Tax Time

 

Good day, I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

Mt 22:15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. 16 And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. 17 "Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" 18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19 "Show Me the tax money." So they brought Him a denarius. 20 And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" 21 They said to Him, "Caesar's." And He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." 22 When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

 

It's tax time in the good old USA. We have until April 15^th to get our taxes done! It’s that time of the year when the integrity of Christians is put to the test. We are tempted to overstate our deductions or not report that cash income, I mean everyone else is doing it right?

 

The Bible has a word for such activity….it’s called lying!

 

In our text today Jesus tells us plainly to render unto the government what they ask. This truth is further highlighted in  Ro 13:7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor

 

Now, I’m not in charge of monitoring your tax returns, but I want to zero in on something even more important from our text today, and it concerns images. The image of Caesar was imprinted on that coin and Jesus said render it unto Caesar as is required.

 

May I ask you, whose image is stamped upon you? The answer is simple, we are all created in the image of God. (Gen 1:27) Therefore we are required to render ourselves unto God.  “Render unto Caesar what is Caesers and unto God that which is God’s.

 

Have you surrendered your life to Christ? A soul rendered to God has nothing to fear when it comes to doing taxes.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.