{"id":1251,"date":"2014-04-10T01:23:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T01:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/2014\/04\/10\/render-unto-caesar\/"},"modified":"2014-04-10T01:23:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T01:23:00","slug":"render-unto-caesar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/render-unto-caesar\/","title":{"rendered":"Render unto Caesar"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Should we pay or shouldn\u2019t we?\u201d But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. \u201cWhy are you trying to trap me?\u201d<\/span> he asked. \u201cBring me a denarius and let me look at it.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/span>They brought the coin, and he asked them, \u201cWhose image is this? And whose inscription?\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/b>\u201cCaesar\u2019s,\u201d they replied. (Mark 12:15-16 NIV)<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span>With tax time upon us, something struck me about the passage above.<\/o:p><\/span>
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It\u2019s from a very familiar, often-quoted passage which appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke where the Pharisees and the Herodians are trying to trap Jesus into saying something that will cause him trouble.<\/o:p><\/span>
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After making a great (false) show of how righteous they thought Jesus was, they asked him if the Jews should pay taxes to Caesar. <\/o:p><\/span>
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They thought they had him on this one. <\/o:p><\/span>
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If he answered, \u201cYes\u201d they could say he couldn\u2019t possibly be the Messiah because they were convinced the Messiah would free them from Roman oppression. An affirmative answer, they reasoned, would greatly diminish his support and weaken him.<\/o:p><\/span>
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On the other hand, if he answered, \u201cNo\u201d he would be guilty of rebellion and insurrection. He could have even possibly started a riot.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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But\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
Jesus said to them, \u201cRender to Caesar the things that are Caesar\u2019s, and to God the things that are God\u2019s.\u201d<\/span> And they marveled at him. (Mark 12:17 ESV)<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span>Jesus gives a heavenly, spiritual answer. It is<\/i> a marvelous answer. The kingdom of God is not about money, so pay your taxes.<\/o:p><\/span>
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We \u201cget\u201d that. <\/o:p><\/span>
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But, it seems we tend to pass over the last half of his answer pretty quickly. If we are to render unto God the things that are God\u2019s, just what are those things?<\/o:p><\/span>
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The Bible says God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Everything on this earth was created by Him. So, what can we possibly give Him that He does not already have?<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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 <\/span>The perfection of Jesus\u2019 answer comes from the question he asked. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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If the denarius bears Caesar\u2019s image, what bears God\u2019s image? <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span>So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27 ESV)<\/o:p><\/span><\/b>
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And what bears God\u2019s inscription?<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span>And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:3 ESV)<\/o:p><\/span><\/b>
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So, what do we give to God?<\/o:p><\/span>
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Submit yourselves therefore to God. (James 4:7a ESV)<\/o:p><\/span><\/b>
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Today\u2019s Praise<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
All You’ve ever wanted, all You’ve ever wanted
All You’ve ever wanted was my heart
Freedom’s arms are open, my chains have all been broken
Relentless love has called me from the start
And all You wanted was my heart. <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/b>(Chorus from \u201cAll You\u2019ve Ever Wanted\u201d by Casting Crowns.)<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

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 <\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should we pay or shouldn\u2019t we?\u201d But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. \u201cWhy are you trying to trap me?\u201d he asked. \u201cBring me a denarius and let me look at it.\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 18:23:58","action":"delete","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}