The Christian Steward

As we continue in our series on the overcoming Christian, the focus this week is on what it means to overcome in the area of stewardship.

My main passage today is from I Chronicles 29. This passage is about the building of the Temple of God. David, you may remember, wanted to build the temple, but God told David that it was to be his son Solomon’s job. David gave Solomon detailed plans, revealed to him from God, and encouraged Solomon, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”

In every sense of the word, Solomon was to be a steward. What is a steward? It is an overseer, one who carries out tasks appointed to him. A steward is entrusted with much: money, decision-making ability, and even the reputation of his master, so as to bring honor to his master.

In both the Old and New Testaments, a steward was often a highly trusted slave, or a freed slave or former slave. Eliezer of Damascus was a slave of Abraham who served in the role of steward. His responsibilities went so far as to finding a wife for Isaac. Laban had a steward – Jacob, for a period of years. He certainly served in this role, taking care of Laban’s flocks and herds. Potiphar had a steward – Joseph. Joseph eventually became something like a steward of Pharaoh, and Genesis says that at that time Joseph had his own steward under him to manage the affairs of his household. In general, each household of distinction either had a formal steward, or someone who would serve in that role. It was simply necessary given the size of the estates.

Solomon is interesting because he was a son and yet served as a steward. I think this is a good model for our position. Because of what Jesus has done, we too are sons, sons of God Himself. But we also are called to serve as stewards. So now let us read I Chronicles 29.

Then King David said to the whole assembly: "My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the Lord God. With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God—gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble—all of these in large quantities.

Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple: three thousand talents of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings, for the gold work and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsmen. Now, who is willing to consecrate himself today to the Lord?"

Then the leaders of families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the king's work gave willingly. They gave toward the work on the temple of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron. Any who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the temple of the Lord in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite. The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly. – I Chron. 29:1-9

Now I wonder… does this passage make any of you nervous? Are you afraid I am going to ask you to give up all your gold and silver, bronze and iron, and precious stones in an offering? If you know me you know that is not what I am going to say! I will say that there is no sign of coercion in this passage. All David did was disclose what he was giving and ask who else would give. It says the people gave willingly, rejoicing while they gave, freely and wholeheartedly.

My focus, though, is really drawn to what David says about Solomon, his son. “My son, Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced.” This hardly inspires confidence. And he goes on… “The task is great!” Have you known someone who has almost a knack for saying the wrong things, for saying things that embarrass someone, such as us? I think most of us have had this experience growing up with our parents. “Dad, did you have to say that?” I have to point out that this is Solomon’s Dad. I just find this a very human, funny moment here.

Now it may have been embarrassing to Solomon, but it was honest. David also said in there something else that made Solomon’s inexperience not matter at all. What was it? He called Solomon “the one whom God has chosen.” If God had chosen him, nothing else matters, right?

I think this is a great picture for us. We are called, chosen by God, to live our days before we go to heaven as stewards for Him. I think, regardless of our age, it is a fair statement for God to say, “My son, or daughter, whom I have chosen, is young and inexperienced.” As I talk in a bit about what it really means for us to be stewards, I think it is encouraging to know that, despite our inadequacies, our weaknesses, and our inexperience, God has chosen us, and so nothing else really matters.

To summarize: We are called/chosen to be Christian stewards.

Continuing on with the passage:

David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, “Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all.”

“Wealth and honor come from You; You are the ruler of all things. In Your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give You thanks, and praise Your glorious Name. But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from You, and we have given You only what comes from Your hand.”

“We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. O Lord our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building You a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from Your hand, and all of it belongs to You. I know, my God, that You test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly Your people who are here have given to You.”

“O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you. And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep Your commands, requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided.”

Then David said to the whole assembly, “Praise the Lord your God.” So they all praised the Lord, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the Lord and the king. – I Chron. 29:10-20

What are your impressions of this prayer? One thing that strikes me is how many times and how many different ways David basically said the same thing: It’s all Yours, Lord!

This was true for David and for everyone who contributed to the work with David. And it was true for Solomon. As a steward, he was not managing his own stuff, but the Lord’s. This applies just as much to us as it did to them.

You could say it in this way: As stewards, everything we manage is the Lord’s. This is such an important perspective to have. Everything is the Lord’s. Our money is the Lord’s. Our cars are the Lord’s. If we have a house, it is the Lord’s too. But this goes beyond possessions. Our abilities and talents, even our spiritual gifts, are the Lord’s. Our brains are the Lord’s. Our hands are the Lord’s. Our time is the Lord’s. Our children are the Lord’s. Just as David says, what we can give to the Lord is only what He has already given us from His hand.

