Things that are God's

“ Whose is this image and superscription? 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. ”

Things that are Caesar's and things that are God's; things that are Uncle Sam's, things that I keep, things that I must save, things that I owe, things that I want, and… Oh yes, things that I'd like to give God. We have a lot of things, and there are many things we wish we could afford. We would like to be good stewards of God's blessings to us, but sometimes there's just too much month left at the end of the paycheck. Sometimes just when we get ends to meet, somebody moves the ends.

Money confuses us. Whole industries are created to ‘help' us manage it. Some of them manage to keep more of it than we get. Evidence that we Americans have no idea about money are the casinos that have sprung up everywhere. Playing with money as though it's a toy is like using food as sculpture without eating it, gaining diplomas without learning anything, or looking forward with eagerness at getting blind drunk. The misuse of material goods is clear evidence our culture has forgotten its sacred trust as stewards of God's world.

“God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Genesis 1:26 Dominion meant we were kings on this earth. Kings aren't drunken sots who ravage the land and kill the cattle for fun. Kings re-present God as His ambassadors, doing as He would do, showing the world who He is through who we are. The first thing such a king must understand is, whose world is this anyway?

Jesus was confronted by many who tried to trip Him up, make Him say things with which they could later accuse Him. They asked Him, “Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?” Matthew 22:17 Their idea of money was wrong. First, they were under a false impression that the nation of Israel was sovereign. Israel had not been independent or sovereign for over 600 years. The Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians and now the Romans had ruled them, exacting taxes for the maintenance of these governments. Before the Jews had lost their nation, God had spoken, indicating that He was in control of world events and that His people were simply going to live under these powers.

But paying tribute to Caesar rankled faithful Jews. The emperor considered himself divine and these taxes paid to him a form of worship, acknowledgment of his being a ‘god.' It stuck in their throats to pay taxes to Rome, and yet to refuse was to invite arrest. Just like today. In this conflict, the Jews felt it a sin to pay, but impossible to resist. They lay the problem before Jesus, knowing He had no answer to the conundrum.

Jesus understood money. He understood stewardship. These questions didn't daunt Him at all. “Show me the tribute money.” The evil image of Caesar was stamped on these coins, a clear violation of the second commandment, not to make graven images – especially for worship of them. Jesus held it aloft. “Whose is this image and superscription?” v20 They said it was Caesar's. So, whose coins are they? The image and the ownership: isn't it clear? You give Caesar back his little metal coins.

Today Caesar's Palace is a casino and the Roman legions are mafia men who legitimize crime through gambling halls throughout the country. If you want to play, you exchange cash for chips of that casino while you're there. You gamble with Caesar's money, then if you still have any when you leave, you cash it in for real money and reenter the real world.

The real world is not the emperor's coins nor casino chips. It also isn't dollars or drachmas or dinars, euros or yen. The value of a thing is not found on a balance sheet or a stock market report, a blue book or price tag. Those are the price you pay, but the real value, the very existence of this planet and all that is here is not found with dollar signs preceding it.

“Render unto God the things that are God's.” Matt 22:21 Which are the things that are God's? I find it interesting that in the original Greek, the world “thing” isn't necessary, isn't there. “Render unto Caesar Caesar's, and to God God's.” We add the implied word “thing” but we could say “whatever:” whatever belongs to Caesar, and whatever belongs to God. Now let's see what belongs to God.

Noah beached the ark and was given both plant and animal life for food. “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” Genesis 9:3 God gives what God owns. The life on this planet is His to give, and He gives it to us for our use, for our stewardship. King David sang, “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! … When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” Psalm 8:1-7 Made lower than angels, yet we have dominion of God's world. If He gives it to us, He owns it. When David says ‘all things' nothing is excluded. Solomon likewise acknowledged it, saying: “The Lord hath made all things for himself.” Proverbs 16:4 Isaiah reported : “Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.” Isaiah 44:24 St. John observed the relation that the Son of God had to creation, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John 1:1-3 If we understand that God made everything, made it for Himself, then we know what Jesus meant for us to give to God that which is God's. God doesn't make all things and leave them to us, to abandon the project and go elsewhere. This is His kingdom and He allows us to shepherd it for a bit. Our tending of His fields and flocks is a test of our character, a test we'll be graded on, by the way.

Jesus cited the futile way some people oriented themselves to worldly things. As a cure, He told them: “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:34-36 This world and its good are not ours. We use them by His permission. We must give them back to Him too.

How do you give to God what is His? Where is He that He can receive such tribute? Do you just throw the money up in the air, and like the old joke figure that if God needs any of it, he'll catch it before it falls back down? He has determined a way for us to show both our trust in Him and our faithful acknowledgment that it all belongs to Him. The tithe.

“Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.” Deut. 14:22 “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 3:10-12 Ten percent of our financial gains in any year is our tribute to God and He takes it as 100%, giving it all to Him. He leaves us with the remaining 90%, allowing us to shepherd that portion for Him, in His name. When you have and properly use God's money, it goes a long way. If you only give tribute to Uncle Sam, the Federal Reserve, or the IRS, then your money belongs to them. (They'll want more.) If you give all your tribute to Bank of America, the lottery, or Feather Falls casino, that's your god. In my experience, they don't pay good dividends. Whoever is in the White House, I know the money doesn't belong to him.

God doesn't have a picture we can put on the money, but it does bear a wonderful inscription. “In God We Trust.” America, though it forgets this often, has said a true thing written right on it's coins and bills: it isn't in ourselves, our armies, our shoreline defenses or Homeland Security that we feel secure. It is in God that we place our trust. It doesn't bear God's image, for He has no image or likeness except that found in man, one man, the Son of Man:

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” Col. 1:15-20

The world, the entire universe belongs to Him. All things belong to our God, the incarnate Christ. This ownership will never end. “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” Rev. 21:6-7

We show this year after year by placing our pledge for the coming year in an envelope and bringing it into God's church. The tithe is the biblical standard, the way we show we trust Him, and how we acknowledge that all we have belongs to Him. He has promised us to pour out a blessing when we do this. We render to Costco, American Express, Visa and Mastercard whatever they bill us, for we shepherd our resources through the things that are here. Money is just a way of measuring value. But before those bills are paid, we should always render unto God the things that are God's, and then all things are ours.

PFH+