Your First Job

by Don Linscott

Do you remember your first job? While first jobs are usually menial in nature and meager in pay, they are memorable and often for good reasons. My first "real" job was washing new and old cars at a car dealership. It was also my responsibility every morning to start each used car, to ensure it was in working order for potential customers. This was a great job for a teenage boy.

Have you ever thought about the first job the Creator gave to the "created?" It was stewardship. God put Adam in the Garden of Eden and said, "Take care of it." However, within that simple command are overwhelming implications.

It's interesting to realize we were stewards before we were sinners. Our responsibility as stewards is not part of the fallen condition of humankind. It is separate from the fall and the curse. Stewardship was, and continues to be part of a pure and undefiled relationship we have with our Creator.

We can trace stewardship back to the garden and reclaim it as part of our original condition. Therefore, it is much more significant than the way the church pays its bills or supports its work. Representing stewardship as anything less than a high honor and a holy calling is a disservice to contemporary stewards.

The "Lifestyle Stewardship Bible Study Series," published by The Genesis Group, makes a few other observations about the first job given to us by God. Notice the great freedom and flexibility given to Adam in carrying out his first job. God did not give a long list of do's and don'ts. God simply said, "Take care of it."

The same message is reflected in the Parable of the Talents recorded in Matthew 25. Three stewards were entrusted with varying measures of the Master's wealth. Just before leaving, the Master presented one steward with $5,000, another with $2,000, and the other with $1,000. The Master gave no instructions. The story concludes with the Master's return and blessing on two stewards who had been productive with the Master's wealth. The third steward was condemned because he made no serious attempt to use the Master's wealth. Since stewardship for the unworthy steward was not an important matter, he neglected his "first job."

Also worthy of notice in the Genesis account of Adam's stewardship is that the first family's practice of stewardship was not intended to limit their personal resources but to increase them. Their needs were being abundantly met.

God has provided abundantly for the needs of the human community. Shortages occur because of human greed, selfishness, and misappropriation but not because the Garden is not sufficient.

In summary, ownership of the Garden was never in dispute. God has retained ownership of all He created. Like the three stewards of Matthew 25, we work in a world in which the Master is currently absent. But, the Master will return and the question will be asked, "What in the world did you do with the resources I left in your possession?"