Chapter 6 Learn Biblical Stewardship From my perspective there are two core passages in the Bible the form the foundation of stewardship. These passages are Deuteronomy 8 and Matthew 25. While it is outside the scope of this part of the book to do a deep dive into each of these passages, we will spend some time cleaning from the word of God what it means to be a steward of that which God has entrusted to us. Let s start with Matthew 25. Matthew 25 the parable of the talents In this well-known parable Jesus describes a man who goes on a long journey and entrusts this property to his servants. To the first serving he gives five talents of money to the second two talents and to another one talent. The Scripture says that he gives these talents to them, each according to his ability. The parable goes on to describe that the man who had received five talents put that money to work and gained five more. Likewise the one who had been given two talents gained two more. But the man who had been given one talent went off in ductile hole in the ground and hid his master s money, ensuring that the Masters money did not earn a return on investment. When the master returned he wanted to settle accounts with them for the man who had received the five talents and had earned another five, the master commended him for being a good and faithful servant. The same happened for the servant who have been given to talents and have earned two more. For both of the servants the master said, you have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Masters happiness!
But the man who had received one talent essentially blamed the master for his inability to not create another talent of wealth. He said the master, I know that you are hard man harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See here is what belongs to you. The master response by describing him as a wicked and lazy servant: so you knew that I harvest where I had not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. In the end the servant is described as worthless and is thrown outside into the darkness. Matthew 25 forms the foundation of Biblical stewardship. In this parable we see ourselves having been entrusted with talents and abilities and opportunity. It is not the amount of money or talent or opportunity that is in question in this parable. Instead it is our faithfulness to take what God has given to us and turn it into something more for his purposes. You see when the servants invested their talents and earned more talents for the master, it was for the master. The earning of their profits wasn t for themselves because the original amount of money that they had to invest have been entrusted to them by the master. We see the master giving out of his abundance to his servants money and opportunity to enrich himself and in the process bless his servants. This is exactly what God does with us. The servants used the Masters money to create more wealth, but not once did we ever see them claiming that money as their own to do with as they wish. As Christian business owners, we should have the same attitude as the servants: the business that we have has been given to us by God and we are to use it to further his purposes and his agenda, not ours. We also learned from Matthew 25 the good stewardship is directly a result of a good relationship between the master
and servant. You ll notice that the servant who is given one talent did not claim an inability to earn another talent. Instead he blamed the master and his wrong perception of the Masters character, attitudes, and future actions that would be taken against the servant if he failed. In his book Authentic Stewardship, Terry Austin writes: The difference between the two good stewards and the one worthless steward was their relationship with the master. Everything said about the master implies that he was a generous, trusting man. The word used to describe what he did with his possessions is entrusted. He handed over all of his possessions to these three men. This appears to be a great act of kindness and an expression of trust. If he did not have confidence in these men, he had other options. We know that he could have put his money in the bank The failure of [the worthless steward s] relationship resulted in the failure of his stewardship. He was a worthless steward because he did not have a healthy relationship with the master (emphasis added). This is a common biblical theme. Abraham had a faith relationship with God so he could divide his possessions and give the best options to his nephew Lot (see Genesis 13). David was a man who was frequently called, my servant by God Himself, which allowed him to give an offering worth billions of dollars (see 2 Chronicles 29:3-4). Zacchaeus discovered acceptance from Jesus and he gave away half of his possessions (see Luke 19). The widow with only two coins completely trusted God, so she gave the most exemplary offering ever given (see Mark 12:41-43). While the text doesn t seem to come out and say this, this seems to imply that have the servant tried in good faith and failed, the master would not have been upset with him. But the larger point is that the worthless servant did not have a quality relationship with his master, did not connect with his Master s heart and therefore acted in ways that were out of character of his Master.
