November 5 (Daily reading: Matthew 23; Luke 20-21) We highlight three wise sayings from Jesus that demonstrate total stewardship. First, Luke 20:38. “Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living; for all live to Him.” Because the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, they asked Jesus a frivolous question about marriage in heaven. In His answer, Jesus reminded them that God had presented Himself to Moses as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3:6). These fathers of the faith were alive because of the resurrection! Paul wrote about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. Being assured that God is the God of the living, he described our total stewardship: “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (v. 58).
Next, Luke 20:25. “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Since our stewardship covers all of life, we are responsible to God for everything. We cannot delineate between the secular and the spiritual. Our faithfulness to God will lead us to be faithful to our families, our church, as well as in the workplace.
Finally, Luke 21:3-4. Jesus observed those who were making their offerings in the temple. The rich would often make their offerings with great fanfare. A widow came and quietly put in two small copper coins. Jesus remarked: “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.” Perhaps in God’s eyes, total stewardship looks not at what we give, but how we use what we have left after we give!
– Al Gary
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