Ownership is all over the Bible narrative. Abram took his possessions when he left Haran (Genesis 12:5) and by the time he left Egypt he was “ very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold” (Genesis 13:2). Before it was all over he acquired the name Abraham (Genesis 17:5) and ended up leaving everything to his son Isaac (Genesis 25:5) who increased the value of the estate to such an extent that, fearing his power, the Philistines expelled him (Genesis 26:13-16).

A generation later, under suspicious circumstances, Isaac’s son Jacob fled to Haran with nothing but a walking stick and then spent the next 20 years amassing a considerable fortune (Genesis 30:43), all of it portable.

Jacob’s son Joseph—through an uncanny sequence of events—became the most powerful man in Egypt (Genesis 45:4-9) with all the wealth you would expect to accompany such a position.

The notion of ownership is confirmed in the Eighth Commandment: “You shall not steal,” and the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet…anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20). Ownership is assumed throughout the Law of Moses concerning judgments, redemptions, inheritance and giving.

Job’s holdings and abundant goodwill made him “the greatest man among all the people of the East” (Job 1:3).

Solomon owned more property than you can shake a stick at and his writings explore the pinnacles and pits of ownership.

The New Testament picks up the thread in Jesus’ parables, more than few of which take the form of stories about people and their possessions. Greed is an identifiable evil in these stories just as it is in the ancient Law, but ownership is not at issue. Jesus speaks of those who accumulate wealth, expand their farms, build vineyards, hire managers and entrust their wealth to be invested by others. He encourages generosity in giving, using personal resources to help others, and employing wealth for eternal purposes.

And so it goes with the New Testament writers. Take Acts 4 where the believers “shared everything they had” (verse 32) and “from time to time those who owned lands or house sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet. And it was distributed to anyone as he had need” (verses 34,35). Even here private ownership is respected: the sale of property and distribution of the proceeds are voluntary. Joseph owns the field he sells (verses 36,37). When Ananias gets upside down at the beginning of Acts 5 the problem is not property but pretense. Peter chides Ananias for his lie: “Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?”(verse 4).

I have encountered two objections to individual ownership. One is from Christians who believe communal rather than individual ownership is preferable, supporting their conviction with a reading of Acts 4:32 that suggests everyone with property gave it up as they came into the community. That reading is difficult to support in light of what happens next in the passage and is, I think, a tough sell.

The other objection comes from Christians who prefer to say: “God owns everything. I am only a steward.” I admit there is a tone of humility and a thread of Biblical narrative to support that notion—though the most prominent story of a steward/manager per se features a man most of us would rather not have minding the store (Luke 16). In the end I affirm that “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1), which is all the more reason God may transfer title to certain property as he pleases. This, I believe, is precisely what God has done.

God treats us as sons and daughters, sharing in the inheritance of Christ, entrusted with the privileges and responsibilities of ownership—to manage not merely consume our assets, to cheerfully practice kindness and generosity, to spend our income doing good and helping the weak (Acts 20:33-35).

I believe one reason God established individual property ownership was to make generosity possible for us. The very nature of giving requires ownership since it’s not possible to give something you don’t own. The Apostle Paul challenges the Christians in Corinth to “excel in this grace of giving” (2 Corinthians 8:7). If you ask me, I say excellent giving reflects God’s nature as surely as excellent work.