“The Christian life does not consist in going to church and keeping the commandments, and so getting to heaven because of faithfulness to certain forms; it means that “life is a trust, a stewardship.” That was our Lord’s idea of being faithful, an idea we have pitifully narrowed. He did not talk of being faithful to creed or commandment, but of being faithful to what has been committed to us. Life is not a probation which ends in reward or punishment in another world; it is a power and a possession which we are to use. God has made us working partners in his plan for the world. The New Testament word is “Stewardship.” The modern word would be “partnership” or “trusteeship.”
Stewardship has many sides. There Is the stewardship of time, which demands that one’s time be so used that it shall count most for God’s great end. The stewardship of business requires justice and love for men in the shop and on the street; it asks how we are making our money. The stewardship of money also concerns the spending of money. In the Christian use of money, the fundamental fact is not tithing but stewardship.”
E.W. Mathews in Woman’s Home Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Volumes 37-38, February 1920, 49.