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OWNERSHIP

Owning possessions is fundamentally good and provides many opportunities for glorifying God, but also many temptations to sin

SOMETIMES PEOPLE THINK of all ownership of property as a kind of “greed” that is morally tainted, and they imagine that in a perfect world people would not even own personal possessions. But the Bible does not support that idea. When God gave the command,

“You shall not steal” (Ex. 20:15),

he affirmed the validity of personal ownership of possessions. I should not steal your car, because it belongs to you, not to me. Unless God intended us to own personal possessions, the command not to steal would make no sense.

I believe the reason God gave the command, “You shall not steal,” is that ownership of possessions is a fundamental way that we imitate God’s sovereignty over the universe by our exercising “sovereignty” over a tiny portion of the universe, the things we own. When we take care of our possessions, we imitate God in his taking care of the whole universe, and he delights to see us imitate him in this way. In addition, when we care for our possessions, it gives us opportunity to imitate many other attributes of God, such as wisdom, knowledge, beauty, creativity, love for others, kindness, fairness, independence, freedom, exercise of will, blessedness (or joy), and so forth.

Now sometimes Christians refer to ownership as “stewardship,” to remind us that what we “own” we do not own absolutely, but only as stewards taking care of what really belongs to God. This is because “the earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof ” (Ps. 24:1) and so ultimately it all belongs to him (see also Lev. 25:23; Ps. 50:10-12; Hag. 2:8; Luke 16:12;1 Cor. 4:7).

Why do children from a very early age enjoy having toys that are their own, and why do they often want to have a pet that is their own, one they can care for? I realize that such “ownership” of toys and pets can be distorted by the sins of selfishness and laziness, but even if we lived in a sinless world children from a very young age would have a desire to have things that are their own. I think God has created us with a desire to own things because he wanted us to have a desire to

Grudem, W. (2003). Business for the glory of god : The bible's teaching on the moral goodness of business. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a> Created from liberty on 2021-04-27 12:29:47.

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imitate his sovereignty in this way. This desire in itself should not automatically be called “greed,” because that word slanders something that is a good desire given to us by God.

When we are responsible stewards, whether taking care of our toys at the age of four or managing the entire factory at the age of forty, if we do this work “as unto the Lord,” God looks at our imitation of his sovereignty and his other attributes, and he is pleased. In this way we are his image-bearers, people who are like God and who represent God on the earth, whether we own few possessions or many, and whether we own a small business or a large one.

So what should we do with the things we own? There are many good things to do, all of which can glorify God. One good “use” of our resources—paradoxically—is that we should give some of them away! This is so that others can use them wisely, not just we ourselves. For example, we can give to the church to help its evangelism and teaching, and in that way we build up the church. Or we can give some of our possessions to meet the needs of others, especially the poor:

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God (Heb. 13:16).

The Bible frequently speaks of the importance of regularly giving away some of what we have been given:

Honor the LORD with your wealth

and with the firstfruits of all your produce (Prov. 3:9).

. . . we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

Giving is important because it demonstrates trust in God. When I give away $100, I am essentially saying, “God, I am trusting you to provide for $100 of my future needs, because I no longer can depend on this $100.” Thus, giving money away shifts our trust from our money to our God. God is pleased when we give (“God loves a cheerful giver,” 2 Cor. 9:7) because it not only demonstrates trust in him but also reflects his love for others, his mercy, his compassion for those in need.

But we do not need to give away all that we have! The Bible talks about other morally right uses of our resources as well. For example, a man who owns a tractor can use it to help “subdue” the earth (Gen. 1:28)—that is, make the earth useful for us as human beings—by causing the earth to yield corn and beans.People who own more complex equipment can extract materials from the earth to make plastics and silicon in order to make computers and cell phones and Palm Pilots.

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At other times, we should use our possessions not to make other goods but simply for our own enjoyment, with thanksgiving to God,

who richly provides us with everything to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17).

It is also right to save some of our resources for future use.This will enable us in the future to provide for our relatives, and especially for members of our own households, as God’s Word tells us we should do (see 1 Tim. 5:8). We can glorify God through all of these uses of resources if we have thanksgiving in our hearts to God.

On the other hand, ownership of possessions provides many temptations to misuse the resources that God has entrusted to us. We can use our resources to pollute and destroy the earth, or to rob and oppress others, thereby disobeying Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22:39), and thereby dishonoring God by our actions. The author of Proverbs 30 knew that stealing is not imitating God but is showing to the world a picture of a God who is selfish and unjust, for he said,

. . . lest I be poor and steal

and profane the name of my God (Prov. 30:9).

Or we could use our possessions to turn people away from the gospel and attack the church, as some wealthy people did in the first century:

Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?(James 2:6-7).

We could also use our resources to advance our own pride, or we could become greedy and accumulate wealth for its own sake, or we could take wrongful security in riches (see Matt. 6:19; Luke 12:13-21; James 5:3). We could use our possessions foolishly and wastefully, abounding in luxury and self-indulgence while we neglect the needs of others (see James 5:5; 1 John 3:17). These things are rightly called “materialism,” and they are wrong.

In many parts of the world, the wonderful, God-given privilege of owning and managing property is not possible for large segments of the population. In some cultures, property rights are selfishly hoarded by a small number of powerful people and government regulations are so complex and time consuming that they effectively make it impossible for poor people to own any property or to own a small business.1 In Communist countries, most private ownership of homes and businesses is prohibited by law, and the government owns all factories and all real estate. Such systems are evil because they prevent people from owning anything more than a

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small number of personal possessions, and thus they prevent people from even having the opportunity to glorify God through owning any property, or owning a home or a business.

Ownership can be abused, but the distortions of something good must not cause us to think that the thing itself is evil. Possessions are not evil in themselves, and the ownership of possessions is not wrong in itself. Nor is ownership something morally neutral. In itself, the ownership of possessions is something that is created by God, and very good. Ownership provides multiple opportunities for glorifying God, and we should be thankful for it.

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