~~Good Stewardship! Involves All of Life!~~ ...Part 1 of 5...Our Lives Are Not Our Own... ...Our biblical studies on being a good and faithful steward or stewardess of our Lord and Saviour Jesus-Christ, the next five days we will be studying and exploring this issue that regards you and I in our walk of life towards the Kingdom of God...and we want to be the best as we possibly can! So let us now begin our biblical study series on Good Stewardships!... The apostle Paul once wrote, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy-Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?...You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body!...1 Corinthians 6:19-20... ...This is a basic statement of our obligation to God in the new covenant. We have been bought with a price, the crucifixion of Jesus-Christ. He has redeemed us, which means that he has bought us. In ancient times, this terminology was used in the slave market, where one person could buy another. If a person went into debt and could not pay the debt, he or she could be sold into slavery to pay the debt. But if a friend or relative could raise enough money to pay the debt, then the other person acted as a redeemer, to buy the person back!!!... Spiritually, this is what Jesus-Christ did for us. We were in debt and could not pay our way out. We were in slavery to sin. So Jesus paid our debt, purchased us with his own blood, Acts 20:28, so that we should no longer be slaves of sin, but be slaves instead of righteousness! Romans 6:6-18 ...The result of this, Paul explains, is that we are not our own. We belong to someone else, and that is God. He owns us. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy-Spirit. God the Holy-Spirit is living in us. And because of this we should honor God with our bodies, or as it says in some translations, we should glorify God with our bodies. What we do with our bodies should bring glory and honor to God, to Jesus-Christ our Redeemer, and to the Holy-Spirit who lives in us by being good stewards to God in our life! The new covenant does not just give us a list of dos and donts, it gives us the responsibility of thinking through a situation to see what brings glory to God, and how we might possibly need to limit our behavior based on the needs of people around us. The gospel gives us freedom, but it also gives us the responsibility of using that freedom to serve others, just as Jesus himself came to serve rather than to seek his own benefit... ...Notice what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9: Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible, I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings!... 1 Corinthians 9:19, 23... This is the kind of freedom we have in Christ. We are not our own; we cannot just live as we please or do whatever we want. We are slaves of Jesus-Christ, and in order to serve him, we make ourselves slaves of others. We do not let others judge us for our freedom, but we use our freedom to serve them. As Paul said, we do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that we might help save some. Why? Because we seek to bring more glory and honor to God through Jesus-Christ our Redeemer!... ...Using property that belongs to Christ. Our bodies are not our own. Our lives are not our own. Our time is not our own. Our minds and hearts are not our own. Our relationships are not our own. Our skills and abilities are not our own. No! They all belong to Jesus-Christ. And yet we still have the responsibility of deciding what we should do with our bodies, of what we should do with some of the things that Christ-Jesus has bought and paid for things that he owns... Also we have the new covenant responsibility of managing property that belongs to someone else. The biblical term for a person who does this is steward A steward takes care of the property of his lord. That was in the days of absentee landlords and privately owned empires... ...Today, the closest thing we have to this is the concept of a manager. A manager runs the business when the owner is gone. Some bibles uses the word manager in some of the places that others uses steward!... In the parable about a faithful and wise steward, we can see the concept of managing another persons property. Its in Luke 12:42-48... ...Who then is the faithful and wise steward or manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant that is you and I, whom the master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions!!! But suppose the servant says to himself, `My master is taking a long time in coming, and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers!... ...That servant who knows his masters will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows....But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked! The point here is that we need to do the masters will as best we know it. For one thing, we are to be giving other servants their food allowance. That has an obvious application to the work of a pastor, or minister have been given the role of providing spiritual nourishment for others. But the same principle applies to all members, since all members are told in the New Testament to teach one another, edify one another, instruct one another and encourage one another! No one should be mistreating the fellow-servants and using the masters property for self-indulgence!... ...The parable applies in an even broader sense to all the things the Lord has given us. Everything we have is to be used in the Lords work. It all belongs to him, and we are simply managing someone elses property, using it to bring glory and honor to him as a good steward. That should be our goal in everything we do. That applies to physical property such as our bodies and homes; it also applies to intangible things such as emotions, relationships and spiritual gifts that God gives us to help others!!!... Also Paul told the Corinthians that all spiritual gifts are to be used for the common good! 1 Corinthians 12:7...And the same principle applies to everything the Lord has given us! From the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Everything we have is the Lords... Everything we have should be used for his honor and glory!..
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 22:25:19 +0000
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