In a way, marriage is a good picture of what happens when we become Christians. A marriage in which the husband says this is “my money” and the wife says this is “my account” is heading towards trouble. The Bible calls the result of a marriage “one flesh.” There is no longer “his” and “hers” but simply “ours” – at least, that is the way it should be.

As Christian stewards, though, our situation is even more extreme. It is not that there is only “ours” and no “His” and “mine”; the reality is that there is only “His.” There is no “mine” and no “ours”! When we become Christians, there is no longer “my money” and “His money.” God doesn’t get His own checking account! Sunday isn’t His day, and the other six days ours. It is all His. We are stewards – this means we have the awesome responsibility of managing these things – you could say, of building His temple – but it isn’t our temple. It is His. I dwell on this because it is so foreign to our natural way of thinking.

The second thing that really grabs my heart is David’s prayer for Solomon:

And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep Your commands, requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided.

In other words, may Solomon stay fully devoted to God so that he can carry out his many challenging tasks as a steward, despite his youth and inexperience! How much this prayer is needed for us! May we stay fully devoted to God so that we could remain faithful stewards!

As a principle, we can word it this way: Our devotion to God enables us to be faithful stewards. Without this devotion, we will eventually fail as stewards. We will fall short, tarnishing our own reputation as well as that of our Lord.

So we have talked some about the role of a steward in the Old Testament. Let us know turn to the New Testament.

In the New Testament, the Greek words epitropos and oikonomos refer to stewards. What modern word is based on the second Greek word? Economy, economize. To be economical is to be a wise and faithful steward with household finances.

We see the steward as a fixture in the life of people at the time of the New Testament. One fascinating detail of this is in Luke 8:3, where some of Jesus’ traveling companions are mentioned. These include several women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. One of these is Joanna, the wife of Cuza, who had been the steward of, of all people, Herod! I wonder if Herod knew about this and what he thought!

Stewards appear in many of Jesus’ parables. In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16), it is a steward who pays the workers’ wages. These are the workers who grumble because the ones who worked a shorter amount of time are paid the same as those who worked all day. It is the steward who replies that he had the right to do as he wished with the money entrusted to him. The freedom of the steward in setting his financial affairs was tempered by the fact that at any time of the master’s choosing, he would have to give an account of his financial dealings. The idea of having to give an account comes up in the parable of the ten minas (Luke 19:11-27). (The parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 is quite similar.) Here, ten servants are entrusted to serve as stewards for a man “of noble birth” while he is away. Some manage to multiply their money, but one says he knew his master was a hard man, and simply hid his money. The noble returns, now a king, and punishes the one who did not multiply his money. (The warning of there being an accounting for stewards is also described in Jesus’ parable in Luke 12:42-48.)

Although these are not the primary points of the parables, it is true that as Christian stewards, these things apply to us as well. A Christian steward has freedom in how he chooses to manage what has been entrusted to him. But also, some day, every Christian steward will give an account.

In the parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 16:1-15) we see another example of a steward being called to account. In this fairly shocking parable, the steward, who has been cheating his master for some time, is told he is about to have to give an account right away. He knows he will be fired, so he grabs whatever money he can from his debtors before leaving, and he manages to do this by making deals for repayment at reduced prices. The master, who in this parable is also “of the world,” commends his steward for his treachery, apparently appreciating its cleverness. Jesus’ point of this parable is that the people “of the light” (Christians) should also be shrewd with their use of money – not to cheat people, of course, but, in effect, to cheat Satan. The world and its money are his, and to use his money to help bring people into “the light” displays a similar kind of shrewdness. My take on this is that we shouldn’t be afraid to spend almost “recklessly” for the sake of the gospel.

A Christian steward should be shrewd in his dealings. Treachery towards Satan is allowed!

