A Biblical Study of Stewardship
An Executive Summary – Dr. James E Taylor & Franklin M Porter Sr.

Introduction
The lack of biblical stewardship has reached a crisis level in America. At the root of this crisis is a lack of discipleship which calls us to revisit the meaning of biblical stewardship. If we are to accomplish our God-given vision to be a "movement of Great Commission Christians who are glorifying God by building Christ's Church worldwide," we must relearn the scriptural principles that guide earning, spending, saving and giving.
Jesus declared in Mark 1:15, the kingdom of God is within your reach. God's rule and reign is available to all who will receive it. Responding to His call requires a radical change-we serve a new Master, and everything we have belongs to Him (Psalm 24:1) Truly, if God owns our hearts, He will most certainly have our "wallets" as well. Therefore, any discussion of stewardship must begin with a healthy understanding of the Kingdom of God. The general concept of stewardship is not limited to matters of money or finances. Biblical stewardship encompasses far more; it means coming fully under the reign of God in every area of our lives.

Stewardship Defined
In short, a steward is a person who takes care of someone else's property. The Old Testament concept of stewardship begins and ends with God. God is creator and owner of all things. In Genesis when God gave Adam and Eve dominion over creation, He told them to rule on His behalf. Our stewardship in the Kingdom of God was established from the beginning. When the Israelites were poised to enter the Promised Land they were reminded that the land belonged to God and that they were at best temporary tenants. The principles of God's ownership and our stewardship are foundational to all of the laws regarding land and possessions.
The concept in the Old Testament teaching on stewardship May be summarized as:( 1) God owns everything. 2) God's covenant people are responsible for their management of God's resources. 3) Giving is a worshipful response to God's ownership of all things.
The concept of stewardship is continued through some of the parables of Jesus and the teaching of the Apostles. Jesus calls us to become wise and faithful stewards-responsible for and accountable for both material and spiritual things-handling money, life, gifts, our churches and the gospel message according to God's purposes.

Seven principles of stewardship provided in the New Testament give a framework for a Christian lifestyle of stewardship.

a. Good Stewardship Begins with the Recognition just as the Old Testament that God is the Owner of All Things (1 Chronicles 29:1-4, Luke 12:42-48, Luke 16:1-13, Matthew 25:14-20, Luke 19:12-27) We cannot "give" God ownership of our material goods. He already owns it all. We can only recognize and submit to His ownership.

b. As Stewards, We are Entrusted with Goods to Care for as Part of Kingdom Discipleship Until the Return of the Master Jesus Christ (Mathew 25:15, Luke 19:23, Mathew 25:27, Luke 12:42) God is mainly concerned with our faithfulness of what He entrusts to our care. We can trust that God in His providence puts into our hands only what we can aptly handle and that He expects us to bear fruit in His Kingdom.

c. Earthly Resources Can be Used for Eternal Purposes (Luke 16:13-15, Hebrews 6:10) Worldly wealth can have eternal value. We are to view money as a tool that can accomplish eternal work-reaching people for Christ.

d. Our Stewardship Must Serve Not Only Our Own Purposes, but the Purpose of the Master, Jesus Christ (Luke 12:47, Luke 17:7-10) The greatest punishment in the parable of the faithful and unfaithful servants comes to the servant who knew the master's will and did not do it.

e. As Stewards We Need a Balanced Picture of Hardship (Mathew 8:19-22, Mathew 10:22, Mark 10:45) God has often called his people to endure hardship, but a balanced view is necessary. We should resist lifestyle inflation to minimize debt, increase giving, and be ready to support God's call to new ministry.

f. We Will Be Held Accountable for Our Stewardship (2 Corinthians 5:10, Ephesians 2:8,9, Mathew 16:27, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, Romans 14:12, 1 Corinthians 3:14,15) Our redemption does not remove us from responsibility and accountability before God. It will be an evaluation of both deed and heart.

g. Our Stewardship Embraces Both the Spiritual and the Material (Ephesians 5:15,16, 1 Corinthians 6:19, Hebrews 13:2, 1 Peter 4:9) The use of time and opportunities to minister certainly must be governed with wise stewardship.

Practical Directives on Stewardship
There is no effective difference between ignorance of God's principles and rebellion to those principles. A thorough understanding of four practical directives is needed to address human resistance to stewardship issues.

Spiritual Warfare: Those subject to the spirit of mammon suffer under a satanic lie that man-made things (job, work, luck, and money) are their providers instead of God, the true provider. Christians must be alert and ready to employ the weapons of spiritual warfare in the ordinary world of wage earning, bill paying and giving.

The Health and Wealth Gospel: In reconciling the positive and negative scriptures dealing with wealth, it is our attitude, namely our desire for it, that can make its possession evil (1 Timothy 6:9,10). We reject as unbiblical the suggestion that God has set up universal laws of prosperity, put into action by faith and positive confession. There is equal error in believing God must meet both our needs and desires or that somehow the poor have dishonored God by not being delivered from poverty. We affirm that material poverty is part of the curse of our fallen world and it is never God's pleasure or delight that his children remain in poverty. Our contention is that if the church embraces the reign and rule of God in the management of all its possessions, then it will see, as a by-product of the advancement of the Kingdom, a powerful liberation of God's people.

The Spirit of the Tithe: Although Christians today disagree over the place of the tithe, historically, the tenth, or tithe has always symbolized the whole. The tithe is a token symbol affirming that the whole belongs to God. Viewed this way, the amount or percentage given is not the issue, rather, it is the spirit or the heart behind the gift. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus affirms the tithe, but rebukes the Pharisees for losing the spirit behind it: "You give a tenth of your spices . . . but you have neglected . . . justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." If in fact the heart is the key issue and if we are merely stewards of what is ultimately owned by God, then the driving question we must ask is not, "How much do I give?" but "How much dare I keep?" To this end, five practical principles apply to the spirit of the tithe:

Give First: the tithe reminds us that God comes first in our lives, that He alone deserves preeminence.

Give Cheerfully: "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (1 Corinthians 9:7)

Give Faithfully: faithfulness is the heart of biblical stewardship. Christians should live their lives in a way that will result in the Lord saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21-23).

Give Wisely: the investment of God's resources must be done with wisdom. It is wise to give first to one's home church, and then to worldwide ministries including those of The Christian and Missionary Alliance.

Give Without Seeking Recognition: "But when you give to the needy [not if], do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" (Matthew 6:3). Such giving not only guards against religious pride, but also is one of the primary ways God builds faith into our lives.

The Stranglehold of Debt: Many believers are unable to obey the clear directives of God on stewardship because they are in bondage to debt. Romans 13:8 says, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another." The goal here is not to be legalistic or impose guilt but to ask, "Are my finances headed in the direction Scripture is pointing?" Our stewardship teaching must address this problem or it will fail to produce effective disciples of Jesus Christ. It is not God's will for His people to be enslaved by debt but that they should be free in all areas of their lives.

Summary
The Christian must rekindle their passion to become godly stewards-men and women who handle God's resources with integrity. Our Vision to become "a movement of Great Commission Christians who are glorifying God by building Christ's Church will only be realized if we make a wholesale commitment of all we have and all we are to Him. The scripture calls us to be wise and faithful stewards who handle life, money, spiritual gifts, and the gospel message faithfully.