Week 4
Discipline: STEWARDSHIP
Word: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?”
Matthew 6:24-27
Reflection: Deliverance
It is interesting that while money in and of itself is just a medium of exchange, Jesus described it as a rival god. His brother James continued that idea in his letter by saying that “the love of money was the root of all evil.” J. Paul Getty once was asked, “How much is enough?” To which he, one of the richest men in the world replied, “A little bit more than what I’ve got.” Jesus obviously knew that few things have more potential to exercise power over us than wealth and possessions. That is why he talked about it so much and why he often challenged people to give away their wealth or possessions as a means to breaking the power they exercise over us. The issue is not what we possess, but what possesses us. He once asked, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”
I think it can be fairly argued that the primary mission and ministry of Jesus was deliverance. He came to set us free; free from sin and self so we could follow Him into the life that “really is life”. Jesus offered giving/stewardship as the primary means to be delivered from the power of wealth, and as spiritual protection against self-imposed security and the anxiety that creates in our lives. The need to secure ourselves is a weight few can bear well and imprisons us to constant fear, a vulnerability to greed, and ultimately a lack of trust in God.
This doesn’t mean everyone should take a vow of poverty or that it is wrong to have money and possessions. The Bible is full of admirable characters who were wealthy: Abraham, Jacob, Job, Solomon, Zaacheus, Joseph of Arimathea, and Barnabas. But, they all had to learn how to use it so they didn’t serve it. John Wesley’s motto about stewardship was, “Make all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.” Without the giving part, we are all but “rich fools”. Paul said, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” And the paradox of freedom in Christ is that it is found in becoming a “slave” to him and not other gods who “seek to kill, steal, and destroy”. So in the end, as always, spiritual disciplines that Jesus taught are grounded in grace. Giving therefore is for us, not for God.
Practice: Tithing is the basic Biblical discipline for giving and yet a standard that seems beyond reach for many of us in our overspending and indebted lives. If I am not tithing, develop a plan to begin.
Leave a Reply