Monday, June 18, 2007
Fellowship of the Gospel
Philippians 1:27-30
6/17/07 D. Marion Clark
Introduction
“Many others of Elrond’s household stood in the shadows and watched them go, bidding them farewell with soft voices. There was no laughter, and no song or music. At last they turned away and faded silently into the dusk.
“They crossed the bridge and wound slowly up the long steep paths that led out of the cloven vale of Rivendell; and they came at length to the high moor where the wind hissed through the heather. Then with one glance at the Last Homely House twinkling below them they strode away far into the night.”
And so began the journey of the Fellowship of the Ring, nine companions with one mission – to take the ring of power to its place of destruction. You know the rest of the story that befell Frodo and his companions – a marvelous story, indeed, a fantastical tale of a strange fellowship of man and hobbit and dwarf and elf and whatever a wizard is. And yet it copies a much older story of a fellowship no less strange, with a mission much more mysterious and grand, and the oddest part of all – is real. It is the fellowship of the gospel.
It is to this fellowship that the apostle Paul speaks in his epistle to the Philippians. Indeed, he uses that very phrase. Look with me at the opening of the letter beginning in verse 3. Paul writes, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” The term for partnership is koinonia, which is often translated as fellowship. That is how the King James translates the word in this verse.
It would have remained a fine word to use had it not taken over the years a more general sense of hanging out together. Thus, we have a Fellowship Hall to have “fellowship” in. We have fellowship groups for mutual encouragement. There is nothing wrong with this concept, but it does not capture the meaning of fellowship Paul intended. Paul is thinking of what comes to our mind when we hear the term “team” – a collection of people who are bound together for a task or a mission.
This is J. R. R. Tolkien’s sense of the word fellowship. The fellowship of the ring is a team bound together with the common mission to destroy a ring, and by doing so, to save Middle Earth from the power of darkness. That mission is what draws them together; it is what compels them forward on a dangerous journey.
Paul himself embarked on a dangerous journey throughout the Mediterranean. He encountered his share of peril – stoning, beatings, shipwreck – but not alone. Always he took companions. His mission was to spread the gospel. As he did, as it took root and grew into churches dotting the northern Mediterranean lands, he found these churches becoming part of his fellowship who shared his mission to advance the gospel.
It is that mission which is uppermost in Paul’s mind when he writes the Philippians. The letter is noted for its emphasis on joy. It does indeed permeate the letter, but it is the joy that arises in a team working together for a common goal – in this fellowship of believers whose mission is to advance the gospel. And Paul’s intent is to motivate this fellowship to press on with that mission. Though not as well-known as other verses in Philippians, our text presents the theme and motivation for why he wrote to this fellowship in Philippi.
Text
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,…
Paul has been writing about his own present experience in his mission. He is in jail, most likely in Rome. The Philippian fellowship knows this. They had sent Epaphroditus to convey their support and to minister to him with gifts they had sent. This isn’t the only time they have sent Paul support. Evidently they did it regularly as Paul notes later in the letter. This was one church that made Paul feel that they were with him.
Paul’s report back to them through Epaphroditus keeps attention on his mission. He writes in verse 12: “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel…” He points out three ways: the guards are hearing the gospel, fellow believers have become emboldened to speak the gospel, and then others out of rivalry are also proclaiming the gospel. So Paul sees good even in imprisonment and even in other believers trying to afflict him in his imprisonment, as he explains it.
He then explains how his circumstances are good for him personally. He believes all is working out for his deliverance, and that he will be able continue his ministry. Indeed, he hopes to return to Philippi and further encourage them in their faith.
Only…well, he wants to give them one word of exhortation.
The phrase, “let your manner of life,” is an interesting one. It is actually one word whose root is politeuo and refers to citizenship, which carries also the meaning of one’s everyday life. So Paul could be telling his partners in the gospel how to carry on in their day-to-day life. But it seems he has something more intended. James Boice points out that citizenship in a Greek city took on much greater significance to the citizens than we understand today. It held a very conscious place in the mind of the people. Furthermore, Philippi held a unique status. Though it was a Greek city, it had been granted the status of a Roman colony, making its people Roman citizens. They were Greeks, but their true citizenship was in Rome. Philippi was located in the land of Greece, but its place was with Rome.
Paul talks about personal conduct in other letters, but he uses a term then for walking. Why then use a term for citizenship here? Is he not rather telling his partners in the gospel to live according to their true citizenship? He actually makes that concept plain in 3:20: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we wait a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…” Paul is concerned about our everyday life; he is concerned that we live it conscious of the citizenship to which we belong. This is not a new idea at all. In his great chapter on faith, the writer of Hebrews speaks of men and women seeking a heavenly homeland. It is the same idea that Peter expresses in his first epistle when he reminds the “elect exiles” that they are a people belonging to God (2:9ff).
This world is not their own, but they also are not just passing through. They are to live out their citizenship in a way that is “worthy of the gospel of Christ.” If you think Frodo was obsessed by the ring he carried, consider Paul’s obsession with the gospel as expressed to the Corinthians: “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel…” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23).
And the gospel (if we need a reminder) is about Jesus Christ. Indeed, one could even say it is Christ. Listen to Paul in Philippians: “my imprisonment is for Christ” (1:13); “Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice” (1:18); “For to me to live is Christ” (1:20); “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (2:11); “we…glory in Christ Jesus” (3:3); “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (3:8); “in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (3:8); “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (3:20).
So, what do we have so far? The Philippians are to live as citizens of heaven in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. What is that worthy manner? Paul explains:
…so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents.
A life worthy of the gospel is one in which together, the Philippian believers “stand firm in one spirit.” By “spirit,” Paul could mean the Holy Spirit or as rendered here, a common disposition, as when a coach urges on team spirit. Gordon Fee leads me to believe the Holy Spirit is intended. Paul uses the same phrase elsewhere (e.g. Ephesians 2:18) meaning the Holy Spirit. But such a phrase meaning team spirit is not found anywhere else.
