Matthew 22:15-22

^"15Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. ¹⁶They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. ¹⁷Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

¹⁸But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, ²⁰and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"

²¹"Caesar's," they replied.
Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

²²When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away."

Okay, lets look at the obviously most viewed portion of this passage in terms of sermons and commentaries. "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." Here Jesus was in a bind. If he said it was unlawful (according to the Jewish law) to pay taxes to Caesar then he could be arrested and even killed for being a revolutionary against the Roman rule. If he took the other stance that it was okay to pay taxes to Caesar he risked losing many of his Jewish followers because he would be taking a soft stance on the "evil" Roman rule and that he never had any intention of overcoming them. It would be like going into a big conservative rally in a red state and saying its okay to fund terrorists, except maybe even worse because the Jews (for the most part) hated the Roman rule.

Jesus came up with the perfect answer, "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." If your a politician, that is how you both dodge a question, but also answer the question! Not exactly the yes or no answer the Pharisees were looking for, but it was the right answer. So what exactly does it mean? The most common part that is examined is the "give unto Caesar" part. The meaning that is drawn from this is that it is good to pay taxes (regardless of... uh.... how much you may disagree with the system), and that we should all be good citizens, and that most of all, what is earthly is earthly, and we cannot put too much stock in it. In the end, God put Caesar in the position that he was in, and God put the leaders we have today in the positions they are in today. God gave us all the possessions that we are responsible for caring for, and he expects us to use them in certain ways, including the paying of taxes, and the giving of offerings back to God, which leads me to the final portion of this post....

Many times when looking at this passage, and the answer that Jesus give, the portion of "give unto God what is God's" is completely overlooked. As important as it is to give to Caesar what is his, it is even more important for us to give God what is God's! I submit to you for discussion that most of the time we do not give to God what is His. We seem to do the esseentials like paying taxes and obeying laws in terms of doing our earthly citizen duties (and praise God for those doing above and beyond and helping others to be good stewards and citizens too), but how often do we even do the basics in giving to God? I think everyone, including and especially myself fail miserably in this.

What exactly would be considered giving to God what is God's? In my opinion, and I welcome and agreements or disagreements on this, it would be giving offerings (monetary, time, talents, heart, mind, and soul) back to God since he gave all of those to begin with. I think its also giving him our worship, our praise, and obeying his commands. What do you think?