Why Every Christian Has Dual CitizenshipSample

Christians pay taxes, but give all to God

During Jesus’ day, several groups of Jewish teachers were at constant war in their interpretations of the Bible, but they were united in their hatred of Jesus.

One day they approached Jesus to ask Him questions in public. The Bible writer Luke gives us their underlying motive: they hoped that “they might catch Him in something He said, so as to deliver Him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor” (Luke 20:20).

After patronizing Him with compliments, they spring their trap: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Matthew 22:17). Their grammar requires a yes or no answer. And either will serve its purpose.

They have pushed a very hot-button issue for the time. The “taxes” to which they refer was the poll-tax or “census” tax paid by all males over the age of fourteen and all females over the age of twelve. It was paid directly to the Emperor.

And it required the use of a coin that was despised by the Jewish populace. This was the denarius, a silver coin minted by the Emperor. It was the only Roman coin that claimed divine status for Caesar. On one side it pictured the head of Emperor Tiberius with the Latin inscription, “Tiberius Caesar son of the divine Augustus.”

In other words, the coin itself was considered idolatry. Forget for a second how Rome was using the taxes to subjugate people like the Jews; the very way the coin was minted seemed to violate one of the Ten Commandments.

If Jesus says that it is right to pay taxes to Caesar, the Jewish public will turn from Him in revolt, and His influence will be at an end.

If Jesus says that it is not right to pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus will be a traitor to Rome, and the authorities will arrest and execute Him.

Either way, the hands of these schemers will be clean, and they will be rid of their enemy.

Here is Jesus’ timeless, brilliant answer. He asks for a denarius and then asks them, “ “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” (v. 20).

They tell Him that it bears the image and inscription of Caesar.

Jesus replies, “Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (v. 21).

If taxes belong to the nation, pay them.

Now, whose likeness do we bear?

God’s.

Therefore, we give ourselves to God—give everything to God—while giving taxes to Caeser.

Give to each what is due, including taxes to your governing authorities.

Especially for those of us in prosperous nations, why is it difficult to part with our money when God has commanded us to give the government their taxes?

What does it reveal in our hearts when we know our money is God’s, yet we cling to it so tightly?