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).
Taken from the sermon “Stewardship: Putting Away an Owner Mindset” by Mark Vroegop.
The biblical philosophy of stewardship has its roots in the very first book of the Bible: Genesis. It surfaces in the very first instructions that God gives, in the first place that God creates, with the first people to bear his image.
As I’ve studied these texts and this idea of stewardship, it has been a good reminder that these concepts and principles are not only foundational to stewardship, but they are also foundational for humanity, especially Christianity. In other words, if you get this right, it has sweeping implications. But the reverse is also true: Get what follows wrong, and it is amazing how quickly our lives can get off-track. Add to the mix the pressure of a culture that is pulling the other direction, and we have a recipe for a challenging topic.
What does the Bible say about the foundation of stewardship?
God Is the Creator of Everything
Genesis 1:26 begins with the words, “And God said, let us make man . . . .” This is the seventh time that the formula of “And God said . . .” appears in Genesis 1. It is the basic wording for how the world came into being. God created it by speaking it into existence.
This is very, very basic. But it is a crucial starting point not only in this discussion, but also as we consider the message of the entire Bible and even the gospel itself. The book of Genesis begins with the statement, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). From there the first chapter walks us through each of the seven days of creation.
The pattern is easy to see. God speaks, and on day one there was light, on day two there were land and sea, on day three there was vegetation, on day four there were the sun and the moon, on day five there were fish in the sea and birds in the air, and on day six there was the creation of animals and the first humans. The first two chapters of Genesis lay down this foundational truth: Everything in the world as we know it, see it, and experience it comes from God and was created by God.
It Was Very Good
What’s more, Genesis 1:31 tells us that when God was finished with creation, he “saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good.” There is something powerful in Genesis 1, but there is also something beautiful about what God does.
There are sweeping implications for the fact that God is the Creator, both for the issue of stewardship as well as for morality, and even the gospel. Let me give you a few examples:
- Since God is the Creator, everything owes its existence to and is owned by God.
- Nothing exists apart from his decree or his sustaining power; everything is dependent upon God.
- As Creator, God has the right to establish the boundaries, limitations, and morality of life.
- God has embedded all of creation—even after the presence of sin—with a goodness that says something about him.
This is where the Bible starts: God is the Creator and owner of everything. And even after sin enters the world, the gospel does not change this reality; it heightens it. God is not only the Creator, but he is also the redeemer through the death of Jesus. The cross becomes the means by which people are rescued from their sins. Jesus buys their freedom.
That is why the apostle Paul says that we were dead in our sins but that Jesus “made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5). He also applies this to our bodies, saying, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Therefore, to be Christian is to be created twice — once physically and once spiritually. We belong to our Creator by virtue of his creative power and by virtue of his redemptive power.
This means that everything we are, everything we have, and everything that exists owes its life, its sustenance, and its purpose to our Creator God. In Romans 11:36, the apostle Paul summarized this concept very well when he said, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
A Gift of God
C.S. Lewis, in his excellent book Mere Christianity, says this: “Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to his service, you could not give him anything that was not in a sense his own already.”
Is that the way that you think about your money, your time, your career, your home, your business, your education, your gifts? Do you see everything as being fundamentally connected to God’s ownership?
Stewardship, and not thinking like an owner, is foundational to humanity, the gospel, and what it means to be a Christian. Stewardship malfunctions and sin creeps in when we start thinking or acting as if we are the center of the universe, as if we are self-made people, and as if we are the ones who are sustaining our lives. Biblical stewardship begins by recognizing, reaffirming, responding to, and rejoicing in God as Creator. Stewardship begins by confessing, “You are God, and I am not.”
Listen to full sermon “Stewardship: Putting Away an Owner Mindset” from the series All In: Making Our Passion Practical.