In the Spirit, they are to stand firm. Paul will say it again in 4:1: “stand firm thus in the Lord.” Don’t let the turbulent tides of the world pull you back and forth. Hold your ground, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that all you are called to do is hold your position. You are to move forward.
So Paul goes on: “with one mind striving side by side.” As they stand together in the one Holy Spirit, they are to strive together with a single mind or devotion. They are to be like a single entity, which if any were former Roman soldiers, as well they might, they would understand. Rome was famous for its fighting force that fought as a single unit. Every champion team understands this concept, as does every well-trained military unit. Side by side, one mind contending for the faith.
This is not standstill Christianity. This is not a mindset of hunkering down against opposing forces. This is a mindset wanting action. There is work to be done for the faith of the gospel, and we know how Paul feels about the gospel! But he does seem slightly concerned about the Philippian fellowship faltering. He says back in 1:6 that he is sure that God who began a good work in them will bring it to completion, but evidently he has heard some reports (perhaps from Epaphroditus) that not everything is well. He goes on in our text to exhort them not to be fearful of their opponents. Maybe another book mocking religion by an atheist author has made the Philippi Times bestseller list. Maybe yet another play has come out exposing the conspiracy of the church to hide evidence that disproves the gospel. Maybe they are being scorned by their neighbors, even facing some persecution. And so he urges them to stand in the Spirit, and strive together with one mind. The best way to protect and to contend is in a team, a fellowship.
Or, and this would actually be Paul’s greater concern, maybe the Philippian fellowship is showing some signs of tension. And so he feels compelled to exhort them, as he does in chapter 2, to “do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant” (2:3). He thinks it necessary to note that they should “do all things without grumbling or questioning” (2:14). Finally, he gets directly to the point and pleads with two women, evidently stalwarts of the fellowship to get along. These women have been partners with Paul, laboring side by side with him for the gospel. “Laboring side by side is the same Greek verb for “striving side by side.” Something has divided even these trustworthy contenders of the faith.
What happened? Is it suffering from opposition that unnerved them in some way? Opposition can take its toll. That is why Paul takes the time in the remaining verses to show them how opposition actually is a sign of their being in Christ. But Paul understands what all leaders know: it is not outside opposition, but inside dissension that is the greater and more likely danger to a fellowship.
Consider again Paul’s own case. He is in prison and other Christian brothers are preaching the gospel “from envy and rivalry.” We might wonder how could Christians do that? Because Christians – those who sincerely believe in Christ and want the gospel to go forth – are also sinners who struggle with envy and rivalry. “Those big name preachers who come in for PCRT – I’ll show that I can preach just as good as them.” (Oops, strike that thought! I would never preach out of rivalry!)
Christians can be lured by theology that sounds good, especially if it calls for what appears to be greater sacrifice. And so Paul constantly had to contend with “circumcision theologians” who thought they were calling Christ’s followers to greater commitment. He addresses their teaching in chapter 3. And then, again, there is the plain old self-centeredness he brings up at the beginning of chapter 2.
Lessons
There is a reason I started the sermon with the whole “Fellowship of the Ring” story. I took the concept from Phil Ryken who got it from Kent Hughes. When Dr. Ryken described Tenth Church in the mission statement as “a fellowship of kingdom-minded disciples,” he had in mind the kind of fellowship that Tolkien intended, but more importantly is meant by the scriptures we have been studying.
We are a fellowship drawn together for a purpose. That purpose, Dr. Ryken notes at the beginning of the statement, is “to proclaim the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ…” He sounds just like Paul! We are to be kingdom-minded, i.e. we are to live as people whose citizenship is in heaven. We are to want what our Lord Jesus Christ wants. We are to be intent on advancing the kingdom here in our city and outward even to the ends of the earth.
That is exciting! That is a worthwhile mission for a church. That is a glorious mission for a fellowship of the gospel. Don’t we want to strive side by side for such a cause? I believe we do. And I believe we are a fellowship that stands firm in the Spirit, and we do have one mind about striving for the faith. And I believe we have the same frailties as the believers of this great church in Philippi that the Apostle Paul loved so much.
We are a fellowship of kingdom-minded disciples proclaiming the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ and…well…if my sister could realize how embarrassing she is at times with her lack of social skills…and if my brother could see how he is putting people off with his intensity…and that couple would have a great ministry but they keep pushing each other’s buttons…and that other guy has all the gifts but he’s put out with me, of all people …that person thinks no one cares about her… that one just has wrong ideas about how our money should be spent, and…well…the scenarios are endless. When you think about it, we have all the same problems that Paul addresses in his letter to the church at Philippi, and the one in Corinth, and the one in Ephesus and Colossae, and the ones in Galatia.
And yet here we are two thousand years later, with all of our hang-ups, carrying on the same mission with the same mind as those ancient fellowships of the gospel. Despite the sins and the frailties, the tale of the fellowship of the gospel continues on.
My favorite passage in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a conversation between Frodo and Sam on the very stairs leading into Mordor.
“I wonder,” said Frodo. “But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re found of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.”
“No, sir, of course not. Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and blacker danger than ours. But that’s a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it – and the Silmaril went on and came to Earendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We’ve got – you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?”
“No, they never end as tales,” said Frodo. “But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended.”
The never-ending tale of the gospel of Christ now has us in it. We have joined the fellowship. We know the ultimate end of Christ’s return, but until that time we have our part to play, not just as individuals but as a fellowship. Others have played their part in this same fellowship of Tenth Church. They stood firm and they strove side by side with the same foibles and troubles as we. There were other fellowships in the city also strong, but over time faltered, leaving once thriving churches empty or worse, with a false gospel to be proclaimed. May it so be that when our part in the tale has ended, and it is time for us to go, that because we did continue on side by side as a fellowship of the gospel, the next generation will also be a fellowship of kingdom-minded disciples advancing the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ.
