When it comes to treasure, God is the owner and we are the manager...

This week, we have been looking at a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Psalms. In Psalm 50, we see Asaph, moved by the Holy Spirit, write a song that confronted the Jewish people for the selfishness and rebellion that was beginning to surface in their lives.

We looked on as God, through Asaph revealed the reality that the Jewish people were guilty of was thinking that God was dependent upon them.  The Jewish people were offering worship to God as though He needed animals to be provided for Him and they were afraid that they would experience God’s judgment if they did not provide for Him.

The Jewish people made a fundamental mistake that we can make today, which is that the Jewish people thought that they were the owners and that they needed to fulfill the responsibility provide for God in order to meet His needs. And God wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand that they needed to be set straight.

We looked on as God revealed to the Jewish people that He owned everything and that He was not dependant on the Jewish people and their acts of worship in order to survive. Instead, the Jewish people needed to come back to the reality that they were totally dependent on God for their survival. Today we see the Psalmist close this section of this psalm by revealing the motivation that should be driving the Jewish people and their acts of worship in Psalm 50:14-15:

"Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High; Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me."

To understand what Asaph is communicating here, we first need to define some terms. When Asaph refers to sacrifice of thanksgiving, this phrase, in the language that this letter was written in, refers to thanksgiving in the form of praise. When Asaph refers to vows, he is referring to an oath or a promise that one makes to another.

So when Asaph calls the Jewish people to pay your vows to the Most High, he is calling the Jewish people to keep the promises that they had made to God. The psalmist is saying “what God wants from you when it comes to worship is that you offer up praise and thanksgiving to Him as your provider, your protector, your rescuer, and your deliverer. What God wants from you when it comes to worship is that you are faithful to follow God’s word and keep the promises and commitments that you make to Him. God wants you to recognize that He is the all powerful and self sufficient owner and provider of everything that you have.”

You see, the Jewish people failed to recognize that they were to worship the Lord out of a response of their desperate need for Him and to bring Him glory as the owner of everything. The Jewish people failed to recognize that their worship of the Lord should be a response of thankfulness for His activity in their lives. And it is in this Psalm that we are able to discover a timeless truth that provides clarity about our role and responsibilities when it comes to money, possessions, and treasure. And that timeless truth is this: When it comes to treasure, God is the owner and we are the manager.

The timeless reality is that we never really own anything. We only manage God’s money, possessions, and treasure for a period of time. We are only on earth for a finite period of time and, when our time on earth is over, all of the money, possessions and treasure that we accumulate while on earth stays here. However, what can tend to happen when it comes to our role and God’s role in money, possessions, and treasure, is that we can find ourselves falling into some faulty theology.

Throughout history, when it comes to theology, which simply means the study of the nature and character of God, human beings have tended to fall into one of two extreme and faulty views of how God and money relate and interact with humanity. The first faulty view is what is referred to as prosperity theology.

Proponents of prosperity theology maintain that God desires that everyone prosper financially and physically as a result of their spirituality. Prosperity theology maintains what is called a “name it and claim it” mentality when it comes to money, possessions, and treasure. In other words, if you just have faith, you can ask God for material or physical blessings and He will provide. All you need is faith. “Just name it by faith and you can claim it by faith”.

Those who embrace prosperity theology will refer to themselves as being “word of faith communities”. For those who embrace prosperity theology, spiritually mature followers of Jesus are wealthy and possessions are a right that one receives as a result of faith. So, if someone is poor materially or suffering physically or emotionally, it is due to the fact that they are either unsaved, spiritually immature, or have sin in their life.

For those who embrace prosperity theology, generosity and giving is driven by the mentality that “the more I give by faith, the more I will get because of faith”.  So giving is motivated by faith in what they will get from God. And for those who embrace prosperity theology, the management of the money, possessions, and treasure that they have is driven by a carefree attitude that is focused on consuming all that they have been given by God.

