding us that we are stewards of God’s resources.
And what are we to be stewards with? We are to be steward of four things our time, money, our abilities and our life. In Mathew 25:14-27, (A parallel text can be found in Luke chapter 19) the principles of stewardship that we can learn from Christ as laid down in the parable are as follows:
1.) OWNERSHIP - Verse 14 tells us that the Master is the owner of the goods that was entrusted to the servant.
In the same way we should realize that all that we have is not ours it is the Lord’s and that we are only entrusted with it. Having this mindset is one of the most important principles of stewardship because only then if we think this way that we will be more responsible as stewards.
2.) ABILITY & DISCRETION - In verse 15, the determination as to how much goods was entrusted to each servant was determined on the basis of the ability of each servant and the master’s discretion.
God has given us different abilities, gifts, economic status in life and other blessings. It is no accident that we are where we are right now. God surely has a purpose for all of us. Whatever God gives us depends on His discretion and our ability. Even if we think we have the ability, we cannot question God if He gives other more wealth or more abilities than us because it depends solely on His discretion. Our job is to develop our abilities and to make the best out of our lives.
3.) THE PRINCIPLE OF FREEDOM - Verses 16 to 18 tells us that each individual servant was given full freedom to decide on what to do with the goods given to him.
God did not make us robots. We were given freedom of choice by Him. As human beings God gave us a certain level of freedom as to how we are to fulfill His purpose for us. So, in order to make the best out of our lives, our actions must governed by His instructions and that we must only act within the boundaries of his plan and instructions.
This is part 1 of a 2 part series. Should you wish to view the entire article please visit my blog.
