The Gift of Power

Stewardship is the practice of living as entrusted ones: receiving, cultivating, and returning all of life to God in love.

Every blessing is a divine .

Popular Perspectives on Power:

• “Power is , it must be .”
  

• “Power is , it must be .”
  
  
  

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” —Lord Acton, 1887

Ephesians 2:10 NLT
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Scripture Reveals—

1. Power is a it must be .

Genesis 1:1-27 NIV
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. ³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ¹¹ Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so… ¹² The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good… ²⁰ And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” ²¹ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth…” ²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground…” ²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

“Let there be…”

Power is our God-given to make of the world.

Acts 1:8 NIV
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

Jesus people don’t power, we and steward it.

Question for Reflection:
What are the areas God has entrusted me with influence?

“In the Biblical narrative, power is held only as a gift and free grant from Yahweh. Outside that free grant of Yahweh, the king has no claim or power, either in Israel or in Babylon.” –Walter Brueggemann, Power, Providence, & Personality

2. Power is for the Purpose of .

Genesis 1:28 NIV
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

When it is rightly used, power makes possible most of what makes us truly human. When it is misused, it puts all of us at tremendous risk. Like Narnia’s Aslan, it is never safe, even when it is good. Unlike Aslan, it is not always good.” –Andy Crouch, Playing God

Question for Reflection:
What’s one thing I can do this week to multiply someone else’s agency?

3. Power is Corrupted by and .

Philippians 2:3-4 NIV
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Selfish Ambition — ἐριθεία (eritheia)
“To stir up rivalry or division to get ahead.”

Vain Conceit — κενοδοξία (kenodoxia)
“Empty glory.”

“What makes the temptation to abuse power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people.” –Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus

Philippians 2:6-8 ESV
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Question For Reflection:
Where in my life am I using power to control instead of to create space for others to flourish?

4. Power is Redeemed by .

Philippians 2:9-11 NIV
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus demonstrated a power:

– Rooted in , not fear.
– Expressed with , not force.
– Demonstrated by , not control.
– Multiplied through , not accumulation.

“The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross. For those who have heard the voice of the first love and said, ‘yes’ to it, the downward-moving way of Jesus is the way to the joy and the peace of God.” –Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus

Question for Reflection—
In what conversation or relationship with a power dynamic is Jesus calling me to go low and love well?

Answer Key: entrustment; survival, seized; corruption, shunned; gift, stewarded; capacity, something; seize, receive; flourishing; idols, injustice; Immanuel; love, humility, service, generosity