However, there is a huge problem with prosperity theology. And that problem is that any theology that is true to the Bible must be able to have Jesus fit into that theology. Because, when you look at the definition of a spiritually mature person in prosperity theology; that a spiritually mature person is wealthy, with good relationships and without pain or anxiety, that definition excludes Jesus.

When you look at the tenets of prosperity theology, Jesus would not be able to fit into their theology. Prosperity theology maintains that the spiritually mature will be blessed financially, yet, when we read the accounts of Jesus life that are recorded for us in the Bible, we discover that Jesus was poor. Jesus was born into a lower, working class home of a carpenter and lived His life as poor itinerant preacher who was homeless and dependant on the support of others.

Prosperity theology maintains that the spiritually mature will be blessed emotionally and relationally, yet, when we read the accounts of Jesus life that are recorded for us in the Bible, we discover that Jesus was ridiculed, rejected and scorned. Prosperity theology maintains that the spiritually mature will be blessed physically, yet, when we read the accounts of Jesus life that are recorded for us in the Bible, we discover that Jesus was beaten and crucified.

So did Jesus not have enough faith? Did Jesus have sin in His life? Was Jesus spiritually immature? You see, Jesus would not fit into the prosperity theology’s definition of spiritually maturity. And if Jesus cannot fit into your theology, then your theology is faulty.

The second faulty view is referred to as poverty theology. Proponents of poverty theology maintain that the love of money is the root of all evil in the world. For those who embrace poverty theology spiritually mature followers of Jesus view wealth and possessions as evil and corrupting. So, if someone is wealthy materially or financially, it is due to the fact that they are either unsaved, spiritually immature, or have the sin of greed and covetousness in their life.

For those who embrace poverty theology, generosity and giving is driven by the mentality that “I give because I must”.  So giving is motivated by duty to God. And for those who embrace poverty theology, the management of the money, possessions, and treasure that they have is absent of gratitude to God because money and possession are evil. Poverty theology actually flows from an ancient heresy called asceticism, which viewed the physical and material as evil and the spiritual as good. 

There is a huge problem with prosperity theology, however. And that problem is that throughout the Bible we see individual after individual that were wealthy people who were used by God in powerful ways to advance His Kingdom and enhance His reputation. In the Old Testament there was Abraham, there was Job, there was King David and King Solomon, all of whom were wealthy and used by God in powerful ways to reveal and reflect His nature and character to the world.

In addition, nowhere in the Bible is the money, possession, or treasure mentioned as being evil. You see, money is amoral. It is neither inherently evil nor intently good. It is what we do with money that determines whether it is leveraged in a way that is morally good or evil.

While both prosperity and poverty theology find no support in the Bible, there is a third theological view when it comes to our role and God’s role in money, possessions, and treasure that is clearly supported by the message and teachings of the Bible. And that third theological view is called stewardship theology.

Stewardship theology maintains that, when it comes to treasure, God is the owner and we are the manager. And when we embrace what the Bible actually teaches about stewardship theology, spiritually mature followers of Jesus view wealth and possessions as a responsibility to be managed.

When we embrace stewardship theology, generosity and giving is driven by the mentality that “I give because I love God and want to respond to the generosity of Jesus by being generous”.  So our giving is motivated by a delight in God. And when we embrace stewardship theology, the management of the money, possessions, and treasure that they have is motivated by a prayerful and responsible recognition that God is the owner and that we are the managers of the money, possessions, and treasure we possess. Because, when it comes to treasure, God is the owner and we are the manager.

So which theological view of how God and money relate and interact with humanity are you holding? Prosperity theology, where God is our spiritual Santa Claus that we use in order to get what we really worship, which is money, possessions, and treasure? Poverty theology, where we interact with money, possessions and treasure out of duty rather than delight? Or stewardship theology, where we view God as the owner of all and embrace the role and responsibility that we have to manage all that God has given us in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus and God’s generosity to the world?