Stewards

Saturday, 28 June 2008 10:00

Stewards are not beneficiaries - others are. Stewards do not give because they happen to have enough to give. Stewards have received what they have for the very purpose of giving it away. "No surer rule and no more valid exhortation .. could be devised than when we are taught that all the gifts we possess have been bestowed by God and entrusted to us on condition that they be distributed for our neighbor's benefit." (John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.6.5) He goes on to say that since there is no way we can increase God's possessions, the way we extend generosity toward God is by practicing it toward the saints on earth.