18 “But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? 19 Show me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. 20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? 21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. Matthew 22:18-20 KJV
In the scripture quoted from Matthew, the religious leaders were trying to trick Jesus into error. They were asking if they should be paying taxes (tribute) to the Roman government. Jesus never answered the question directly, but taught them a Kingdom of God principle. That same principle is true today.
We are not talking about paying taxes to the government. What Jesus was saying was that all people are God’s creation. To Him, we are the most important part of His creation. Everything else in this world is secondary. God is interested in us individually and very personally. All of our requirements or needs for our existence will be provided for when we get our priorities in order. Scripture tells us to not worry about anything, we will have our needs met if we seek and trust God above everything else, Matthew 6:33.
The proper order is putting God first in every aspect of our lives. We need to esteem God more than anything else. We need to hold Him higher than any of our possessions and every other person including ourselves (Luke 14:26). He is asking us to render unto God what is His, our lives. Without God we would not be alive. He gave us our breath and it is because of Him that we exist.
Romans 12:1 tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice which is our reasonable service. Choices we make of what we do, what we focus our attention upon, what we feed into our minds through social media, television, publications, and movies reveals who and what we esteem as most important in our lives. Do we esteem our own entertainment above spending time with God and learning more about Him so that we may know Him? Do we make decisions to serve ourselves instead of serving someone else when God has shown us they have a need that we can help fulfill? Are we listening for God’s direction to share the love of Jesus to people through our words and actions? Or, is it just too difficult to give up our entertainment, video game, social media, golf game, warm comfortable home time, privacy, or anything else to sacrifice ourselves in service to others? If any of these things are true then we are not a living sacrifice. We are not rendering to God what is God’s, us!
Do not feel condemned for there is no condemnation for those in Christ, Romans 8:1. We are already forgiven, but change. This change in the way we think is called repentance. Yes, let’s repent and change. God’s love and grace for us is based upon the finished work of the cross and not our actions. Yet our actions should be an indication of our love for Him, an appreciation of all He has done for us by suffering a terrible death on the cross.
Talk to God and listen to what He has to say through prayer and reading the bible. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to teach us as we pray and read His word. God is speaking to us, we just have to listen. Then be a living sacrifice and act upon what is heard. Render to God what is God’s as an act of love for Him. For when you do it for the least of these, you do it unto Jesus.
Go share some love, and be salt and light to the people around you. Freely you have received, freely give.
