"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." (Psalm 24:1)
This is not a statement about religious property. It is an ontological claim about reality. Everything that exists belongs to God because everything that exists was made by God, and making something does not transfer ownership from Creator to creature.
Christians affirm this in principle. But practical Christian engagement with technology rarely proceeds from it. The conversation about AI tends to default quickly to pragmatics: what can it do, how much does it cost, is it safe for my kids. The prior question gets skipped: if God owns this, what does that mean for how I hold it?
Ownership Is Not Possession
There is a distinction worth making carefully. To say that God owns all things is not to say that human beings have no legitimate authority over anything. The creation mandate of Genesis 1:28 grants humans real dominion. The stewardship model in Genesis 2:15 gives humans genuine responsibility. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 assumes that servants are entrusted with resources and are expected to do something with them.
But stewardship is different from ownership. A steward manages on behalf of an owner. The resources are not the steward's to dispose of however they choose. They are held in trust, to be used according to the purposes of the one who actually owns them, and returned with an accounting.
This reframes the question of technology entirely. The question is not "what can I do with this tool?" The question is: "what would the Owner have me do with this tool, and how would the Owner want me to account for it?"
What God's Ownership Means for Users
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Paul says this about eating and drinking, activities that seem far too ordinary to require theological justification. His point is that no activity falls outside the scope of that question. Using a phone, a laptop, or an AI assistant is no exception.
Some uses of AI are straightforwardly compatible with that standard:
- Researching a topic or understanding a complex subject
- Drafting a first pass at a document you will then edit seriously
- Finding study resources and original-language tools
Other uses are harder to justify:
- Generating content you will pass off as your own work
- Using AI to avoid the kind of effort that would have grown you
- Consuming AI-generated media in ways that displace genuine human connection or genuine encounter with God
These are not automatically sinful, but they are worth examining against the ownership question: if the Owner of everything were watching how you are using this, would you be comfortable with the accounting?
What God's Ownership Means for Companies
The companies building and deploying AI systems are also stewards. Many do not acknowledge this, but it is still true:
- They do not own the intelligence they harness
- They do not own the creativity of the billions of people whose writing trained their systems
- They do not own the future of the societies their technology will shape
They are holding power that belongs to the one Psalm 24 describes, and they will give an account.
Christians who work in these companies are not absolved from the ownership question because they are employees rather than founders. The parable of the talents does not excuse the servants from moral responsibility by pointing to the master. Stewardship is personal. The Christian engineer, product manager, or executive at an AI company is accountable for their piece of what is being built, because the Owner of everything is not impressed by organizational charts.
What God's Ownership Means for Citizens
Technology policy is stewardship policy. When democratic societies decide:
- How to regulate AI
- What limits to set on data collection
- What accountability structures to impose on powerful systems
- What protections to afford to vulnerable people
...they are making decisions about how the earth's resources will be managed.
Christians have a role to play in those conversations, not just as voters or activists, but as people who bring a distinctive framework to the table. The framework is this: the technology is not ours to do with as we please. It is held in trust. The purposes for which it should be used are not determined by profit margin or competitive advantage but by the question of what a just and loving God would want done with such powerful tools.
That framework does not resolve every policy question. But it does rule out the most common failure modes: treating AI as something humanity has the right to develop without constraint, and treating profit as the only relevant consideration in how it is deployed.
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Read this week’s issueRecentering on the Owner
There is something freeing about Psalm 24:1. If the earth is the Lord's, then the technology industry is not destiny. The AI companies that feel all-powerful are holding something that does not ultimately belong to them. The problems that feel intractable are within the jurisdiction of someone who has the actual authority to address them. The future of this technology is not determined by whoever controls the most compute.
That is not an excuse for passivity. Christians who use Psalm 24 to detach from responsibility are misreading it. The psalm's point is not that you can ignore what happens because God will sort it out. The point is that you do not need to be afraid of the powers that seem overwhelming, because the Owner of everything is not anxious about them.
Stewardship requires engagement. Knowing who the Owner is makes it possible to engage without despair.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Psalm 24:1 mean that private ownership of technology is wrong?
No. The psalm is making an ontological point about ultimate ownership, not a policy statement about property rights. God's ultimate ownership is compatible with human stewardship, which includes legitimate possession and use of things. The practical implication is not that no one can own anything but that every owner is actually a steward accountable to a higher owner.
How does the stewardship framework change how I should use AI day to day?
It adds the accountability question to ordinary decisions. Before using a tool or creating content with AI, ask: would I be comfortable telling God exactly how I used this? That question does not prohibit AI use. It shapes it, ruling out uses that are dishonest, lazy, harmful, or oriented around self-glorification rather than genuine service.
Are AI companies doing something wrong by claiming to own their models?
AI companies have legal intellectual property rights to the systems they build. The stewardship claim is not that those rights are illegitimate but that they are not ultimate. A company that exercises those rights in ways that harm people, concentrate power irresponsibly, or deceive users is answerable to a higher authority than their investors, regardless of what they believe about it.
What does responsible AI stewardship look like for a Christian employee at a tech company?
Doing your part of the work with integrity. Raising concerns when systems you help build will harm vulnerable people. Refusing to participate in deceptive design or manipulative features. Looking for ways your specific role can be exercised with the care that stewardship requires. And acknowledging, privately if not publicly, that the work is done before an audience that includes the one to whom all things ultimately belong.
How should I pray about AI and technology?
For wisdom to use tools well. For protection of vulnerable people against harmful applications. For the people building these systems, that they would exercise their power with accountability and care. And for the church, that it would engage with technology thoughtfully rather than reflexively, neither afraid of what is genuinely useful nor naive about what is genuinely dangerous.
