The Idea of Ownership
Have you ever asked yourself the question, “What is ownership, really?” Some people think that the mere fact that they possess or use a certain thing makes them its owner. But that is not so. This seems to be an idea deeply rooted in our nature, an idea we carry from childhood. Try to take a toy away from a child, even a three- or four-year-old, and you will hear its cry of weeping and protest. Why? Because the child regards the toy as its own property.
Yet the fact that we have or use something as ours does not mean that it is our property. Someone may have given it to us for temporary use, or we may have borrowed it. For example, our home is not ours if we live in it as tenants. When we save enough money and buy a home, then it will be our own home. But even then it will not be fully ours, because everything in this world belongs to God. It is God’s property, because He created it.
It is very important to have a clear idea of ownership and to know whose property each thing is. Perhaps one of the reasons some people never return the things they have borrowed is that they have no clear idea of what ownership actually is.
A young man was once asked to return an accordion that had been given to him for temporary use. When he heard the request, he said irritably to his friend, “The owner of this accordion is not a musician and doesn’t know how to play, so what does he need it for? Besides, he’s rich and has plenty of money, so if he wants an accordion he can easily buy one even nicer than this. But I don’t have an accordion, and I don’t have the money to buy one either. On top of that, I use this one to play in the church’s worship, so I’m using it for God’s work. Is all of this fair?” As you can guess, this man had no intention whatsoever of returning the accordion.
It is the same with people who take out loans and then never repay them. After a while they forget about their debt and begin to act as though the money had always been theirs. But this is absolutely wrong, and it reveals a complete misunderstanding of the idea of ownership.
As Christians we must be able to distinguish between having something and using it, and that same thing being our property. The disciples of the first church are a remarkable example of people who made this distinction. In Acts 4:32 we read that “no one claimed that any of their possessions was their own.” This, in fact, is the very truth. We do not own anything in this world; we are only stewards of the goods and resources God has entrusted to us. The fact that something is in our possession at the moment does not mean that it is our property — we are merely its stewards.
What Makes Something Our Property?
Perhaps you are asking, “What makes something our property? What makes a person the owner of something?” Three things — authorship, money, or inheritance. If you create something, it belongs to you by right. This is the basis of copyright law. If an artist or inventor creates something that did not exist before — a work of art or some other invention that had never existed — it becomes their property.
The other way to become the owner of something is by purchase. If you have bought something with money or through an exchange, then it becomes yours. But in order for it to remain yours, you must have the authority or the power to keep anyone from taking it away from you. For if someone steals it from you, you will lose it. On the other hand, in buying something you also receive the right to defend your property.
The third way to become the owner of something is to inherit it. If it belonged to a blood relative of yours, after that person’s death it passes to the heirs. If you are one of them, or if you are named in the will, it becomes yours.
The Unique Rights of the Owner
The owner of a thing has rights that a renter, or someone who has taken a thing on lease, does not have. The rights of the owner are unique. He not only has the right to defend his property, but he may also do whatever he wishes with what is his, as long as he does not violate the rights and property of others. The owner may use his property for its intended purpose or misuse it. He may sell it, exchange it, give it away, or abandon it. He may even destroy it if he wants to. No one can stop him, because the property is his own. This quality of the owner is called sovereignty — full and absolute dominion over the property. The owner owes no one an explanation for his actions over his own property.
The Idea of Private Property
We have things that we regard as ours. Perhaps because we made them, or bought them with money, or received them as an inheritance. But are we really their owners? And if we are not, then who is?
One idea that has existed through the centuries, but became especially prominent in the last century, is the idea of private property. The fundamental flaw of this idea is that it justifies the natural self-centeredness of man and brings much injustice into the world. At present a very small percentage of people own a very large percentage of the world’s resources and can do with them as they please, while the multitude owns almost nothing. According to the idea of “private property,” even if a person has the resources or goods with which he could meet the needs of others, no one can compel him to do so. According to this idea, the owner is sovereign, or untouchable, with respect to how he uses or distributes his goods.
The rich man who was unwilling to help poor Lazarus behaved as though he were the absolute owner of his estate (Luke 16:19-21).
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. (Luke 16:19-21)
You see, the rich man behaved as though everything he had were his “private property,” and he took no interest in the fact that he could have used it to feed the poor man and bind up his wounds.
The Idea of Common Ownership
Another view of ownership, besides the idea of “private property,” is that society should be the owner of everything. Some people show particular interest in this idea, because it seems to them emphatically Christian. They lean on Acts 2:44-47 and Acts 4:32. These verses say:
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:44-47)
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. (Acts 4:32)
Here we can find the utopian communist slogan, “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” These are ideal relationships. Unfortunately this harmony did not last long, and in the long run it later led to the extreme poverty of the Jerusalem church. It is important, however, to note that these verses of Scripture show us what the believers were doing in their initial zeal for God, in their love for Him and for one another, rather than teaching what Christ’s doctrine of ownership is in principle. There is no place in the New Testament that teaches that believers must begin to regard the church or the Christian community as the owner of all their material goods.