I believe the story of Solomon as steward serves almost as a parable for us. The key question to ask is, for us, what is the temple? What “building” is it that we are to oversee? Consider this long passage from I Cor. 3 and 4. I want to read the whole passage so that you hear the context. Before I begin I will mention that this passage refers to Apollos. Do you remember Apollos from the Book of Acts? In Acts 18 he is first mentioned. He was a Jew from Alexandria who taught in Ephesus. Although very knowledgeable about many things of God, he hadn’t yet heard the gospel, the truth that Christ had died and risen again, that he had died for our sins, to reconcile us to God, that we could only be reconciled if we accepted the gift of His Son, committing our lives to Him. Priscilla and Aquilla explained this to him, and he went on to Achaia, specifically the city of Corinth. It seems as though he and Paul were never at the same place at the same time, and it is probably for this reason that some people became confused and thought they were saying different things. But as I read this passage, rather than focusing on this, think about the question, what is the “temple”? What is our role as Christian stewards?

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. – I Cor. 3:1-4:2

The word for “servants” there can be translated “stewards.” We are stewards entrusted with the secret things of God. And it is required that we must prove faithful. In other words, we must be ready to give an account of our stewardship.

So what is the “temple building project” we are to oversee, we who are “young and inexperienced”? Jesus calls it the “kingdom of God.” It is His Church! His people, those who follow Jesus! The “bricks” are people. And it is built with the gospel. Fellowship, loving one another, and helping one another grow to maturity in Christ to me is like the beautiful gold and silver that covered Solomon’s temple. Just as when Solomon’s temple was built God’s spirit came to rest in the “Most Holy Place,” God’s Holy Spirit also dwells in the temple we are asked to be stewards of. We are building a “resting place” for God.

It is so easy to misunderstand these verses when they are not read in context. I bet all of us have done this. When we come to verse 16, and Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” it is easy to apply this only on an individual basis. I have heard it used on teachings telling us that when we sin – especially sexual sin – we defile God’s temple. That is true, but that is not the purpose of Paul’s argument here. It is true that I am God’s temple, and so are you, but that is not the point! The point is that we all are God’s temple, and that we have a job to do as stewards to direct and oversee the building of this temple!

This is an awesome responsibility! In verses 10-15, Paul warns us about the materials we use to build it. It has to be built with “Jesus Christ” as the building material. One way to explain this is to say that we have to stick to the building plan. God Himself had given David a detailed building plan for the temple and David wrote them out and gave them to Solomon. What if Solomon hadn’t followed the plans and instead made a place that was more for his own enjoyment? Do you think God would have allowed that temple to stand? No.

In the same way, God has given us plans. What if we take our money, our time, our possessions, and even our children and just use them for our own enjoyment, our own entertainment? What does it say? It says that God will burn up anything we build that is not laid on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

I realize this is not a “typical” teaching on stewardship. I am not going to tell you how much money you should give, or how much time you should volunteer with the church, or how much money or time you should spend on entertainment. I am not going to talk about whether it is OK to go into debt, and how much debt is OK, and what debt is OK for. The message here transcends all that. If you “get” this, you will figure out the rest yourselves. The answers are not spelled out in Scripture, anyway, and as Paul says just a few verses later,

Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. – I Cor. 4:6

The answers will be different for each of us. But understand that our purpose here on this earth is to be stewards of God’s grace. We are to be building people – our children as well as those around us. Look around the room and you see what we are to build. May God grow us so that what we build can be as big, as beautiful, as fitting for our great and wonderful God as possible! To use the farming analogy from Scripture, we are here to plant seed, water, weed, and harvest. We are here to share the gospel, to help people grow in Christ, and to help them grow to maturity where they are doing the same things. In other words, we are disciples who are to make disciples. We are stewards who are to make stewards. Let us be wise stewards, using everything out our disposal for the purposes God intended.

How did things go with Solomon? In terms of overseeing the building of the temple, he did wonderfully. We know that later in life he became ensnared by the world and had many griefs, but let’s not look that far ahead and instead look at his job here, as steward. The details are spelled out in the rest of I Chronicles and in the first several chapters of II Chronicles. I encourage you to read it.

To summarize it, after the temple was finished, wonderful artifacts and furniture, specially made, were brought in to fill it. And then the Ark of the Covenant was brought in, carried by priests and surrounded by a wonderful festival of joyous celebration to God. After singing “He is good, His love endures forever,” the temple was filled with a cloud, the very Spirit of God. Solomon then gave a wonderful prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God. Part of it applies to us just as much as it did to him:

But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence. May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive. – 2 Chron. 6:18-22

Lord, help us to be Your stewards. Help us not to be overcome by the world’s ways of thinking, but instead to be faithfully devoted to building Your temple. Solomon’s temple no longer stands. But the temple You ask us to build is eternal, if we build it on You and on You alone. Help us to do this! In Jesus’ name, Amen.