Give God what is God's

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

GIVE GOD WHAT IS GOD’S

Luke 20:20-26

20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" 23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 "Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?"  25 "Caesar's," they replied. He said to them, "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."  26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.

NIV

Although this was a setup to trap Jesus, his response gives us a truth that has to be explored. First, it is right to pay the governmental authority we live under the due amount owed to them, “Giving to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s”. Living in this country supplies us with benefits that can only be paid for by our taxes. However, what is owed in taxes is always based on a percentage. When it comes to owing God what is God’s, no percentage is acceptable. We are to give God all of what is due him, which is our “self”. There is nothing of ourselves that we can withhold from God. We cannot live our own lives, and include God, and church as a part of our lives. The whole of our being, the very core of who we are must be bent toward God, for we are his people, and He is our God. He has formed every fiber of our being, down to the last detail, our breath which gives us life. Without the breath of God that he put into Adam, and thus us, we would be inanimate objects, art sculptures to display on a shelf. However, God put his breath into us, making us in their image, displaying us to the world, his creation, the crowning glory of all he made. Therefore, we owe him everything, our whole undivided self. We are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual act of worship. We cannot do that based on a percentage of ourselves unless we consider one hundred a percentage of one hundred. Although we must concern ourselves about the percentage we owe Ceasar, let us be fully engaged in the amount we owe our Lord and Savior, our creator, the Lord God Almighty.