Spiritual Disciplines: Stewardship

“Don’t tell me you’re trusting God until you trust Him with your pocketbook.” -J. Vernon McGee

This week, we continue our series on the spiritual disciplines with a look at what we can learn about the discipline of stewardship from the life of Jesus. We defined the spiritual disciplines previously as, “following Jesus in the overall style of life he chose for himself.” Jesus was kept the Law perfectly, unlike any of the rest of us. That means he kept the Law with regards to stewardship perfectly. Jesus was a perfect steward.

First, we should define stewardship. Stewardship is a person’s management of resources that are owned by somebody else. The manager of your local Wal-Mart stewards the goods sold at his or her store. The Walton family and various shareholders actually own those goods. Stewardship can be done well or poorly. Either way, it is the management of those resources. Stewardship began in Genesis 1:28 (see also, Gen. 2:15-16).

I have some encouraging news for you. You only have two things to steward in your life! I can hear your relief already. A list of two items? That is a sweet deal. One of the items you steward is your time. The other item you steward is every asset God puts in your life. Ok, so, maybe things are slightly more complicated than two items. But at the same time, it really does come down to those two things. We have time and we have resources. Some of those resources are money, yes, but we also have our physicaly body, our various possessions (clothes, personal items), utility items (groceries, tools), skills, experiences, training, as well as our relationships with family, friends, co-workers, fellow church members, and neighbors. I don’t know about you, but I have found it encouraging to realize that everything God put in my life is something he has trusted me to care for in ways that honor him and in ways that best manage that resource.

With regards to how we spend our time, Jesus said some very important things.¹ Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” If you are seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness first, that will have a measurable and significant impact on how you steward your time! You will prioritize daily private time with God in prayer. You will prioritize knowing what it is God said! And so you will read the Bible regularly. You will prioritize obeying God with your actions, which means you will spend time “doing the do’s” and not so much “doing the don’ts”.

John 9:4-5 are the words of Jesus. “We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” On a related note, Jesus calls Christians the light of the world in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:14). Jesus is not in the world right now because he is at the right hand of the Father, but we ARE in the world! And we are the body of Christ. So we must do the works of God while there is still time. The clock is ticking. Jesus will return someday, which will be the end of our work. Many have attempted to predict that day and time, to their embarrassment (Mark 13:32). None of us will ever know it in advance. But when the end comes, the time for evangelism and missions will end. We’ve got to share the Gospel while there is still time!

Jesus also spoke to stewarding time in Luke 9. At the end of that chapter, we read three accounts of people saying they will follow Jesus. The final brief account is Luke 9:61-62, which say, “Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” Jesus wants you to follow him. Jesus does not want you to wait while you figure out what you are doing. There are men and women, boys and girls headed towards an eternity separated from God forever in hell. There is no time for you to claim to want to be in the kingdom of God, while looking back on your life in the kingdom of Satan as something to gaze upon. John 3:14-15, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” We are to continually be “keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2a). Just as those who were poisoned looked on the image Moses lifted up (Numbers 21:4-9), we are to look on Jesus Christ. We put our hand to the plow and we get to work. That kind of conduct is a discipline. You don’t stumble into it and you don’t engage in it sporadically.

Jesus had a lot to say about money. I know it is a popular thought that “you don’t talk about money.” People think any Christian writer, thinker, or pastor who talks about money is just greedy. I feel sorry for people who think that way. None of the pastors I have served under are greedy and I am so grateful for their example. Jesus had a lot more to say about money than you might guess. If you were to count up the number of teachings or number of verses from the 4 Gospels, and compare how many times Jesus spoke about money versus how much he spoke about other subjects, you might be surprised to see that it is one of the top subjects he addressed. When I read the Bible and I see how much he had to say about finances, I am increasingly comforted and encouraged that it actually is a normal and, in fact, good thing to think about and talk about so that we can manage finances to the best of our ability.

Jesus taught through the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). In that parable, he taught about how God wants us to utilize our resources to the best of our ability. You were given that resource to use it, not hide it!

Jesus taught through another parable, about The Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21-35). The primary point of that passage is about forgiveness in general, and readers would do well to always remember that. At the same time, we can learn about the ugliness of greed and the beauty of repenting from that kind of greed in that parable.

“He that trusts in the Lord has found out the way to handle matters wisely, and happy is he.” -Charles Spurgeon

Parables are indirect teaching, but Jesus also taught directly on the issue of stewardship. In his direct teaching, he dealt with both resources and time.

In and after his encounter with the Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:16-30), Jesus speaks to the issue of financial stewardship. We see in his teaching one way in which it is difficult for those who hoard wealth. Matthew 19:23-24, “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’” Riches may buy the nice house, the slick car, the richest foods, and the flashiest clothes, but it will not buy you entrance in God’s eternal presence as a member of his family. Only your faith determines whether you are in the kingdom or not. As Christians, we already know this truth, but we would do well to be disciplined in our relationship to money.

Jesus speaks to our relationship with money very famously in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” We must know and we must have the discipline towards money that God calls us to. Money is a tool, but it is only one of many. It is not worth pursuing as your highest calling. It is not worth worrying over when the economy gets worse, or when you have to give up a few “wants” from your monthly budget. It isn’t even worth worrying about with regards to your needs! Philippians 4:6 says, “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Jesus made this same point in the Sermon on the Mount immediately following the verse I quoted at the beginning of this paragraph (Matt. 6:25-34).

I recognize that this is easier to say than to do. I, myself, am still embedding this truth deeper down into my mind and soul. But that which is true is always true, even when it is a difficult truth to handle.

“The Bible does not portray the faithful follower of Jesus as a person who never tastes anxiety or fear. Rather, the Bible portrays anxiety and fear as something that rises unbidden in the heart and must be dealt with from a Christian perspective, a Christian approach, a Christian way.” -John Piper

As the one who kept the Law, Jesus would have tithed. It was taught in passages like Leviticus 27:30-33; Numbers 18:21-32; Deuteronomy 14:22-29, and Deut. 26:2-15. God’s plan for finances among the people of God includes our giving him the first ten percent of our income. He does this not because he needs the help, but because Christians need the help. We need help trusting God. We need help with means of showing a watching world that we trust God. We need help with the self-discipline to not let money rule over us, but for God-with-us to rule money through us. Again, you cannot serve both God and money. Choose this day who you will serve!

One flavor of the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is that of self-control. One of the expressions of Spirit-born self-control in your life will be your stewardship of the time and resources you have at your disposal. He gave you today. He gave you lungs that breathe and a heart that beats. Will you hide and hoard your time and resources? Or will you trust God? Will you keep all your time and resources as a slothful expression of self-obsession? Or will you give away what you can in order to engage in God’s mission to seek and to save the lost? Matthew 16:24-25, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.’”

Develop the discipline for utilizing your time, talents, and treasure as a faithful steward of the Lord God. Don’t waste them. Don’t let them rule you. Let God rule and you follow.

1. Jesus modeled proper Sabbath rest, as opposed to the legalistic methods of the Pharisees. That discussion belongs in any conversation on stewarding time and the resources of your body, mind, soul, family, etc. However, that discussion is covered in the posts about the spiritual disciplines of prayer, solitude, and gathering for worship. ↩︎