Doctrine of Stewardship

Stewardship is one of the subjects that people are often least enthusiastic to study.  Yet, Jesus devoted roughly 25% of his words in the Gospels in this subject, including 28 passages therein.  In Old and New Testaments combined, there are over 800 verses on the subject ranging from planning, budgeting, saving, investing, debt, and giving.

Wealth is referred to everything we have that God given to us including our finances, jobs, houses, products of our land, businesses, automobiles and personal items.

The following are the summary of the New Testament teaching about wealth: (1) it warns against the desire to be rich (1 Timothy 6:9,18,19; Hebrews 13:5-6); (2) it gives some general guidelines for what the rich should do (1 Timothy 6:17-19; Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 12:32-34; Luke 14:13-14); and (3) it explains why God has given us so much (Ephesians 4:28).

God owns everything (Deuteronomy 8:17-18; Psalm 50:10; Haggai 2:8; James 1:16-18) and we are just His stewards.

A steward is a person, who by God's grace, manages, organizes, administrates, and otherwise has been entrusted with authority over everything that belongs to God.  Because they belong to God they recognize that ultimately everything they are and have belongs to God.  We are steward of our time, our talent, and our treasure or wealth.

Our property isn't really our own and isn't a measure of our personal worth.  The fact that God owns everything and we are to be a faithful steward of it explains why when people fail to do so God charges them with robbing or stealing from him (Malachi 3:8-10).

Biblical stewardship is therefore defined as the responsibility of believers to manage the resources that God has created and whatever has been placed at their disposal.