Introduction: A Calling Older Than Civilization
What does it mean to be a steward?
For many people today, stewardship suggests responsible management of money, property, or natural resources. In Christian thought, however, stewardship has a deeper meaning. It concerns the relationship between God, humanity, and everything entrusted to human care.
A steward exercises responsibility over something that ultimately belongs to another. That responsibility may involve cultivation, protection, administration, teaching, service, and the wise use of resources.
The biblical understanding of stewardship begins with the conviction that God is the Creator and ultimate owner of all things.
“The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” — Psalm 24:1, KJV
Human beings may possess property, exercise authority, and develop the world around them. Yet within the Christian understanding, such authority is neither independent nor unlimited.
It is exercised under God.
This principle forms the foundation of the stewardship calling.
I. The Origins of Stewardship in Genesis
The earliest biblical foundation appears in Genesis 1:26–28, where humanity is created in the image of God and given dominion over the living world.
The meaning of dominion has been debated throughout Christian history. Some have understood it primarily as authority to cultivate and use creation for human benefit. Others emphasize the responsibilities that accompany humanity's unique position within creation.
These interpretations need not be entirely opposed. Human beings depend upon natural resources, and the biblical account recognizes their authority to use them. But authority does not necessarily imply permission to act without moral restraint.
Genesis 2:15 provides a more specific description of humanity's original responsibility.
“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” — Genesis 2:15, KJV
Two Hebrew verbs are especially significant.
The first, ʿābad, can mean to work, cultivate, or serve.
The second, šāmar, can mean to keep, watch over, guard, or preserve.
Together, they describe a responsibility that includes both productive activity and protective care.
The passage does not formally call Adam a steward. Nevertheless, it provides the earliest biblical model from which Christian stewardship of creation is commonly developed.
An additional observation is important: this responsibility is assigned before the Fall described in Genesis 3.
Work, cultivation, and care are therefore not presented merely as punishments for human disobedience. They belong to humanity's original vocation.
II. Stewardship in the Old Testament
As the biblical narrative develops, stewardship becomes associated with the administration of households, resources, communities, and nations.
Joseph provides an important example.
In Genesis 39:4–6, Potiphar entrusts Joseph with responsibility for his household. Later, in Genesis 41:39–41, Pharaoh appoints Joseph to administer Egypt during the approaching years of abundance and famine.
Joseph's responsibility includes foresight, preparation, management, and the preservation of life.
Stewardship here is more than guarding what already exists. It requires understanding circumstances and acting wisely in anticipation of future needs.
Other Old Testament passages expand the concept.
Psalm 8:4–8 describes humanity's extraordinary position within creation.
Leviticus 25:23 declares that the land ultimately belongs to God, establishing a limit upon human claims of permanent and absolute ownership.
The Sabbath-year provisions of Leviticus 25:1–7 recognize rhythms of agricultural use and rest.
Deuteronomy 20:19–20 places limits on the destruction of fruit trees during warfare.
These passages arise in different historical and covenantal settings. They should not be treated as interchangeable modern environmental regulations. Nevertheless, together they demonstrate that the use of land and resources is a matter of moral concern within Scripture.
III. Stewardship in the Teachings of Jesus Christ
Jesus frequently employed the relationship between masters, servants, and household managers to explain responsibility within the Kingdom of God.
In Luke 12:42–48, the faithful manager is entrusted with responsibility for a household. The manager is judged not merely by possession of authority but by faithful treatment of those placed under his care.
The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14–30 similarly describes servants entrusted with their master's property.
The central concern is accountability for what has been received.
The servants do not create the resources entrusted to them. They are expected to act responsibly with those resources during their master's absence.
Luke 16:1–13 further explores the relationship between material wealth, faithfulness, and accountability.
These teachings concern spiritual responsibility, conduct, and the Kingdom of God. Applying them to environmental care, scientific knowledge, or property management involves theological reasoning beyond their immediate narrative settings.
Nevertheless, they establish a general principle:
Those who receive responsibility are accountable for how they exercise it.
Christian stewardship is therefore not measured simply by the quantity of resources accumulated. It is measured by faithfulness in their use.
IV. Stewardship in the Apostolic Church
The Apostle Paul explicitly employs the language of stewardship in 1 Corinthians 4:1–2.
“Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” — 1 Corinthians 4:2, KJV
The Greek word oikonomos refers to a household administrator or manager.
Paul applies the term to the responsibility of Christian ministers entrusted with the mysteries of God.
The Apostle Peter broadens the application to believers exercising their spiritual gifts.
“As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” — 1 Peter 4:10, KJV
This passage is particularly important because it connects stewardship with service.
The gifts a person receives are not understood solely as instruments of private advancement. They create opportunities and responsibilities to benefit others.
Knowledge, teaching, hospitality, practical abilities, and spiritual gifts can all become expressions of faithful stewardship.
Christian stewardship thus extends beyond the management of physical possessions.
It encompasses the responsible use of one's life.
V. Stewardship in Christian Theology and Apologetics
Throughout Christian history, theologians have examined the relationship between divine ownership, human freedom, property, moral responsibility, and the created world.
Not every author developed an explicit doctrine of stewardship. Some provided philosophical or theological principles from which later Christian thinkers developed stewardship ethics.
Augustine of Hippo: The Proper Ordering of Human Loves
Augustine distinguished between the Creator and the created order.
In The City of God and On Christian Doctrine, he explored how human beings should understand and value temporal goods in relation to God.
His writings emphasize that created things are good, but they must not displace God as humanity's ultimate good.
Applied to stewardship, this suggests that possessions and resources should be understood within a larger moral and spiritual purpose.
Augustine's contribution is primarily theological rather than a systematic treatment of environmental management.
Thomas Aquinas: Property and the Common Good
In Summa Theologiae, Second Part of the Second Part, Question 66, Article 2, Thomas Aquinas considers whether private ownership is lawful.
Aquinas defends the legitimacy of individual possession and administration while distinguishing private management from the proper use of material goods.
He argues that the use of possessions should take account of the needs of others.
This distinction is important for Christian stewardship.
Property rights provide a framework for responsible administration, but they do not eliminate moral obligations toward one's neighbors.
John Calvin: Preserving What Has Been Entrusted
John Calvin's commentary on Genesis 2:15 provides a particularly direct historical statement concerning the care of land.
Calvin interprets Adam's work in the garden as evidence that human beings are intended for purposeful labor.
He also emphasizes the obligation to preserve what God has entrusted to human care.
His discussion extends the principle to those who possess agricultural land: they should avoid negligent damage and seek to pass the land onward in good condition, or better cultivated than they received it.
This is a striking early Protestant articulation of responsibility toward future generations.
John Wesley: Stewardship of Wealth and Opportunity
John Wesley's sermon The Use of Money, Sermon 50, develops a comprehensive understanding of financial stewardship.
His familiar principles are:
- Gain all you can.
- Save all you can.
- Give all you can.
These statements are sometimes misunderstood as encouragement toward wealth accumulation.
Wesley's argument is more demanding.
Earning must not injure oneself or others. Saving means avoiding wasteful expenditure. Giving is the purpose toward which responsible earning and saving are directed.
Wesley explicitly distinguishes the ultimate ownership of God from the temporary responsibilities of human stewards.
His teaching raises a question relevant to every generation:
What is the proper use of wealth when one has been blessed with more than is required for personal needs?
Francis Schaeffer: Christian Faith and Environmental Responsibility
In Pollution and the Death of Man (1970), Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer addresses the ecological consequences of humanity's treatment of nature.
Schaeffer argues that the Christian doctrine of creation provides a foundation for respecting the natural world.
Nature has value because it is God's creation, not merely because it is useful to human beings.
At the same time, Schaeffer rejects the idea that nature itself should be worshiped.
His approach distinguishes Christian stewardship from both unrestricted exploitation and the elevation of nature to divine status.
Schaeffer's work is especially important in modern Christian apologetics because it addresses the criticism that biblical dominion necessarily encourages environmental destruction.
His response is that genuine Christian dominion must be understood through the character of the Creator and humanity's responsibility before Him.
VI. Stewardship as a Christian Apologetic
Christian apologetics seeks to explain and defend the intellectual, historical, philosophical, and moral foundations of Christian belief.
Stewardship contributes to that discussion in several ways.
First, it offers a theological explanation for why human beings possess both authority and responsibility within the natural world.
Second, it connects moral accountability with the exercise of power. The ability to do something does not, by itself, establish that doing it is right.
