Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Sept. 16/60

Contributor - R. Euwema

Title - Stewardship - What is it.?

Topic - Stewardship

Man is an acquisitive creature. This he has, of course in common with most other living creatures. His motto is: I want what I want when I want it. We are not now interested to try to find out how he got that way, but rather in the fact that he is that way. This acquisitive nature of man can readily be verified by taking an inventory of one's own self. Now that you have looked within your own soul, what did you find? That acquisitive nature was there, wasn't it? It may have been a bit disconcerting to find it within one's self; but after all a Christi an should know himself, shouldn't he? It is only then that he will be ready to ask God for the Holy Spirit's correcting influence in his life.

There are certain aspects of this "acquisitive nature" in man that are wholesome, for this is the incentive toward self-preservation and for advance. But there are also many unwholesome aspects which are like parasites in the Christian's soul. These factors are they which destroy the whole spirit of the Christian life and character. It runs directly across all of the greater things of the consecrated Christian's ideals as they are found in the Holy Scriptures. I refer to that factor which has not yet found root in the Christian life, and which is often so hotly resented when it is presented to the Christian church. I, of course, refer to the whole Biblical program of "stewardship". When the word is mentioned some people look at the speaker as though he is presenting something that is entirely new, for it has not been taught in the Protestant churches for many a decade.

If you will permit me to give my own reaction to this program, I will tell you what my own attitude was when I first had it explained to me. I considered this to be one of the factors that was presented by some of the "fanatical" sects, and that it did not have, or at any rate should not have a place in a well organized and normal body of Christians. But after hearing it mentioned in various ways, I began to make a study of it, and to my surprise I found that it was thoroughly scriptural and that it was the normal Christian who practiced it. But now what is really meant by "stewardship"? Let us consider it for a few moments.

The word "steward" and its derivative have had a very lowly beginning. The word itself comes from an ordinary every day Anglo Saxon word that was used in old England centuries ago. As was common in England, as well as on the European continent, one person, a lord of the manor, or some man of the nobility, was the sole owner of a large tract of land. These lords of the manor often had some person whose task it was to be the keeper of the domestic animals, the cattle, the sheep, the swine, etc. This man was named the "steward", or the man who was the "warder of the sty", that is: the keeper of the sty. The sty was the area in which the animals were kept. So this keeper was named the "sty-ward", which later on became the "steward". So a STEWARD is the KEEPER of some one else's property, that is: he is not the owner of the property, but he is the one who takes care of and uses it for the benefit of the OWNER", he himself is no more than a CUSTODIAN.

Stewardship, as it is taught in the Bible and as it is to be practiced by the Christian runs counter to the desires of the natural man.

If it be true that natural, unregenerated man is acquisitive in character, this matter of Christian stewardship meets him head-on. This is where the inner struggle begins to assert itself, for it is a struggle between what God wants His people to do and what their own sinful self commands them to do. Let us use a simple illustration. All of us know that sickness is not normal for our human bodies. In order to bring back health to a sick body, the physicians often inject a foreign element into the bloodstream of the sick person. This foreign element may be in the form of e.g. anti-bodies, the function of which is to bring into effect a battle between the viruses of sickness and the viruses of health, with the expectation that these injected viruses will so powerfully overcome the viruses of sickness that health will be restored. In some such manner there is this sin caused, self seeking virus which we will call "acquisitiveness", which is seeking to destroy the whole of our spiritual life. Now by the grace of God through the in-working of the Holy Spirit, there is injected, or if you will infused into the ,sick" person a new factor, namely that of a Christ-dedicated life. Of course there will be a struggle between these two elements, but if the new life be real and virile, the struggle between self-seeking acquisitiveness and that of sincere Christian stewardship will not be too long. The new life in Christ 'will prevail and normal "health" will be given to the sin-sick self, eking, acquisitive soul. The result will be Christian Stewardship , normal Christian pulse and health.

Christian Stewardship has been well defined. Here is a definition which has been very widely accepted because it is so true to the Biblical teaching:

"Christian stewardship is the practice of systematic and proportionate giving of time, abilities and material possessions, based on the conviction that these are a trust from God to be used in His service for the benefit of all mankind, in grateful acknowledgment of Christ's redeeming love.

There are at least four important factors in this definition. They are: a. Proportionate and systematic giving; b. the conviction that all of our abilities and possessions are a trust from God; all are to be used for the benefit of mankind and d. that this stewardship is in grateful remembrance for Christ's redeeming love to us. Note too that this definition does not limit stewardship to the giving of material possessions. but rather to the practice of systematic and proportionate "giving of time, abilities and material possessions". To limit it to one, or even to two of these three factors would be to curtail and therefore to destroy the entire Biblical concept of stewardship.

Let us consider the four factors of stewardship for a moment! The first is: a proportionate and systematic giving of those things given to us by God. Let us consider the gift of TIME. Long before we arrived in this world TIME was here and from the moment we were born it was given to us in small capsule form: sixty seconds to a minute. And when summed up these seconds make a week of seven days. In His providence Lord has set aside one of these seven days to be used for Him. But since it is for God it has also become a "day of rest and gladness", for we cease from our daily activities and turn to God for spiritual strength and physical recuperation. But we know that one day in seven" is the minimum sector of time to dedicate unto the Lord. But no right spirited Christian would ever think of giving less than this "one day in seven" in the service of his God.

Our second factor in this matter of stewardship, is that of "abilities or as they are some times referred to as our talents. Of course this refers to that which a person can do. In the Christian church "talents" are often thought of as the ability to speak in public, teach Sunday School, sing in the Choir, play the church organ and similar abilities. The definition for stewardship includes much more than these or similar abilities, this definition calls for all abilities which a Christian may possess. Not all people have equal abilities, or talents. As in our Lord's parable, one has received five, another two and still another but one "talent". But the fact is that they all were possessors of something that could be used for the well-being of the master. This teaches that there is no such an individual as a "NO-talent" Christian. So whatever category we may fit in, whether the five-talent, or the two-talent, or the one-talent rubric, we all are to use whatever we have for the good of the Kingdom of our Lord.

This matter of giving of our "material possessions" might require a bit more attention. For is here that so many of us Christians fall short of the glory of our God. The definition for stewardship states that the Christian steward practices systematic and proportionate giving of material possessions. This word "systematic" would seem to indicate that this is not to be a helter-skelter affair but that the Christian goes to work systematically to give of his material possessions to the work and cause of the Lord here on earth. This means then that when the offering plate comes to us at the church worship service, we do not look for the smallest. coin that we can find in our purse, but that we deliberately and systematically set aside a certain amount, an amount that is proportionate to our income, and give that to the Lord's work on His Holy Day. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 16 : 2, "Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store, as the Lord hath prospered him". The cause for this was two-fold: there was an urgent need in the churches of Judea and there should be shown a certain measure of gratitude toward God for the "riches of grace in Christ Jesus".

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