Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 1:26–31 (ESV)
Taken from the sermon “Stewardship: Putting Away an Owner Mindset” by Mark Vroegop
Before reading this article, catch up by reading about the first foundational truth of biblical stewardship.
The second foundational truth found in Genesis 1:26 is captured in this statement: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . .” This is so important that it is repeated in verse 27 with the emphasis that both men and women bear the image of God. That reality is connected to God’s act of creation.
We Bear the Image of God
It would take a while to unpack this in its entirety, but to be made in the image of God means there is something unique about humans in respect to the rest of creation. Men and women, as human beings, have an intrinsic and God-given value, ability, morality, and decision-making capacity that is different from the rest of creation. In terms of the created order, human beings are more like God than anything else. Men and women in how they live, in how they act, in how they decide, and in how they create mirror the activity of God.
Human activity in the world has a God-like quality to it. What humans do—more than anything else in creation—communicates something about God. This reality is both beautiful and dangerous because human action can have a God-like quality to it..
Maximize Your Gifts and God’s Glory
Stewardship begins by understanding that everything you have, including your gifts, are from God, not you. That means that when you maximize your gifts, your talents, and your resources, it has the potential to glorify God. But it also means that you can idolize your gifts because, in using them, it makes you feel like God.
Money can be maximized for God’s glory, or it can be idolized for yours. Your exceptional talent or intelligence can be maximized to display something amazing about God, or it can be idolized in order for people to think amazing things about you. If you build a business, you could maximize it as a gift from God and for his glory or you could idolize it because your name is on the front of the building.
You can be a bad steward by neglecting what God has given you, and you can be a bad steward by worshiping what God has given you. To be a good steward involves developing your gifts while not being addicted to your gifts and living with the perspective of stewardship.
