Stewardship

Three times in three places Paul writes about a special assignment from God. He speaks of "a stewardship entrusted to me" (1 Cor 9:17), "the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you" (Eph 3:2), and "the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit" (Col 1:25). So, what is this thing called "stewardship", and what is Paul talking about?

The word is οἰκονομία -- oikonomia. I bet you can figure out what word we get from that Greek word. Yep! "Economy". The Greek word, like the English one, refers to management of resources. It refers to the administration of a household, estate, or task. A steward is assigned by the master of the estate to manage the estate. A steward is responsible for the overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving.

Now, look around a little and you'll find that we are supposed to be good stewards of a lot of things from God. We are to be good stewards of our time, overseeing, protecting, and caring for it. We are to be good stewards of our finances, not squandering it or wasting it. Our time and our money, you see, are not actually ours to squander. They belong to the Master of the estate and we are simply assigned to manage them as His surrogate.

But Paul is not so vague. In all three instance Paul is talking about one particular topic.

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me (1 Cor 9:16-17).

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles -- if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power (Eph 3:1-7).

Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God (Col 1:25).

What topic? Paul is speaking of the Gospel. He was compelled to preach the Gospel. He was given a stewardship of that Gospel to take to the Gentiles. His job in life was to preach the Word of God.

Now, remember. The definition of stewardship is to manage, to oversee, and to protect something that the Master considers worth caring for and preserving. Therefore, Paul was tasked with managing, overseeing, and protecting the Gospel. We can see this in Galatians when he takes them to task at the beginning of his letter to the church there. "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!" (Gal 1:6-8). No, really, Paul. Tell us what you really think. We can see it when the Apostle Peter himself started acquiescing to the judaizers and Paul stood against him (Gal 2:11-21). And, of course, you can see it in the fact that Paul heartily preached the Word everywhere he went. He was managing it, overseeing it, and protecting it.

Today, a lot of Christians think that the Gospel is a fluid thing, a tool, perhaps. Shift it a little here; push it a little there. Make it fit the culture and the sentiment of the day. Sure, sure, Jesus warned about fearing the One who could kill the body and the soul, but there's no reason to go all "fire and brimstone" on anyone these days. Let's make it a warm, loving gospel. Let's make it ... what Paul calls "not another gospel". We'll edge Hell out of the question and push the whole "If you love Me you will keep my commandments" to the side and heaven knows people don't want to hear that they're sinners, so don't even go there. This may be a lot of things, but it is not stewardship of the Gospel. If we are to "follow my example" (Phil 3:17), perhaps we need to leave off tampering with the Gospel and move more toward protecting it from those who would. We have a stewardship. God considers His Gospel something worth caring for and preserving. We need to be on task.