6/17/07 D. Marion Clark
Introduction
“Many others of Elrond’s household stood in the shadows and watched them go, bidding them farewell with soft voices. There was no laughter, and no song or music. At last they turned away and faded silently into the dusk.
“They crossed the bridge and wound slowly up the long steep paths that led out of the cloven vale of Rivendell; and they came at length to the high moor where the wind hissed through the heather. Then with one glance at the Last Homely House twinkling below them they strode away far into the night.”
And so began the journey of the Fellowship of the Ring, nine companions with one mission – to take the ring of power to its place of destruction. You know the rest of the story that befell Frodo and his companions – a marvelous story, indeed, a fantastical tale of a strange fellowship of man and hobbit and dwarf and elf and whatever a wizard is. And yet it copies a much older story of a fellowship no less strange, with a mission much more mysterious and grand, and the oddest part of all – is real. It is the fellowship of the gospel.
It is to this fellowship that the apostle Paul speaks in his epistle to the Philippians. Indeed, he uses that very phrase. Look with me at the opening of the letter beginning in verse 3. Paul writes, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” The term for partnership is koinonia, which is often translated as fellowship. That is how the King James translates the word in this verse.
It would have remained a fine word to use had it not taken over the years a more general sense of hanging out together. Thus, we have a Fellowship Hall to have “fellowship” in. We have fellowship groups for mutual encouragement. There is nothing wrong with this concept, but it does not capture the meaning of fellowship Paul intended. Paul is thinking of what comes to our mind when we hear the term “team” – a collection of people who are bound together for a task or a mission.
This is J. R. R. Tolkien’s sense of the word fellowship. The fellowship of the ring is a team bound together with the common mission to destroy a ring, and by doing so, to save Middle Earth from the power of darkness. That mission is what draws them together; it is what compels them forward on a dangerous journey.
Paul himself embarked on a dangerous journey throughout the Mediterranean. He encountered his share of peril – stoning, beatings, shipwreck – but not alone. Always he took companions. His mission was to spread the gospel. As he did, as it took root and grew into churches dotting the northern Mediterranean lands, he found these churches becoming part of his fellowship who shared his mission to advance the gospel.
It is that mission which is uppermost in Paul’s mind when he writes the Philippians. The letter is noted for its emphasis on joy. It does indeed permeate the letter, but it is the joy that arises in a team working together for a common goal – in this fellowship of believers whose mission is to advance the gospel. And Paul’s intent is to motivate this fellowship to press on with that mission. Though not as well-known as other verses in Philippians, our text presents the theme and motivation for why he wrote to this fellowship in Philippi.
Text
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,…
Paul has been writing about his own present experience in his mission. He is in jail, most likely in Rome. The Philippian fellowship knows this. They had sent Epaphroditus to convey their support and to minister to him with gifts they had sent. This isn’t the only time they have sent Paul support. Evidently they did it regularly as Paul notes later in the letter. This was one church that made Paul feel that they were with him.
Paul’s report back to them through Epaphroditus keeps attention on his mission. He writes in verse 12: “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel…” He points out three ways: the guards are hearing the gospel, fellow believers have become emboldened to speak the gospel, and then others out of rivalry are also proclaiming the gospel. So Paul sees good even in imprisonment and even in other believers trying to afflict him in his imprisonment, as he explains it.
He then explains how his circumstances are good for him personally. He believes all is working out for his deliverance, and that he will be able continue his ministry. Indeed, he hopes to return to Philippi and further encourage them in their faith.
Only…well, he wants to give them one word of exhortation.
The phrase, “let your manner of life,” is an interesting one. It is actually one word whose root is politeuo and refers to citizenship, which carries also the meaning of one’s everyday life. So Paul could be telling his partners in the gospel how to carry on in their day-to-day life. But it seems he has something more intended. James Boice points out that citizenship in a Greek city took on much greater significance to the citizens than we understand today. It held a very conscious place in the mind of the people. Furthermore, Philippi held a unique status. Though it was a Greek city, it had been granted the status of a Roman colony, making its people Roman citizens. They were Greeks, but their true citizenship was in Rome. Philippi was located in the land of Greece, but its place was with Rome.
Paul talks about personal conduct in other letters, but he uses a term then for walking. Why then use a term for citizenship here? Is he not rather telling his partners in the gospel to live according to their true citizenship? He actually makes that concept plain in 3:20: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we wait a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…” Paul is concerned about our everyday life; he is concerned that we live it conscious of the citizenship to which we belong. This is not a new idea at all. In his great chapter on faith, the writer of Hebrews speaks of men and women seeking a heavenly homeland. It is the same idea that Peter expresses in his first epistle when he reminds the “elect exiles” that they are a people belonging to God (2:9ff).
This world is not their own, but they also are not just passing through. They are to live out their citizenship in a way that is “worthy of the gospel of Christ.” If you think Frodo was obsessed by the ring he carried, consider Paul’s obsession with the gospel as expressed to the Corinthians: “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel…” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23).
And the gospel (if we need a reminder) is about Jesus Christ. Indeed, one could even say it is Christ. Listen to Paul in Philippians: “my imprisonment is for Christ” (1:13); “Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice” (1:18); “For to me to live is Christ” (1:20); “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (2:11); “we…glory in Christ Jesus” (3:3); “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (3:8); “in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (3:8); “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (3:20).
So, what do we have so far? The Philippians are to live as citizens of heaven in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. What is that worthy manner? Paul explains:
…so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents.
