What is Biblical Stewardship?

Question 11064.

Biblical stewardship is one of those phrases that has been reduced almost entirely to money, and usually to money at the point where a church needs some. That is a shame, because the idea is far larger and considerably more searching than an annual appeal.

A steward in the ancient world was a servant entrusted with the management of another man’s household. He decided nothing about ownership and everything about administration. Hold that picture and the whole subject of biblical stewardship opens up.

Everything begins with ownership

The foundation of biblical stewardship is a single claim. Psalm 24:1 says the earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. If that is true, then nothing I hold is ultimately mine, including the hands I hold it with.

That is a more radical starting point than most stewardship teaching admits. We usually speak as though ninety per cent is ours and a tithe is God’s, when the biblical picture is that all of it is his and we are managing it on his behalf.

The Greek word behind steward, oikonomos, gives us our word economy and means a household manager. A steward who begins to think of the estate as his own has not become richer. He has become a thief.

It starts in Genesis

Biblical stewardship is not a New Testament innovation. Adam was placed in the garden to work it and keep it, which is management language, and humanity was given dominion over the creatures. That mandate was never withdrawn, though it was badly damaged.

So the care of creation belongs inside this doctrine, and I say that without embarrassment even though the subject has been captured by political movements I have no interest in. A steward who wrecks the estate has failed regardless of what anyone else says about it.

The same principle governs our bodies. Paul tells the Corinthians that their bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit within them, whom they have from God, and that they are not their own, for they were bought with a price. Biblical stewardship therefore includes sleep, food and health, which is not where most sermons on the subject go.

Money is the sharpest test

Money gets more attention than anything else in this area because Jesus gave it more attention than most of us are comfortable with. He spoke about it constantly, and often in parables about stewards who were called to account.

The parable of the talents is the classic text. The master entrusts differing amounts, expects a return proportionate to what was given, and the man condemned is the one who did nothing with what he had. Notice that the failure was not loss. It was inactivity.

That reframes the question. Biblical stewardship does not ask whether you have much or little. It asks what you did with what you were handed, and the comparison is with your own trust rather than your neighbour’s. I have written on the related question of how much money is enough.

There is a warning attached that we tend to skip. Paul says it is required of stewards that they be found faithful, and the standard is faithfulness rather than success. A steward who worked hard and saw little return is commended. A steward who buried what he had is not, however carefully he buried it. You can read Paul’s line at 1 Corinthians 4:2.

Giving as an expression of stewardship

If everything belongs to God, then giving is not a transfer of my property to his cause. It is a redirection of his resources according to his priorities, which takes a great deal of moral drama out of it.

Paul tells the Corinthians that each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. The word he uses there is the one behind our word hilarious, and it is a long way from the grim envelope on a Sunday morning.

I have addressed the specific question of tithing in whether Christians should tithe, and the wider question in what the New Testament says about giving. The short answer is that the New Testament pattern is proportionate, planned, regular and generous, and it usually goes beyond a tenth rather than stopping there.

Time and ability are held on the same terms

Biblical stewardship covers far more than the wallet. Paul speaks of making the best use of the time because the days are evil, and Peter writes that as each has received a gift, we are to use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

That means the hours in a diary are a trust in exactly the way money is. So is the ability to teach, to fix things, to sit with the dying, to cook, to organise. A believer who says they have nothing to offer has usually just not counted properly.

It also means retirement is not a withdrawal from stewardship. The estate does not stop needing management because a man has stopped being paid, and some of the most useful people in any congregation are those with time and experience to spend.

Biblical stewardship also touches influence. A believer with a reputation, a platform, a position at work or a following of any size holds something that can be spent well or squandered, and Scripture treats a good name as a genuine asset. What we do with the trust others place in us is part of the same accounting.

The accounting

Every steward parable ends with a reckoning, and I think we have gone quiet about that. Paul says we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

This is not a question of salvation. For the believer that matter is settled by the faithfulness of God and cannot be reopened. It is a question of what we did with the trust, and the New Testament speaks of loss and reward without apology.

Biblical stewardship therefore has a horizon. We are not managing an estate indefinitely. There is a day when the books are opened, and living with that in view changes how a person decides about a bonus or a Saturday.

Where biblical stewardship goes wrong

It goes wrong when it becomes a fundraising technique. Congregations can smell it, and rightly so. If the only time stewardship is preached is when the roof needs doing, the doctrine has been reduced to a lever.

It goes wrong in the other direction too, when it becomes an excuse for hoarding. I have heard careful stewardship offered as the reason for giving very little, on the grounds that one is being prudent. Prudence that never lets go is not stewardship. It is ownership with better manners.

And it goes wrong when it becomes anxious. A steward is responsible but not ultimately liable. The estate belongs to someone else, who is well able to sustain it, and that ought to produce diligence without dread.

A further distortion is worth naming. Biblical stewardship can become an obsession with control, in which every penny is tracked and every hour optimised until the joy has drained out of the thing entirely. Jesus was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard because he went to parties. A steward is allowed to enjoy the estate he manages, and gratitude is part of the job description.

Faithfulness in small things

Jesus said that one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. That is the principle that governs the whole subject, and it is oddly encouraging.

It means biblical stewardship is practised in the ordinary. The unglamorous decision about a subscription, the honest expenses claim, the hour given to a neighbour, the care taken over a job nobody will inspect. That is where the training happens.

Nobody becomes generous at fifty who was not practising at twenty five. The habits are formed small and then they scale, in whichever direction they were pointed.

So, now what?

Do an audit this week, and be honest about it. Where did the money actually go last month, and where did the hours go? Biblical stewardship begins with knowing what you are managing, and most of us have only a vague idea.

Talk about it with whoever shares your finances. Biblical stewardship practised alone in a household where two people are pulling in different directions produces friction rather than fruit, and most of that friction dissolves once the two of you agree what you are actually aiming at.

Then change one thing. A standing order set up, an hour committed to somebody who needs it, a subscription cancelled and redirected. One concrete change beats a general resolution every time.

And remind yourself who owns it. That single shift, from owner to manager, quietly reorders everything else. What would you do differently tomorrow if you truly believed none of it was yours?

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”

1 Peter 4:10, ESV