From personal experience we can say that the idea of common ownership does not work. For this was the idea of the socialist order, which the communist parties tried to impose in the former socialist countries. The people are the owner of everything. To this idea was added the idea of evolution — that we have not yet reached the perfect communist order, but a time will come when we will become so good that the maxim “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” will become reality, and the whole world will live happily in a higher order. All of this, however, proved to be nothing but a chimera, something that cannot be attained, and I see the reason for this in the sin, selfishness, and pride of fallen man.
The True Owner
Both private property and common ownership are ideas that lead to extremes. The Bible, however, reveals to us a third idea of ownership — God’s. The biblical idea of ownership stresses that the true owner is the one who has something without having received or acquired it from anywhere else. Only God meets such a requirement. Everything He has has not come from anywhere else. Everything He has has come from Himself. In Acts 17:24-25, in his sermon before the Areopagus, the apostle Paul says that God has need of nothing.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. (Acts 17:24-25)
King David says something similar in 1 Chronicles 29:14-16. Having given for the building of the temple a freewill offering of about a ton of gold of Ophir and more than two tons of silver, in addition to what was collected from the people, he says to God in his prayer:
14 “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. 15 We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. 16 Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. (1 Chronicles 29:14-16)
The only one in this world who has not received anything from anyone is God. And conversely, we human beings have nothing that we have not received. Everything we have is from God; everything comes “from His hand”; everything is His.
Think about it, and you will see that it truly is so. Is there anyone who was born clothed, or with a gold ring on his finger? Is there anyone who, when he departs from this world, can take anything with him? In 1 Timothy 6:6-8 the apostle Paul says:
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. (1 Timothy 6:6-8)
A little further down in the same chapter, in 1 Timothy 6:17-19, the apostle Paul reminds those who have greater material means that everything they have is not theirs, but God’s. In other words, they are not owners, but stewards of all their possessions.
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)
We brought nothing into the world, nor will we carry anything out of it. And this applies both to material things and to our abilities, gifts, and talents. In 1 Corinthians 4:6-7 the apostle Paul says to the Corinthians, who had begun to boast to one another about the abilities and giftedness of their leaders:
6 Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. 7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1 Corinthians 4:6-7)
Here the apostle Paul goes back a little to what he has already said about himself and Apollos, which is this (1 Corinthians 3:5-9):
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe — as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9)
The servants and leaders in the church have nothing that they have not received. One has the gift to plant, another has the gift to water, but both serve not according to what is theirs, but according to what God has given them. Moreover, “neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” And beyond that, the servants are not owners but stewards of the church, which is not theirs but God’s — “God’s field, God’s building.”
So then, no person has anything that he has not received, and God has nothing that He has received. He is the owner of everything. We are only stewards of what He has entrusted to us.
Look how, through the prophet Haggai, God says that all the gold and silver of the world belong to Him (Haggai 2:8):
8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. (Haggai 2:8)
In Psalm 50:10-12 God speaks to His people and says that we ourselves, the animals, and everything in this world belong to Him. This is so because He is the Creator and sustainer of all.
10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. 12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. (Psalm 50:10-12)
In Exodus 19:5 God says literally, “the whole earth is mine.” That the earth and everything in it is God’s property is also supported by Psalm 24:1-2:
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. (Psalm 24:1-2)
What Am I? An Owner or a Steward?
In the light of all these passages, how groundless and presumptuous the claims of individual persons or societies appear, that they are the owners of anything. It is important to understand that we are not the owners of what we possess. Even if we have created it, bought it, or inherited it, nothing that we have is ours, because we ourselves are not our own. Since we are God’s, everything we have is also God’s. God is the owner of everything that exists, because He created it. We are only stewards of what He has given us.
Perhaps you are wondering why I am telling you all these things about ownership. The aim is only one — to make you stop looking at yourselves as owners, and little by little to begin to look at yourselves as stewards. Understanding ownership is the foundation of stewardship. To be a steward and to begin to act as one, you must first realize that you are one. You must understand: “Who is your owner?” “For whom do you work?” “To whom will you have to give an account for your stewardship?” At the heart of understanding stewardship lies the idea that we are not the owners of what we have, but only stewards of what God has entrusted to us. As believers and servants we must have the understanding that we do not live and work for ourselves, but for the One who owns us, for the Master of our life and of everything we have.
It is important to understand that we are not owners but stewards, because if we truly grasp this truth of God, it will change not only our attitude toward material things and toward time, but also our values, indeed our whole worldview, our whole approach to life. It is helpful to ask ourselves often, “What am I? An owner or a steward? And if I am a steward, am I acting as one? Am I faithful?” For this is the most important quality of a steward — faithfulness.
May God help us to stop looking at ourselves as owners and to begin to look at ourselves as stewards. If we make this change, our life will change. And not only ours, but also the lives of the many people we will serve as stewards of what God has entrusted to us, whether it be material means, money, gifts, abilities, or talents. And all the glory for this will not be ours, but His who is the Owner of everything!