"To Whom Much Is Given"

We are not owners of our resources; we are stewards, managers of all that God has created. In the beginning of Genesis, God created everything and put Adam in the Garden to work it and to take care of it. God created us and gave us a kingdom mission as an extension of his love for us. We didn’t create it; it can be taken from us; and we can’t take it with us when we die. So it’s not really ours, it's GOD'S. Therefore we must be careful when we claim or use things in a selfish way outside his will. So a better understanding ownership is vital to gaining a better understanding of stewardship.

The next concept of stewardship we need to understand is responsibility. Within the story of creation, Genesis 1:27-28 says God created humans in his own image. Then he blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” (NLT) So as a part of the creation story God blessed humanity and gave them the responsibility of caring for everything he had created.

Later, in Luke 12:42-48, Jesus saw the disciples were in danger. They misunderstood God’s expectations in regards to this responsibility, especially in the area of religious leadership. He said they were like someone who had been given responsibility to look after someone else’s house, family, and workers. It is tempting in such an arrangement for the steward to abuse the situation, to kick back and relax thinking the owner will not soon return. When the owner does return, there will be a harsh punishment for not meeting the expectations that went along with being entrusted as a steward. Jesus saw that the disciples were not prepared to give an accounting of what God had entrusted them with and he knew this needed to be corrected.

In our world today God expects more from us because he has entrusted us with more responsibility.  We need to better understand the responsibility that God entrusted us with as his stewards and be prepared to meet his expectations. So God, in his grace and mercy through Christ Jesus, gives us clear instructions about his expectations of us as stewards responsible for all he has entrusted us with.

The evidence of God’s continuing grace in the world today is that he blesses us with more opportunities to better understand the responsibility of stewardship. Though we don't own anything and thought we have not been a fruitful as we should, God has graciously entrusted us with the care, development, and enjoyment of more and more blessings.