Render To Caesar, Render To God

Matthew 22:19-20 (NKJV)

"Show Me the tax money.”

So they brought Him a denarius.

And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

The passage is about the image.

In Pentecostal and charismatic circles, it would be taught that money was the issue. That we pay tithes because 10% belongs to God.

In Malachi 3:10, the passage was given to Jews, not to the church. Jesus never commanded that the church pay 10%. Now if you choose to "tithe," that's your business, but to be commanded to tithe is not a NT command given by the Lord to the church. When it comes to giving offerings, believer give with a willing and cheerful heart, not out of compulsion or manipulation because the NT giving of money is governed by 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9.

So the egregious and erroneous charismatic teaching is to render to God His money but I submit to you for serious consideration that it's about the image of God.

The Lord Jesus mentioned image so it only makes sense to continue the thought.

Man was made in the image of God so we're to render to the Lord what is His.

Caesar put his image on the coin and demand to be paid taxes.

God put His image on you and I and He demands to be paid.

Genesis 1:26-27 (NKJV) "Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

Consider the following Scriptures.

Psalms 24:1 (NKJV)

"The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness,

The world and those who dwell therein."

Psalms 100:3 (NKJV)

"Know that the LORD, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves..."

Job 41:11 (NKJV)

"Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him?

Everything under heaven is Mine."

1 Chronicles 29:13-14 (NKJV)

“Now therefore, our God,

We thank You

And praise Your glorious name.

But who am I, and who are my people,

That we should be able to offer so willingly as this?

For all things come from You,

And of Your own we have given You."

Everything belongs to the Lord. So when it comes to rendering the things that belong to God, the image and inscription of God is man, made in the image of God. Not just money.

So it begs to ask the question.

Since "Caesar" is paid taxes, what do we offer to God?

Romans 12:1 (NKJV) "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

Finally, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV) "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s."

When we're born again, we are to "...be conformed into His image" (see Romans 8:29).

Thus, we praise the glory of His grace.

Ephesians 1:3-6 (NKJV) "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved."