Do you honor God with the things that bear His image? Mark 11-12

Mark 12:13-17 (NASBStr)

 Then they *sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. They *came and *said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll- tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.” They brought one. And He *said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And Jesus said to them, “ Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were amazed at Him.

The religious leaders of the day spent most of their day, during Jesus' walk on the earth, trying to figure out how to trap Him rather than how to follow Him.  In the above passage we have an example of such an attempt.   Thinking they could get Jesus to say something about the government they would be able to bring Him up on charges, as well as possibly turn the hearts of the people against Him.   However, trying to trap Jesus, the Son of God, isn't possible.   His response to them shows He respected the government system ... He did, after all, ordain it.   The question might be asked, however, did these religious leaders catch His teaching in the midst of defending His relationship with the current regime?   Notice that Jesus asks them the "image" on the coin.   Using that phrase we should be shot back to Genesis 1:27 where Moses told us we are all creating in the image of God.   As Jesus tells them to honor Caesar with something that has his image stamped on it, He is also telling them to honor God with something that His image stamped on it.   Since we are "stamped" in the image of God we are to honor God with our body and lives.   We are not here to live for ourselves, but for Him.  We do not own our bodies, they belong to Him.    We are not to think of our lives as something we have control over and that we are put here for personal comfort or enjoyment.  It is true that God wants us, and, indeed, enables us to have enjoyment.  But, that is not the point of our lives.  We have been made in the image of God and that stamp not only sets us apart from every other creature in God's creative world, it obligates us to live for Him and like Him.   So, when Jesus says render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, He is not just talking about taxes.   He is telling us (and the religious leaders of the day) to honor God with the things that bear His image.