The Things That Are God's

Have you ever been trapped? No, I’m not talking about stepping in a trap for wild animals; rather, I’m talking about being trapped by someone in a conversation. Sometimes people can try to trap us into saying something. We know by reading the Scriptures that there were many times that the Jews tried to trap Jesus into saying something that they might use against Him. One of these passages is found in Mark 12:13-17.

In order to trap Jesus, the Pharisees and Herodians wanted Jesus to answer whether or not it was lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar. Jesus answered their hypocritical motives by asking them why they were testing Him, and then He proceeds to have them bring him a denarius. Upon asking whose image is on the coin, they reply Caesar. Jesus then answers by saying “’Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s’” (17).

For years I thought Jesus was referring to money, in that we pay the government and we give as we’ve been prospered to God. However, in a conversation with Chris Lockhart he talked about how we are made in God’s image. Ever since then I have looked at this passage with the interpretation that it is our lives that Jesus was talking about rendering to God.

Paul says: “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1). He also says to the Corinthian church: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

While obeying the authorities is important (Rom. 13:1-7), we need to remember that rendering our lives to God is even more important. When is the last time you contemplated that you were made in the image of God? If we are made in his image, how should that impact the way we live our lives? I hope you think of this the next time you look at a coin with someone’s image on it.