A life worthy of the gospel is one in which together, the Philippian believers “stand firm in one spirit.” By “spirit,” Paul could mean the Holy Spirit or as rendered here, a common disposition, as when a coach urges on team spirit. Gordon Fee leads me to believe the Holy Spirit is intended. Paul uses the same phrase elsewhere (e.g. Ephesians 2:18) meaning the Holy Spirit. But such a phrase meaning team spirit is not found anywhere else.
In the Spirit, they are to stand firm. Paul will say it again in 4:1: “stand firm thus in the Lord.” Don’t let the turbulent tides of the world pull you back and forth. Hold your ground, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that all you are called to do is hold your position. You are to move forward.
So Paul goes on: “with one mind striving side by side.” As they stand together in the one Holy Spirit, they are to strive together with a single mind or devotion. They are to be like a single entity, which if any were former Roman soldiers, as well they might, they would understand. Rome was famous for its fighting force that fought as a single unit. Every champion team understands this concept, as does every well-trained military unit. Side by side, one mind contending for the faith.
This is not standstill Christianity. This is not a mindset of hunkering down against opposing forces. This is a mindset wanting action. There is work to be done for the faith of the gospel, and we know how Paul feels about the gospel! But he does seem slightly concerned about the Philippian fellowship faltering. He says back in 1:6 that he is sure that God who began a good work in them will bring it to completion, but evidently he has heard some reports (perhaps from Epaphroditus) that not everything is well. He goes on in our text to exhort them not to be fearful of their opponents. Maybe another book mocking religion by an atheist author has made the Philippi Times bestseller list. Maybe yet another play has come out exposing the conspiracy of the church to hide evidence that disproves the gospel. Maybe they are being scorned by their neighbors, even facing some persecution. And so he urges them to stand in the Spirit, and strive together with one mind. The best way to protect and to contend is in a team, a fellowship.
Or, and this would actually be Paul’s greater concern, maybe the Philippian fellowship is showing some signs of tension. And so he feels compelled to exhort them, as he does in chapter 2, to “do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant” (2:3). He thinks it necessary to note that they should “do all things without grumbling or questioning” (2:14). Finally, he gets directly to the point and pleads with two women, evidently stalwarts of the fellowship to get along. These women have been partners with Paul, laboring side by side with him for the gospel. “Laboring side by side is the same Greek verb for “striving side by side.” Something has divided even these trustworthy contenders of the faith.
What happened? Is it suffering from opposition that unnerved them in some way? Opposition can take its toll. That is why Paul takes the time in the remaining verses to show them how opposition actually is a sign of their being in Christ. But Paul understands what all leaders know: it is not outside opposition, but inside dissension that is the greater and more likely danger to a fellowship.
Consider again Paul’s own case. He is in prison and other Christian brothers are preaching the gospel “from envy and rivalry.” We might wonder how could Christians do that? Because Christians – those who sincerely believe in Christ and want the gospel to go forth – are also sinners who struggle with envy and rivalry. “Those big name preachers who come in for PCRT – I’ll show that I can preach just as good as them.” (Oops, strike that thought! I would never preach out of rivalry!)
Christians can be lured by theology that sounds good, especially if it calls for what appears to be greater sacrifice. And so Paul constantly had to contend with “circumcision theologians” who thought they were calling Christ’s followers to greater commitment. He addresses their teaching in chapter 3. And then, again, there is the plain old self-centeredness he brings up at the beginning of chapter 2.
Lessons
There is a reason I started the sermon with the whole “Fellowship of the Ring” story. I took the concept from Phil Ryken who got it from Kent Hughes. When Dr. Ryken described Tenth Church in the mission statement as “a fellowship of kingdom-minded disciples,” he had in mind the kind of fellowship that Tolkien intended, but more importantly is meant by the scriptures we have been studying.
We are a fellowship drawn together for a purpose. That purpose, Dr. Ryken notes at the beginning of the statement, is “to proclaim the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ…” He sounds just like Paul! We are to be kingdom-minded, i.e. we are to live as people whose citizenship is in heaven. We are to want what our Lord Jesus Christ wants. We are to be intent on advancing the kingdom here in our city and outward even to the ends of the earth.
That is exciting! That is a worthwhile mission for a church. That is a glorious mission for a fellowship of the gospel. Don’t we want to strive side by side for such a cause? I believe we do. And I believe we are a fellowship that stands firm in the Spirit, and we do have one mind about striving for the faith. And I believe we have the same frailties as the believers of this great church in Philippi that the Apostle Paul loved so much.
We are a fellowship of kingdom-minded disciples proclaiming the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ and…well…if my sister could realize how embarrassing she is at times with her lack of social skills…and if my brother could see how he is putting people off with his intensity…and that couple would have a great ministry but they keep pushing each other’s buttons…and that other guy has all the gifts but he’s put out with me, of all people …that person thinks no one cares about her… that one just has wrong ideas about how our money should be spent, and…well…the scenarios are endless. When you think about it, we have all the same problems that Paul addresses in his letter to the church at Philippi, and the one in Corinth, and the one in Ephesus and Colossae, and the ones in Galatia.
And yet here we are two thousand years later, with all of our hang-ups, carrying on the same mission with the same mind as those ancient fellowships of the gospel. Despite the sins and the frailties, the tale of the fellowship of the gospel continues on.
My favorite passage in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a conversation between Frodo and Sam on the very stairs leading into Mordor.
“I wonder,” said Frodo. “But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re found of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.”
“No, sir, of course not. Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and blacker danger than ours. But that’s a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it – and the Silmaril went on and came to Earendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We’ve got – you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?”
“No, they never end as tales,” said Frodo. “But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended.”