I will contend that Christian business owners who are not walking with the Lord do not have a good idea as to what is in the Lord s heart when it comes to their business. Seeking the heart of God (as I have discussed in the chapter on freedom from the bondage of sin) and knowing God s heart is visceral to the act of Biblical stewardship. Again, having a intimacy with Jesus Christ and being free from the bondage of sin is the only way to position oneself to engage in Biblical stewardship. Running a business God s way starts with our growing, vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy 8 In verses 10 through 20, we have Moses reminding the Israelites that there is a significant danger in becoming wealthy. That danger centers on a drifting away from God and a growing arrogance in ourselves as the source of our wealth. Moses writes, When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws in his decrees that I m giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Moses goes on to write this: You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my handset produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth [emphasis added], and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and
bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. The main point to learn from Deuteronomy 8 is that whatever talents and abilities, whatever opportunities and ideas, whatever connections and education that we might have that has contributed to our financial success in business and in life is directly and solely the result of the Lord giving those things to us in the first place. If we are talented, it is because the Lord created us that way. If we have significant opportunities to create wealth, it is because the Lord has positioned us to do so. If we have been given significant wealth through inheritance, it is because the Lord has been generous to us. If we have a new product idea, it is because the Lord has given it to us. There isn t anything that you or I can point to in business and say I did that on my own. It all comes from the Lord. As a result we have no room and no reason to be arrogant about anything that we have. I think this is why Christ was so clear in the sermon on the Mount in Matthew five when he told us to give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. Because wealth is a renewable resource, it seems to me that one of the purposes of business is to give. Personally, I have a hard time with business owners who create millions of dollars of wealth and spend most of it on themselves. I think this is counter to the spirit of the generosity that God has demonstrated toward us. Stated another way, if God has been so generous and so good to us as to ensure that we were born in the time and place of the greatest affluence that this world has ever seen and we were given the opportunity to create significant wealth even by the standards of the most affluent generation on earth, should we not spend that wealth under the direction of the Holy Spirit? Should we not consider the interests of others ahead of our own? As disciples of Jesus Christ and those who have been entrusted
with a business, should we be trafficking in the excesses of self-indulgence? While I m not advocating a life of poverty, I m also challenging the American success story that is so individualistic and so isolated from the help of others and God that any success that is experienced is directly and solely attributable to the individuals own effort and talent. To this end, I find that both political parties in the United States today have got it wrong. One party wishes you to believe that your success could not have been achieved without government support and government programs. The other party wishes you to believe that your success in business is a direct result of your own efforts, ideas and talents that you pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps. There is some truth in both, but either taken to an extreme doesn t land a person in the lap of God s provision. Moreover, neither party recognizes that all of our wealth and our ability to produce wealth comes from God. Neither party recognizes our responsibility to God and our role as stewards of that for which he has entrusted to us. Stewardship principles Let s summarize what I believe to be are the core, foundational principles of Biblical stewardship that we can exegete out of Matthew 25 and Deuteronomy 8. First, God is the source of everything and owns everything. This is reinforced by verses like Psalm 24.1: The earth is the Lord s and all that it contains. Hence, by definition, everything we have is an entrustment from the Lord to be used for his purposes and his glory. Secondly, our relationship with God directly impacts our understanding of his heart, agenda and purposes for that which he has entrusted to us. This is why the visceral component of running a business God s way is the quality of your
relationship with Jesus Christ. Thirdly, because we are merely stewards and not owners of anything, part of our entrustment is to faithfully represent the Lord and his interests on this Earth. When the stewards in Matthew 25 went and earned more money it was not for themselves. They were representing the master and did so in a faithful way. When we run our businesses, we are representing Jesus Christ in the marketplace. Let s not give others any reason to drag the name of the Lord to the mud because of our words and actions. Our behavior, language, attitudes and methods of interaction should positively reflect the character of Jesus Christ. This is confirmed in second Corinthians 5.20 where Paul writes, We are therefore Christ s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. Fourthly, stewards take the initiative in getting to know the master. While the master gave out of his abundance opportunity and resources for the stewards to create profit on his behalf in Matthew 25, it is also clear, in my estimation, that the worthless servant did not take the time to understand what the master really wanted and furthermore did not take the time to get to know the master s heart. This is confirmed in Colossians 1.10: And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. Lastly, as stewards of that which God has given to us we avoid conflicts of interest. We work solely for the interests of Jesus Christ. Our lives are to be spent furthering the kingdom of God, whether that is in business, community, vocational ministry, family or elsewhere, we are to look out for the interests of Jesus Christ and to put the interests of others ahead of ourselves. This is so countercultural to the American concept of creating wealth for yourself and your family through business that many will scoff and find this to be unworkable in today s American business environment. My only
response is that it is never unworkable to be faithful to that to which God has called us. Summary This part has just skim the surface of what it means to be a biblical Stuart. Hundreds of books have been written on this topic alone. Before purposes of the Christian business reference architecture, it is important to lay out the foundation from the Bible for learning Biblical stewardship and getting our hearts and our minds align with the heart of God and his word.