October 17 – LD 42, Day 3: Biblical Stewardship (3)
by Pastor Steven Key
1 Timothy 6:10: “For
the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they
have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
The biblical principle of
stewardship recognizes God as the owner of all things. But there is a second
aspect of this principle of stewardship, namely, that you and I are required to
live our whole life in the recognition that all is God’s.
This happens only by our
life in Christ and by the work of His Holy Spirit in our hearts. We confessed
this when we said in Lord’s Day 1 that “I with body and soul...am not my own,
but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” That means that the Lord our
Savior cares for us also with respect to our physical needs. So Jesus said in
Luke 12: 27-31: “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they
spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the
field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O
ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink,
neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the
world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye
have need of these things. But rather seek ye the
Redemption in Christ, and
more particularly the conscious participation in that salvation through faith,
frees us from the slavery of the love of money and the bondage of materialism,
so that we no longer have the drive to gain the world at the expense of our
souls. The work of the Spirit of Christ in us is a work that instills in us a
desire to seek the things above, and not the things of this earth. He shows us
that the earth is the Lord’s and we are His servants.
But that life of Christ
in us always has to fight against the sinful inclinations of our sinful nature,
which seeks the things that are below. That also explains the reason for the
eighth commandment. In recognition that God sovereignly
gives to every man his place and portion, we take that which God has given us
and dedicate it to His glory; and we refrain from wrongfully taking to
ourselves that which belongs to our neighbour.