The never-ending tale of the gospel of Christ now has us in it. We have joined the fellowship. We know the ultimate end of Christ’s return, but until that time we have our part to play, not just as individuals but as a fellowship. Others have played their part in this same fellowship of Tenth Church. They stood firm and they strove side by side with the same foibles and troubles as we. There were other fellowships in the city also strong, but over time faltered, leaving once thriving churches empty or worse, with a false gospel to be proclaimed. May it so be that when our part in the tale has ended, and it is time for us to go, that because we did continue on side by side as a fellowship of the gospel, the next generation will also be a fellowship of kingdom-minded disciples advancing the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The Stewardship Mandate
Genesis 1:26-31
6/10/07e D. Marion Clark
Introduction
A man and a woman stand on the deck of a yacht. The sun is setting. Dinner is being prepared. She is discovering what he already knows – that they are soul mates. She says to him,
“You’ve never felt how small you were when looking at the ocean.”
He laughed. “Never. Nor looking at the planets. Nor at mountain peaks. Nor at the Grand Canyon. Why should I? When I look at the ocean, I feel the greatness of man. I think of man’s magnificent capacity that created this ship to conquer all that senseless space. When I look at mountain peaks, I think of tunnels and dynamite. When I look at the planets, I think of airplanes.”
“Yes [she replies]. And that particular sense of sacred rapture men say they experience in contemplating nature – I’ve never received it from nature, only from…” She stopped.
“From what?”
“Buildings,” she whispered. “Skyscrapers.”
This is moving stuff to be sure. Gail Wynand proposes to Dominque Francon just a few minutes later in Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead. The author, however, was not writing a romance, but rather a novel of philosophy. One aspect of that philosophy as expressed here is the greatness of man seen through his ability to do what our biblical text says – "subdue [the earth]." There is one particular difference. Rand's philosophy has no place for God.
Rand was very concerned with what a person did with his ability. What she had little patience with is what we will patiently explore through the summer – the concept of stewardship. What does it mean for us to have been given great ability and resources by our Maker? What do we owe him, and what is our responsibility to our fellow creatures and the rest of his creation?
We will explore the answers mostly through examining how others practiced stewardship: Cain and Abel, Abraham, Esau, Jacob, Joseph, and others. But there is the question of stewardship itself: Are we really stewards? Where does that concept come from? Well, it comes from the text we will study tonight.
The Text
The stewardship mandate is founded on the teaching of the first chapter of Genesis. God created the world. God created us – man. God set us over his world.
1. God created the world. Whatever viewpoint we may bring to how creation came to be, the one undisputable teaching of Genesis 1 is that God is the Creator. And thus creation is his possession. As Moses tells his people, "Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it" (Deuteronomy 10:14).
God created with purpose. All that is created has been made to glorify him. "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:36). He has made the heavens and the earth that he might enjoy his creation: "May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works" (Psalm 104:31).
2. God created the world, and God created man. As much as he delights in his creation; as much as his creation depicts the attributes of God (cf Romans 1:20) and glorify him, there is something special about man. For man alone was created in the image of God.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
For all other created things – whether inanimate or living – God says, "Let [it happen]." For man alone does he switch to "Let us make." Chapter 2 will present how man – both male and female – is created. He comes from the earth, but the very breath of God is blown into him.
But of particular significance is the phrase "image of God." Dr. Boice liked to say that anything Scripture teaches is important. If it is repeated, it is very important. If it is said the third time, then we had better pay attention! Three times the Scripture says that man was made in the image of God. Do you get that? Do you get how important man is? Indeed, have you noticed that the rest of Scripture is taken up with man and God's dealings with man? He is set apart from creation because he alone is made in God's image.
This naturally leads to the question of what it means to be made in God's image. Some say it has to do with having a personality – that is, wrapped up in having a conscious understanding of being a uniquely created individual. Some point to man's ability to think creatively or to think about the future or to use reason. G. K. Chesterton said that art is the signature of man, pointing to that unique ability to represent what he experiences. There is the dimension of having a soul that relates to the Spirit of God. Some believe its fundamental element is that relationship with God and which is then expressed in holiness. It is that relationship and holiness that is being recovered as new creatures in Christ (cf Ephesians 4:23-24; Colossians 3:10).
There is certainly much to explore in this phrase, but for our purposes in studying stewardship, one clear message conveyed is that man represents God to the rest of creation. We are made in God's image, not simply that God could have a lot of chips off the old block, but that we might serve as his representatives. This is likely how the idea developed in the ancient world that a ruler was a god. He could be referred to as the image of God representing whoever that god might be to his people. He was acting on behalf of – he was ruling under the authority of – God. Scripture applies this concept to mankind. We are all – male and female – created in the image of God to rule for him.
3. God makes this clear by expressly setting us over the world.
And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Like other creatures, man is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (v. 22). But man is, further, to have dominion over all other creatures and over the earth. Man is to subdue the earth.
Man is more than a watchman keeping eyes on the work and progress of the world. He is to be active; he is to be productive; he is to subdue animals for service; he is even to subdue the environment. He is to take the resources of creation and turn them into instruments that glorify his Maker – be it for artistic expression or functional utility. This is his obligation. This is his stewardship mandate.
Lessons
Let's think through further the implications of this stewardship mandate.
1. Treat creation with care and respect as God's possession.
Go back to the first lesson taught in the chapter – God created the world. And he created it with purpose, for his pleasure, and for his glory. How then should we, as his stewards, treat this world? If I asked you to take care of a print for me of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," you would not take too much thought of how to do so. Perhaps you would place it in your closet; perhaps you hang it on a wall. And then you would not think much more about it. But if I put you in charge of the original work, that becomes a different matter. It is an expensive painting, but more than that, you would consider its creator. This is a Van Gogh! Now, you take great care as the steward of mankind to protect it.
The world is God's creation. What we have been given dominion over; what we have been given to subdue is God's masterpiece that he delights in, by which he intends to glorify himself, and even to depict his glorious attributes. That, Gail Wynam and Dominique Francon, is why everyone else get those feelings of "sacred rapture" when contemplating nature. And that is why we are to be responsible in our handling of nature. We may not obstruct the glory of God, and we may not mar what gives him delight.
