Giving back to God and Bearing His Image

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This is a series of reflections that I sent to my fiancee from my own Bible readings. I have posted them in this blog so that it is easier to keep track for future reflections. 

Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” - Mk 12:14–17.

Jesus, when asked about paying taxes by the hypocrites, answered that we need to give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what belongs to God. This sprung from the reply that the coin bears Caesar’s image. Think a bit further with me, what is the one thing that bears the image of God? Us! Mankind! And the implication behind this is that we ought to give back to God what is God’s - the giving of ourselves back to God for we bear His image.

What does it really mean? What does it really entail? I start from what it means to have the image of God? People have said that it means having certain individual characteristics such as free will, creativity, thinking and cognizance capability etc. But then, I recently learned in my class that this may be inadequate as this excludes some people such as those who have mental disability and cannot display these characteristics. Perhaps taking the que from Genesis 1-3, one key aspect of bearing the image of God means that we are able to have a relationship with God in a manner like none other creations can have. We can relate to God in a manner that reflects how the persons in the Trinity relate with one another.

Then coming back to giving back to God what belongs to God, could it be that we need to give back to God what is due to Him, namely the relationship that He so desires with us, that He was willing to send His only Son to die for - that we may have peace with Him? How then can we manifest this relationship practically? I am still pondering about this.

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