Context for Matthew 17:14-27
One of the oldest distinctions in the Bible is the distinction between the sons of men and the Sons of God. This distinction is important because it defines the difference between those who live by faith and those who live by the way of the world. This distinction separates those who are destined for Heaven and those who are not.
Jesus draws a sharp criticism for the Pharisees who demanded to know why Jesus was not paying their tax. In doing so, Jesus points out that those who are considered sons of the Kingdom are not required to pay the taxes levied on those who are not sons. So if Jesus, the Son of God and King of Heaven, paid the temple tax, then what does that make those who are of the temple?
The point of faith is not to conform ourselves to a set of moral dictates in hope of fulfilling some checklist of works, but rather to conform ourselves to God’s righteousness which is very clear: Love Him with everything we are and have and love our neighbors as ourselves.
In conforming to righteousness through faith, we become God’s children, exempted from the tax of Heaven, paid by either perfection or death unless one has faith. The purpose of our actions, then, is to further the Kingdom of which we are children rather than to gain admittance to it by those actions. This distinction separates us from those of the world, be they of the temple or elsewhere.