Indeed, because we are created in the image of God representing God before the world, we have the responsibility to treat our environment as God would do so. As a husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church, so we are to care for creation with the same mind – purposefully, taking delight in it, and glorifying God through our stewardship. All the more it matters how we new creatures in Christ, who are being renewed into the image of God are to demonstrate how God cares for his creation.
We should be known as the true environmentalists. We do not worship nature. We do not confuse it with divinity. But we know the true God who made this world. We know that this world serves to glorify him. We know that he delights in his creation. And therefore our actions should show it. We should show proper care in whatever capacity has been given us. We should demonstrate the attitude of God towards his creation.
As a college student, I took a trip with two friends into the Smokey Mountains. As we were driving along the scenic highway, we saw a large protruding rock that had “Jesus Saves” painted on it. One of my friends gave praise to God for that message. I pointed out that someone had defaced God's creation to write that message, and we proceeded to argue. But what do you think? Do you believe an unbeliever would have looked at that ugly painted rock and admire the painter's Christian faith? Do you think they would have been led to praise our Maker and turn to Jesus, or would they have been appalled that a believer in God would deface his creation?
2. Man's achievements glorify the God who made him.
Now, there is also something appropriate with getting goosebumps when looking at buildings and skyscrapers, even of thinking about ships and planes, even tunnels and dynamite. For if man is created by God, then the accomplishments of man are proper to be in wonder of. And if man is created in the image of God, then his creativity and his industry reflect those same attributes of God. And if we behold the heights that man has reached, and understand that God is infinitely above anything that man may aspire to be or to do, then all the more God is glorified. The achievements of man do not make God smaller, but all the more his greatness is magnified. All the more we "grasshoppers" glorify "God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it" (Isaiah 42:5). Every progress in knowledge, in skill, in physical and mental attainment, in artistic expression, and in practical invention gives testimony to our Maker and to his glory.
You will find that message in Psalm 8 which David wrote. If Gail Wynam had had the mindset of King David, he would have replied something like this to Dominique. "When I look at the ocean, and I think of man’s magnificent capacity that created this ship to cross it; when I look at mountain peaks, and I think of tunnels and dynamite that allow man to walk through them; when I look at the planets, and I think of airplanes and spaceships that take us into the skies and even into space, then I say, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! What is man that you are mindful of him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
All the more then, Christians should strive for excellence in whatever they do, because Christians represent God’s handiwork. This status of being God's handiwork is something we cannot escape. We should be excellent engineers and scientists and doctors and scholars and artists. We should demonstrate the majesty of our God by showing what his representatives can do when their lives have been redeemed and transformed; indeed, what he can do in such clays of jar as we.
3. We are to be productive.
Another principle to take away from our passage is that we are to be productive. Idleness is a sin. There is a time for rest. That is the point of the Sabbath. But if there is to be a time of rest, the rest of the time is to be spent in productive work. People can work too hard; they can be too driven; nevertheless, we are made to work. A common teaching that I hear is that a person is not to find his identity in his work, rather his status in Christ. I won't argue with that, but there is an equal danger of dismissing work as a mere activity to perform in order to rest. Thus we work through the weekday toward the real goal of resting and playing on the weekend. We work through the years toward the goal of retiring and taking it easy. Indeed, the ultimate success is to retire early and live on a golf course.
Whatever our circumstance may be – unemployed or retired or ill – we are to be productive. That productivity may be to look for a job; it may be to volunteer helping others by feeding the poor, caring for a neighbor, stuffing envelopes for an organization. The size of the task and the recognition of its importance by others does not matter. What matters is to be productive before God. No one retires from his service until he takes us into glory, and even then he is likely to have a job for each of us.
Some may bemoan that they are unable to reach high heights of achievement that glorify God. We are not all blessed with high mental ability or with impressive physical skill. Perhaps, but we all are give the ability to produce with what we have been given. Is that not the lesson of the nobleman who left his three servants with varying amounts of money to invest for him? Each man was judged by what he did with what he was given. But all three were expected to be productive. Do something. Many people are weighed down with troubles simply because they have too much idle time on their hands. Idleness will itself produce more troubles. As Paul told the Thessalonians, "We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies" (2 Thessalonians 3:11).
4. Christ is our ultimate model of stewardship.
Finally, consider then the One who was "in the form of God" (Philippians 2:6); who is "the radiance f the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:3); consider the One who from the beginning "was with God, and...was God (John 1:1), who created man; consider that he took on the "likeness of men...being found in human form" (Philippians 2:7-8). He who made us in his image took on our image. And he did so that he might fulfill the stewardship mandate. What Adam failed to do – fulfill the commandment of God – Jesus Christ accomplished. By disobeying God, Adam failed to act as God's holy representative; through him came sin and death into creation. By obeying God, Christ took the throne as God's holy representative. Christ has subdued both sin and death. By his Spirit, he is producing new creations – us. By his Spirit he is transforming us and sanctifying us so that we are being renewed in the image of God.
Now that is good stewardship – redeeming what is marred by sin and returning it to God as holy, as useful, as beautiful. Christ has rested from his atoning sacrifice, but he has not stopped working. He is God's steward-king who reigns over all creation – both physical and spiritual, who will return some day and deliver his kingdom over to God the Father.
Until that time, then, we are to serve as Christ's representatives on this earth. We cannot subdue death, but we can become healers; we can restore what sin has harmed; we can be builders and inventors; we can give a glimpse of what man could have been by what we now accomplish – by the work of our hands, by the contemplation of our minds, and by the love we show. By being good stewards who take seriously the stewardship mandate.
God created the world, and we as his stewards will take care of it to our best. God created man, and we will strive to live up to our fullest potential for his glory. God has set us over the world that we might be his representatives, showing the love and delight that God has for his creation.
