June 10, 2018 MATTHEW CHAPTER 22
Caesar had stamped his image on metal coins as a proof of his ownership and authority. Jesus says, if he thinks these coins are his give them back to him. Jesus then makes the amazing claim that all humanity is stamped with the image of God and is under His authority and ownership.
When we, "give back to God what is God's", we are really living out the command Jesus gives later in verses 37 and 38.
Are we actually giving to God what is God's?
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is what God asks from us. Our love. He knows that we can't do it perfectly, because we are human. We mess up, we make mistakes, we do things wrong, all the time. But He doesn't ask us for what He knows we can't give. He doesn't ask us for perfection. He asks us for our best. To love Him with all of our heart. He wants us to put Him first in our hearts, above everything else in this world, He should be first. To love Him with all of our mind. Sometimes all of the ways of this world and what it offers creep into our minds and we start to think more about things that really don't matter. When we stop thinking about Jesus, sometimes we forget what actually matters in this life because we're too busy looking for what doesn't. To love Him with all of our soul is to love Him with all that we are. Without Him, we are nothing. He is the One who breathes life into us, who gives us every breath we take and leads us in every step of the way! When we see that, we should have that desire to serve Him and love Him, and that love will overflow into the lives of those around us! That is the life that we are called to live, and the love that we are called to overflow
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