I was reading in Matthew the other night and I came across the famous story of Christ paying taxes. It goes like this. Some people come to Christ and ask "What thinkest thou? It is lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?"
Jesus answers, "Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money." They bring out a coin and he asks, "Whose is this image and superscription?"
When they answer that it is Caesar's he gives the moral, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things which are God's."
This got me thinking, what things do we need to render unto God. I came up with some ideas and then I had a thought. In this story the people are told to render unto Caesar the things which have Caesar's image ingraven on them. What bears God's image?
Genesis 1:26-27 says, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." So that which we should render unto unto God is ourself! I thought that was really cool.
1 comment:
Annilyn, this is an awesome insight! I think you've hit the concept right on. I love that God made us in His image, and we are like Him and can become even as He is. After reading your thoughts on this passage, this story seems to me a sweet reminder of the personal and loving nature of Heavenly Father and his relationship with me. We are his children; His to comfort, protect, and love. The juxtaposition with Caesar's taxes helps to emphasize this. We know that any efforts we make to give of ourselves to the Lord and His work can only benefit and enlarge us. We aren't sacrificing any more than we are able to, and it isn't to an unforgiving, wrathful and greedy God. We're serving our Father, and He will always repay us many time over.
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