Giving God His Due

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

Mark 12:15b–17

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Jesus seems to reason that since the denarius bears Caesar’s image it belongs to Caesar. Caesar was the one who minted those coins, so the people ought to give back to him what belongs him…what he has a right to.*

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But then Jesus goes on to make a much bigger point. He not only says “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s” but also “and [give] to God what is God’s.” So, the bigger questions is this. Are you giving God His due?

You see, in the same way that the Roman coin bore the image of Caesar, you bear the image of God. You were made in His image, which means that you belong to Him. And going a step farther than that, we know that God is the Creator of all things. Which means that not only your body but your whole life and everything you own belongs to God and should be surrendered to Him.

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Are you living fully surrendered to God? If God were to tell you today to take something that belongs to you and give it to the church, or to missions, or to some needy person... would you do it? If God were to tell you to leave your job, leave your home and your friends and go to the mission field to reach one of the more than 3,000 people groups in the world today who have never heard the gospel, would you go? What if God told you to walk over to the next cubicle or the next farmer’s field or even to your next door neighbor and share the gospel with them, would you do it?

‌Are you giving God His due? Are you giving Him all the obedience you owe Him?

*Ross H. McLaren, “Mark,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1582.