Remember. We are the redeemed. We are each a new creation in Christ. We are stewards of this world and the gospel that has broken into the world, that the world might see the hand of its Maker and Redeemer.
6/10/07e D. Marion Clark
Introduction
A man and a woman stand on the deck of a yacht. The sun is setting. Dinner is being prepared. She is discovering what he already knows – that they are soul mates. She says to him,
“You’ve never felt how small you were when looking at the ocean.”
He laughed. “Never. Nor looking at the planets. Nor at mountain peaks. Nor at the Grand Canyon. Why should I? When I look at the ocean, I feel the greatness of man. I think of man’s magnificent capacity that created this ship to conquer all that senseless space. When I look at mountain peaks, I think of tunnels and dynamite. When I look at the planets, I think of airplanes.”
“Yes [she replies]. And that particular sense of sacred rapture men say they experience in contemplating nature – I’ve never received it from nature, only from…” She stopped.
“From what?”
“Buildings,” she whispered. “Skyscrapers.”
This is moving stuff to be sure. Gail Wynand proposes to Dominque Francon just a few minutes later in Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead. The author, however, was not writing a romance, but rather a novel of philosophy. One aspect of that philosophy as expressed here is the greatness of man seen through his ability to do what our biblical text says – "subdue [the earth]." There is one particular difference. Rand's philosophy has no place for God.
Rand was very concerned with what a person did with his ability. What she had little patience with is what we will patiently explore through the summer – the concept of stewardship. What does it mean for us to have been given great ability and resources by our Maker? What do we owe him, and what is our responsibility to our fellow creatures and the rest of his creation?
We will explore the answers mostly through examining how others practiced stewardship: Cain and Abel, Abraham, Esau, Jacob, Joseph, and others. But there is the question of stewardship itself: Are we really stewards? Where does that concept come from? Well, it comes from the text we will study tonight.
The Text
The stewardship mandate is founded on the teaching of the first chapter of Genesis. God created the world. God created us – man. God set us over his world.
1. God created the world. Whatever viewpoint we may bring to how creation came to be, the one undisputable teaching of Genesis 1 is that God is the Creator. And thus creation is his possession. As Moses tells his people, "Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it" (Deuteronomy 10:14).
God created with purpose. All that is created has been made to glorify him. "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:36). He has made the heavens and the earth that he might enjoy his creation: "May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works" (Psalm 104:31).
2. God created the world, and God created man. As much as he delights in his creation; as much as his creation depicts the attributes of God (cf Romans 1:20) and glorify him, there is something special about man. For man alone was created in the image of God.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
For all other created things – whether inanimate or living – God says, "Let [it happen]." For man alone does he switch to "Let us make." Chapter 2 will present how man – both male and female – is created. He comes from the earth, but the very breath of God is blown into him.
But of particular significance is the phrase "image of God." Dr. Boice liked to say that anything Scripture teaches is important. If it is repeated, it is very important. If it is said the third time, then we had better pay attention! Three times the Scripture says that man was made in the image of God. Do you get that? Do you get how important man is? Indeed, have you noticed that the rest of Scripture is taken up with man and God's dealings with man? He is set apart from creation because he alone is made in God's image.
This naturally leads to the question of what it means to be made in God's image. Some say it has to do with having a personality – that is, wrapped up in having a conscious understanding of being a uniquely created individual. Some point to man's ability to think creatively or to think about the future or to use reason. G. K. Chesterton said that art is the signature of man, pointing to that unique ability to represent what he experiences. There is the dimension of having a soul that relates to the Spirit of God. Some believe its fundamental element is that relationship with God and which is then expressed in holiness. It is that relationship and holiness that is being recovered as new creatures in Christ (cf Ephesians 4:23-24; Colossians 3:10).
There is certainly much to explore in this phrase, but for our purposes in studying stewardship, one clear message conveyed is that man represents God to the rest of creation. We are made in God's image, not simply that God could have a lot of chips off the old block, but that we might serve as his representatives. This is likely how the idea developed in the ancient world that a ruler was a god. He could be referred to as the image of God representing whoever that god might be to his people. He was acting on behalf of – he was ruling under the authority of – God. Scripture applies this concept to mankind. We are all – male and female – created in the image of God to rule for him.
3. God makes this clear by expressly setting us over the world.
And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Like other creatures, man is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (v. 22). But man is, further, to have dominion over all other creatures and over the earth. Man is to subdue the earth.
Man is more than a watchman keeping eyes on the work and progress of the world. He is to be active; he is to be productive; he is to subdue animals for service; he is even to subdue the environment. He is to take the resources of creation and turn them into instruments that glorify his Maker – be it for artistic expression or functional utility. This is his obligation. This is his stewardship mandate.
Lessons
Let's think through further the implications of this stewardship mandate.
1. Treat creation with care and respect as God's possession.
Go back to the first lesson taught in the chapter – God created the world. And he created it with purpose, for his pleasure, and for his glory. How then should we, as his stewards, treat this world? If I asked you to take care of a print for me of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," you would not take too much thought of how to do so. Perhaps you would place it in your closet; perhaps you hang it on a wall. And then you would not think much more about it. But if I put you in charge of the original work, that becomes a different matter. It is an expensive painting, but more than that, you would consider its creator. This is a Van Gogh! Now, you take great care as the steward of mankind to protect it.
The world is God's creation. What we have been given dominion over; what we have been given to subdue is God's masterpiece that he delights in, by which he intends to glorify himself, and even to depict his glorious attributes. That, Gail Wynam and Dominique Francon, is why everyone else get those feelings of "sacred rapture" when contemplating nature. And that is why we are to be responsible in our handling of nature. We may not obstruct the glory of God, and we may not mar what gives him delight.
