Passionate Steward - 10th Anniversary Edition

72 THE PASSIONATE STEWARD
and charity—the love of God, and the love of neighbor:
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with
all your strength.’ The second [commandment] is
this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these
(Mk 12:30–31).
We give, and choose to give even at a cost to ourselves (which is to
say, sacrificially), not to receive a reward, but because it is the right
and loving thing to do.
Although we may rightly locate the obligation to good
stewardship in the Law of God, it is important to note that the biblical
treatment of stewardship is by no means limited to juridical or
legalistic imperatives to bring offerings, nor even to stories which
deal so directly with the use of one’s time, talent and treasure as to be
obviously on point. Scripture is rich and varied in its presentation of
philanthropy. Critical to the teaching of such stories is the idea of
choice. Take, for example, the story of the Good Samaritan:
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.
“Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit
eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in
the Law? What do you read there?” He answered:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
strength, and with all your mind; and your
neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You
have given the right answer; do this and you will
live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked
Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied,
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to
Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who
stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving