Financial Discipleship - the Bible on Our PartSample

Extent of Our Faithfulness

1. Faithful with All Our Resources

We are charged to be faithful in handling 100%, not just 10%. Unfortunately, many churches have concentrated only on teaching how to handle 10% of our income—the area of giving. Although this area is crucial, we have allowed Christians to learn how to handle the other 90% from the world’s perspective, not from our Lord’s perspective.

Because they do not know how to handle money biblically, many Christians have wrong attitudes about possessions and make incorrect financial decisions that lead to painful consequences. Hosea 4:6 reads, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Ignorance of or disobedience to scriptural financial principles frequently causes money problems.

2. Faithful Regardless of How Much We Have

The issue in Scripture is how to handle faithfully all God has entrusted to us. The faithful steward is responsible for what he or she has, whether it is much or little. The parable of the talents illustrates this. “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own servants, and entrusted his possessions to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one . . .” (Matthew 25:14-15). When the master returned, he held each servant accountable for managing his possessions faithfully. The master commended the faithful servant who received the five talents: “Well done, good and faithful servant, you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21). Interestingly, the servant who had been given two talents received a reward equal to that given to the one who had been given the five talents (see Matthew 25:23). We are required to be faithful whether we are given much or little. As someone once said, “It’s not what I would do if one million dollars were my lot; it’s what I am doing with the ten dollars I’ve got.”

3. Faithfulness in Little Things

Luke 16:10 reads, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.” How do you know if a child is going to take good care of his first car? Observe how he cared for his bicycle. How do you know if a salesperson will do a competent job of serving a large client? Observe how she served a small client. If we have the character to be faithful with small things, the Lord knows He can trust us with greater responsibilities.

“Small things are small things,” Hudson Taylor, the missionary statesman, said, “but faithfulness with a small thing is a big thing.”

4. Faithfulness with Another’s Possessions

Faithfulness with another’s possessions will, in some measure, determine the amount with which you are entrusted. “And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?” (Luke 16:12). This is a principle that is often overlooked. Are you faithful with another’s possessions? Are you careless with your employer’s office supplies? Do you waste electricity when you are staying in a motel room? When someone allows you to use something, are you careful to return it in good shape? I am certain some people have not been given more because they have been unfaithful with the possessions of others.

(excerpt taken from Your Money Counts by Howard Dayton, 2020)