Indeed, because we are created in the image of God representing God before the world, we have the responsibility to treat our environment as God would do so. As a husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church, so we are to care for creation with the same mind – purposefully, taking delight in it, and glorifying God through our stewardship. All the more it matters how we new creatures in Christ, who are being renewed into the image of God are to demonstrate how God cares for his creation.
We should be known as the true environmentalists. We do not worship nature. We do not confuse it with divinity. But we know the true God who made this world. We know that this world serves to glorify him. We know that he delights in his creation. And therefore our actions should show it. We should show proper care in whatever capacity has been given us. We should demonstrate the attitude of God towards his creation.
As a college student, I took a trip with two friends into the Smokey Mountains. As we were driving along the scenic highway, we saw a large protruding rock that had “Jesus Saves” painted on it. One of my friends gave praise to God for that message. I pointed out that someone had defaced God's creation to write that message, and we proceeded to argue. But what do you think? Do you believe an unbeliever would have looked at that ugly painted rock and admire the painter's Christian faith? Do you think they would have been led to praise our Maker and turn to Jesus, or would they have been appalled that a believer in God would deface his creation?
2. Man's achievements glorify the God who made him.
Now, there is also something appropriate with getting goosebumps when looking at buildings and skyscrapers, even of thinking about ships and planes, even tunnels and dynamite. For if man is created by God, then the accomplishments of man are proper to be in wonder of. And if man is created in the image of God, then his creativity and his industry reflect those same attributes of God. And if we behold the heights that man has reached, and understand that God is infinitely above anything that man may aspire to be or to do, then all the more God is glorified. The achievements of man do not make God smaller, but all the more his greatness is magnified. All the more we "grasshoppers" glorify "God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it" (Isaiah 42:5). Every progress in knowledge, in skill, in physical and mental attainment, in artistic expression, and in practical invention gives testimony to our Maker and to his glory.
You will find that message in Psalm 8 which David wrote. If Gail Wynam had had the mindset of King David, he would have replied something like this to Dominique. "When I look at the ocean, and I think of man’s magnificent capacity that created this ship to cross it; when I look at mountain peaks, and I think of tunnels and dynamite that allow man to walk through them; when I look at the planets, and I think of airplanes and spaceships that take us into the skies and even into space, then I say, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! What is man that you are mindful of him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
All the more then, Christians should strive for excellence in whatever they do, because Christians represent God’s handiwork. This status of being God's handiwork is something we cannot escape. We should be excellent engineers and scientists and doctors and scholars and artists. We should demonstrate the majesty of our God by showing what his representatives can do when their lives have been redeemed and transformed; indeed, what he can do in such clays of jar as we.
3. We are to be productive.
Another principle to take away from our passage is that we are to be productive. Idleness is a sin. There is a time for rest. That is the point of the Sabbath. But if there is to be a time of rest, the rest of the time is to be spent in productive work. People can work too hard; they can be too driven; nevertheless, we are made to work. A common teaching that I hear is that a person is not to find his identity in his work, rather his status in Christ. I won't argue with that, but there is an equal danger of dismissing work as a mere activity to perform in order to rest. Thus we work through the weekday toward the real goal of resting and playing on the weekend. We work through the years toward the goal of retiring and taking it easy. Indeed, the ultimate success is to retire early and live on a golf course.
Whatever our circumstance may be – unemployed or retired or ill – we are to be productive. That productivity may be to look for a job; it may be to volunteer helping others by feeding the poor, caring for a neighbor, stuffing envelopes for an organization. The size of the task and the recognition of its importance by others does not matter. What matters is to be productive before God. No one retires from his service until he takes us into glory, and even then he is likely to have a job for each of us.
Some may bemoan that they are unable to reach high heights of achievement that glorify God. We are not all blessed with high mental ability or with impressive physical skill. Perhaps, but we all are give the ability to produce with what we have been given. Is that not the lesson of the nobleman who left his three servants with varying amounts of money to invest for him? Each man was judged by what he did with what he was given. But all three were expected to be productive. Do something. Many people are weighed down with troubles simply because they have too much idle time on their hands. Idleness will itself produce more troubles. As Paul told the Thessalonians, "We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies" (2 Thessalonians 3:11).
4. Christ is our ultimate model of stewardship.
Finally, consider then the One who was "in the form of God" (Philippians 2:6); who is "the radiance f the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:3); consider the One who from the beginning "was with God, and...was God (John 1:1), who created man; consider that he took on the "likeness of men...being found in human form" (Philippians 2:7-8). He who made us in his image took on our image. And he did so that he might fulfill the stewardship mandate. What Adam failed to do – fulfill the commandment of God – Jesus Christ accomplished. By disobeying God, Adam failed to act as God's holy representative; through him came sin and death into creation. By obeying God, Christ took the throne as God's holy representative. Christ has subdued both sin and death. By his Spirit, he is producing new creations – us. By his Spirit he is transforming us and sanctifying us so that we are being renewed in the image of God.
Now that is good stewardship – redeeming what is marred by sin and returning it to God as holy, as useful, as beautiful. Christ has rested from his atoning sacrifice, but he has not stopped working. He is God's steward-king who reigns over all creation – both physical and spiritual, who will return some day and deliver his kingdom over to God the Father.
Until that time, then, we are to serve as Christ's representatives on this earth. We cannot subdue death, but we can become healers; we can restore what sin has harmed; we can be builders and inventors; we can give a glimpse of what man could have been by what we now accomplish – by the work of our hands, by the contemplation of our minds, and by the love we show. By being good stewards who take seriously the stewardship mandate.
God created the world, and we as his stewards will take care of it to our best. God created man, and we will strive to live up to our fullest potential for his glory. God has set us over the world that we might be his representatives, showing the love and delight that God has for his creation.
Remember. We are the redeemed. We are each a new creation in Christ. We are stewards of this world and the gospel that has broken into the world, that the world might see the hand of its Maker and Redeemer.
