In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. (1 Corinthians 4:2)
When we abdicate our management role in God’s kingdom and start acting like the owner, we bring a lot of challenges on ourselves. The kingdom agenda does not include our ownership.
If you have ever rented somewhere and then owned a home, you know the difference between being a manager and an owner. When you rent a home or an apartment, your landlord takes responsibility for most of the building’s upkeep because you don’t own it. But if you own the house, when the roof goes bad, you get to fix it. When the water heater goes out, you buy a new one. There are responsibilities that come with ownership.
That’s also true in life. If you want to be the owner of your life and live as though God has no say over you, He is going to respond, “You want to own your life? Okay, when it breaks down, you get to fix it.”
The great sin of the Bible is to live independently of God, to try to live as if God does not exist. Satan wants you to become like him—in rebellion against God. Satan wants you to stop thinking like a manager and start thinking like an owner. Yet God wants you to faithfully steward that which He has placed in your care by looking to Him as the owner of all.