Jerry Wear: Act of Worship

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Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch Him in His words. They came to Him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 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.” They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at Him. Mark 12:13-17

“I am reading articles about impending tax reform. Some are saying the proposed reforms will reduce charitable giving by upwards of $20 billion dollars because there will be reduced tax benefits. This may be true for people looking only for some tax relief or giving for reasons other than sharing their blessings and giving back to God a portion of that which He has provided. But this is not true of those who understand that we are stewards of the Living God, the Almighty Creator, and the Savior of our eternal souls. A steward gives first and foremost as an act of worship to the One who has done so much and given so much to us…I am grateful for the tax benefits afforded to us for giving to worthy ministry, but I believe that what drives most Christians to give is love — love of God, the unsaved, the widows, and the poor. If we give as God instructs, we are not driven by tax brackets. Rather, we are compelled to please our Heavenly Father…”

Jerry Wear in “Stewardship Has No Tax Bracket” on the Cru Foundation blog posted in December 2017.

With Christmas in the rear view mirror and the end of the year fast approaching, many people in the USA are thinking about making charitable gifts to receive tax benefits. With my first degree in accounting, I am all about understanding the tax code to maximize charitable giving, but tax ramifications should not guide our giving, worship should!

If we revisit the words of Jesus when interrogated by the Pharisees and Herodians about paying taxes, we find that His punchline tells us what to do with all that God provides: pay taxes and return the rest to God. That’s how Christ wants us to show the world the God we serve. We show our faith through sacrificial giving toward things that matter to God.

As Wear summarizes, we worship God by putting to work the money He has entrusted to us to share the gospel of Christ with the lost, to minister to widows, and to care for the poor. For more on this topic in this season of tax reform, check out a blog I wrote for Christian Leadership Alliance called “Charitable Giving” that posted on 6 December 2017.