*Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

The Christian understanding of property, both Catholic and Protestant, starts from the understanding that God is the owner of everything. God appoints humanity to be God’s stewards: This is simply the act of being responsible before God for the management of God’s goods. Today, the entire discourse on stewardship has been reduced to the care of the environment. This is important because of the damage that we are doing to nature.

But then, on the other hand, we need to remind ourselves that the steward’s duty is to meet the needs of others. The movement from God as owner to the obligation to use one’s goods for the benefit of others springs from the double commandment “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself” (Luke 10:27). It is through love of one’s neighbour that one expresses, gives body to, one’s love of God.

Now imagine Tolu refraining from loving Imaobong only because they belong to different churches?

Imagine Victor saying hurtful things and mocking the faith of Amina.

If God expects us to be stewards of creation, are we not therefore required to exercise  this stewardship first in our being responsible for one another, in our loving one another no matter how different we think we are from each other?

Your guess is as good as mine.

But why?