Tributes to Caesar and to God

When Jesus shut the mouths of the chief priests and the scribes by answering their questions out of His wisdom, they that very hour sought to lay hands on Him but they feared the people for they knew He had spoken the parables against them. Then they sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor (Luke 20:19-26). After eulogizing Jesus, they asked Him whether it was lawful for them to give tribute to Caesar or not. But Jesus perceived their craftiness and asked them to show Him a denarius. He then asked them to tell whose image and inscription it had. When they said, “Caesar’s”, He told them, “Render, therefore, unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s. With this answer, they were silenced.

Jesus marked the line of demarcation between the things of the king and the things of God. In our life, we are not very clear in mind about our duty to our nation and about our duty to God in the matter of payment of tributes. We blur the line of demarcation drawn by Jesus Himself.

As the law-abiding citizens, we have to pay our taxes to the governmental authorities. The account books of churches or Christian organizations should be transparent. It should not be fudged. But, at the same time, we should pay what is due to the Church. We pay to the governmental authorities out of fear. In case of default, the law will catch us. So, we pay our tributes to the government. But we falter to give to God when we receive appeals from churches or mission fields seeking financial support. Churches or mission fields have no sanction of law for enforcing payment of tributes to them. Under the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit exhorts us to pay our free-will offerings cheerfully and not grudgingly.

In the same manner we pay tributes to the Government, we have to pay tributes to God, but with a cheerful heart. Churches and Christian organizations need resources for proclaiming the glorious gospel. They cannot look to the millionaires of this world for financial support. Only the people of God have to give to God liberally and cheerfully. As we give to God’s ministers, we should not treat them as mendicants with begging bowls. They are the servants of the Most High. As per Heb.6: 10, God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you show toward His Name in that you minister to the saints. It is indeed a ministry to the saints. By ministering to them, you are showing your love toward God.

In this regard, I would like to testify to a dear servant of God in Nilgris, India who is not popular in the Christian world. My early days of Christian life were influenced by the life of this dear servant of God. Every year he visits the Himalayan countries at the risk of his life for preaching the glorious gospel, carrying and smuggling heavy bundles of Gospel literature into these countries where propagation of the gospel is prohibited. Many years ago, this dear servant of God after finishing his evangelical work in the Himalayan countries was on his way to the South India via Delhi. His train stopped at Delhi. At that time, the Holy Spirit led me to call on him in the Railway Station. Immediately, I went to the Railway Station and ministered to him by giving him some money. When I offered him money, he told me that since he had no money left with him, he had decided to travel in the train without taking any food, and to tell God “If it is Thy will that I should go hungry, I will do so”. For a number of years, he has been publishing a Tamil Monthly, which contains messages giving an account of his experiences in the evangelical field, similar to the Acts of Apostles. He has never bothered to build or establish his own magazine ministry, because he treats his magazine ministry only as a means to the Kingdom of God.

The widow’s mite

Many people asked me whether they could pay tithes under the New Testament. I told them that they could pay more than tithes and that since there was no Levitical priesthood under the New Covenant, they could pay free-will offerings with a cheerful heart to the ministers of God who preach the gospel as well as to the poor saints in their midst. We are under the covenant of grace and not under the Old Covenant.

The incident of the poor widow giving her two mites as recorded in the Luke's gospel is the best ensample for us to emulate.

In Jerusalem, Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. Jesus said that truly this poor widow put in more than all (Luke 21:1-4). When others put in their offerings for God out of their abundance, this poor widow put in the entire livelihood she had out of her penury.

Here is a poor widow who put in what she had with her. She had no more savings to fend for herself, having dropped her two mites into the treasury. Her name is not mentioned here. The Bible calls her “a certain poor widow”.

Let us note that this poor widow lived under the old dispensation of the Law of Moses. Christ had not yet died for her. The Holy Spirit was not given to her at that time. But still she loved the God under the old Covenant. Nor did she have the wonderful promises of reward or blessings in return for her two mites. She did not have any expectation of reward for her sacrificial offering. She left the place after dropping her two mites. We do not know where she had gone or how she lived the rest of her life.

The Bible also does not tell us how she was induced to make this great sacrifice. When I was a small boy, I had seen a picture of this poor widow with a baby in her hands, though the Bible does not specifically say so. If she had a baby in her widowhood, what made her give all she had to God without caring for her baby? Did she love God more than her baby under the Old Covenant? Dear reader, it is for you to answer.

What a surprise! A poor widow comes near the treasury and drops all her coins and then disappears and that too, without being watched by the priests of the temple! These days, when we give a few dollars to some servant of God, we go about telling the whole world.

It was only Jesus Who had seen the poor widow throw her two mites into the offertory. As we give to God secretly, the eyes of Jesus are on us. Let us give to God without expecting any reward from Him. Let us not heed the preachers of the so-called prosperity gospel. Let us imbibe the poor widow. Let us also be anonymous as “a certain poor widow”.

Let us examine ourselves today. Are we better than the poor widow? How much we have to give to God under the New Covenant now that Christ has died for us and that we have received the Holy Spirit?