Third, it provides a framework for examining the relationship between scientific knowledge and moral judgment.
Science can help determine how ecosystems function, how resources may be used, and what consequences may follow from particular decisions.
Christian ethics asks additional questions about purpose, obligation, justice, and responsibility.
These are complementary forms of inquiry, although their conclusions and interpretations may sometimes be contested.
Fourth, stewardship provides a response to the problem of short-term thinking.
If resources are entrusted to human beings rather than possessed without obligation, then decisions must consider not only immediate advantage but also the welfare of others and the consequences for future generations.
These arguments do not, by themselves, demonstrate that Christianity is true. They show how Christian theology can provide a coherent moral framework for human responsibility.
The credibility of that framework is also tested by the conduct of those who profess it.
A Christian defense of stewardship is weakened when Christian behavior contradicts the responsibilities being defended.
Faithful practice is therefore an important part of its public witness.
VII. The Stewardship Calling at Portal Grove
Portal Grove is an attempt to give practical expression to these biblical and theological principles.
The property is understood not merely as land held under legal title but as a place entrusted to human care.
Its woodlands, wildlife, soil, water, and natural formations are subjects of observation, study, cultivation, and protection.
Development is not rejected. Buildings, gardens, pathways, educational spaces, and places for reflection may all serve legitimate purposes.
But development should be guided by thoughtful consideration of what already exists and what should remain.
One of Portal Grove's guiding principles expresses this responsibility:
“Use what the land yields; don't unnecessarily destroy what the land has already placed.”
The calling extends beyond ecological care.
Portal Grove is also intended to become a place of learning, hospitality, reflection, and service.
Its journals document observations, decisions, discoveries, and mistakes so that future stewards may benefit from the experiences of those who came before them.
The Grove Keeper does not claim perfect understanding or judgment.
Stewardship requires humility precisely because human knowledge and foresight are limited.
The obligation is to continue learning, act conscientiously, correct mistakes, and prepare others to carry the responsibility forward.
VIII. Stewardship and the Generations Yet to Come
A human lifetime is brief compared with the life of a woodland.
Trees planted today may reach maturity after those who planted them are gone.
The consequences of decisions made today may be experienced by people who have not yet been born.
Christian stewardship therefore includes an obligation to consider the future.
It is not enough to preserve resources without passing along the knowledge necessary to care for them.
Nor is it enough to accumulate knowledge without sharing it.
The stewardship calling reaches its fullest practical expression when one generation prepares another to assume responsibility with wisdom, humility, and faithfulness.
Conclusion: What Has Been Entrusted to Your Care?
The biblical calling of stewardship begins in Genesis, develops through the history of Israel, receives renewed emphasis in the teachings of Jesus, and becomes an explicit responsibility of Christian service in the apostolic writings.
Christian theologians have continued to examine its implications for property, wealth, creation, and human relationships.
Its central conviction remains remarkably consistent:
What we possess is temporary. What we do with it carries lasting responsibility.
At Portal Grove, this conviction informs our relationship with the land, our commitment to learning, and our hope of leaving something of enduring value to the community.
We welcome visitors of every faith and background to consider the questions at the heart of stewardship:
What has been entrusted to my care?
How faithfully am I caring for it?
What will remain for those who follow?
For Christians, these questions ultimately lead back to the Creator, before whom every steward is accountable.
For all who visit Portal Grove, they offer an invitation to consider the responsibilities that accompany the blessings of life.
Portal Grove — Faith, Knowledge, Nature, and Stewardship
Scripture and Further Reading
Biblical passages: Genesis 1:26–28; Genesis 2:15; Genesis 39:4–6; Genesis 41:39–41; Leviticus 25:1–23; Deuteronomy 20:19–20; Psalm 8:4–8; Psalm 24:1; Matthew 25:14–30; Luke 12:42–48; Luke 16:1–13; 1 Corinthians 4:1–2; 1 Peter 4:10.
Historical and theological works:
- Augustine of Hippo, The City of God and On Christian Doctrine.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II–II, Question 66, Articles 1–2.
- John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Genesis 2:15.
- John Wesley, The Use of Money, Sermon 50.
- Francis A. Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man, 1970.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV). This article presents Christian theological interpretations and distinguishes them, where appropriate, from the direct wording of biblical texts.