The Law of God Miscellanies (15)

‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.” Leviticus 25.23

The earth isthe LORD’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein. Psalm 24.1

For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? 1 Corinthians 4.7

Reflect and discuss.
1.  Meditate on 1 Corinthians 4.1, 2. What is a steward? What do stewards do? What is the measure of good stewardship?

2.  How much of what we possess should we regard as a stewardship from the Lord? What does this require of us?

Think about it.
Economics – called “the dismal science” – is a discipline that deals with stewardship. We come into possession of goods and skills and are presented with opportunities to do something with these. The important questions that we answer in each economic activity relate to the objective and quality of our stewardship. 

We may identify a variety of ends which people embrace with respect to their stewardship: themselves and their own pleasure, their heirs and legacy, their country or cause, the greater good, and so forth. Schools of economic thought differ based on how they think about stewardship. If good stewardship is gaining as much as I can for myself and my loved ones, that will dictate a different view of economics than if my understanding of stewardship is something more like “from each according to his ability to each according to his need.”

Obviously, one’s views of economics matter. God knows this, and His Law and Word outline a view of economics and stewardship which He charges His people to embody.

In Biblical economics our stewardship is always unto the Lord. The earth is His, and everything in it (Ps. 24.1). Every good gift comes from the Lord, and all that we have we have received from Him (Jms. 1.17; 1 Cor. 4.7). Thus everything must be received, employed, developed, used, and enjoyed unto the Lord, according to His pleasure and purpose, and for His justice and glory. 

For everything is His, and He has entrusted to us a measure of “talents” (Matt. 25.14-30) which He expects us to invest according to His interests, priorities, and objectives. The Law of God supports the idea of private property – hence, the eighth commandment – but, at the same time, it insists that loving God and our neighbors requires that we use our possessions, time, and wealth in ways that advance the divine economy of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit (Rom. 14.17, 18).

We must not insist that anything we have is our own, to do with as we like. All that we have is from and belongs ultimately to the Lord. We must desire and seek whatever is pleasing to God in all our use of His gifts, so that, at all times, His purposes may be satisfied, and His pleasure may be engaged. 

This means that the guiding and defining principle in all economic activity must be neither profit nor personal advantage, but love. And love – for God and neighbors – is what the Law of God is all about.

Meditate and discuss.
1.  Read the parable of the talents, Matthew 25.14-30. What did the master have in mind when he issued those talents to his servants? Is stewardship a matter of “more and more” or something else? Explain.

2.  Meditate on Ephesians 5.15-17. Notice that Paul says the time, not your time. Every moment of time comes from God like a new talent. What are the keys to good stewardship of time?

3.  Meditate on Colossians 3.23, 24. How can you see that this passage is related to the parable of the talents, Paul’s teaching about stewardship and time, and Leviticus 25.23?

“A steward’s duty is to administer well the things that have been entrusted to him. The things of the master’s are not the stewards but the reverse—what is his really belongs to his master.” John Chrysostom (344-407 AD)

Help me to be a faithful steward with all that You have entrusted to me, O Lord, so that…

Pray Psalm 24.1-5.
As you pray, thank the Lord for everything He has entrusted to your stewardship. Seek the kind of heart and hands that will allow you to use these things well, so that you know more of the Lord’s blessings and enter more deeply into His pleasure.

Psalm 24.1-6 (Foundation: How Firm a Foundation)
The earth is the Lord’s, as is all it contains; 
The world and its peoples He daily sustains.
He founded it fast on the seas long ago, 
And bid gentle rivers throughout it to flow.

Oh, who may ascend to the Lord’s holy place?
And who may appear to His glorious face?
All they who are clean in their hearts and their hands
And true in their souls with the Savior shall stand.

A blessing all they from the Lord shall receive
Who seek Him and on His salvation believe.
For these are His people, the children of grace, 
Who earnestly, eagerly seek for His face.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006.