What are the things that are God’s? Have you thought about what you need to render unto Him?
He said to them, Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. (Luke 20:25)
At face value, Jesus is talking about money: this is His response to a question about paying tribute taxes to the Caesar. But when you look closely at the passage, you realize that Jesus isn’t simply talking about taxes. In essence, we see Jesus differentiating between two oft-conflicting priorities in our lives: God and everything else. He is talking about having the necessary devotion to the right things at the right times. There is an underlying idea pervading throughout the hearts of the chief priests and scribes, that God would want what the world wants. However, Jesus makes it clear that God doesn’t want what the world wants. In fact, God and the world want very different things from you but it’s not impossible to balance the two. Jesus knows that it’s a hard task, this balancing of devotion to God while living life in the secular world. If this means that you have to work harder to make ends meet while doing the work of God’s kingdom, that’s okay. If this means taking on more burdens to have the energy to simultaneously fulfill what God wants from you and carry out your obligations to the world, that is also okay. I will be the first person to admit that it’s a tenuous balance to strike. It is a lie, however, to say that selling yourself out to God will end all tribulations and hardships you face in life. The truth of the matter is that giving yourself wholly to God for His purpose, will free you to take care of the worldly things that you need to take care of. Likewise, if we give the world the things it demands (i.e. pay bills, eat, get jobs done, take care of dependents, etc), then we can give to God our heart, mind, soul and our life’s calling to follow him because we won’t have to worry about Caesar. Give the world what it needs from you (so that you can inhabit this world), but it’s time to realize that God wants, from you, what belongs to Him as well. Let’s pray to ask God to help us find balance.
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