by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n
The spies who came to Jesus in Luke 20:19-26 must have thought they had him. Their question was ingenious! Either he’d have to side with paying Roman taxes and face the ire of the occupied Jews, or side with not paying Roman taxes, in which case he’d be in trouble with the world’s superpower. Either way, they had Him!<\/p>\n
But Jesus asked whose likeness was on the Roman coin. Of course, it was Caesar’s. So He said, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is<\/em> God’s<\/em>” (Luke 20:25). It was a brilliant answer that satisfied both Roman and Jewish concerns, and it probably took them a minute or two to realize He had slipped from their grasp. Again.<\/p>\n It reminds us that we have responsibilities to “God and country,” but more than that, we bear the image of the One who formed us and to whom we belong. So, let’s give Him what’s His.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Zeke Flores The spies who came to Jesus in Luke 20:19-26 must have thought they had him. Their question was ingenious! Either he’d have to side with paying Roman taxes and face the ire of the occupied Jews, or side with not paying Roman taxes, in which case he’d be in trouble with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1136],"class_list":["post-86191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-taxes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":45770,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-hold-us-responsible-when-we-pay-taxes-to-a-government-that-uses-the-money-for-sinful-purposes-such-as-funding-abortions\/","url_meta":{"origin":86191,"position":0},"title":"Does God hold us responsible when we pay taxes to a government that uses the money for sinful purposes, such as funding abortions?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I live in a State where Medicare covers abortions. Since our taxes pay for Medicare, will God hold us responsible for this? We are told in the Bible to pay taxes, but as citizens, we don't have control over how the money is spent. Thank you for your reply.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36259,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/unlike-you-and-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":86191,"position":1},"title":"Unlike You and I","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: John 8:12-18 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What would you be like if you had absolute power? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Oh, it is fun to imagine all the things you could do if you had the power to do it, but what kind of person would you become? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cPower tends to corrupt,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69084,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jewish-sects-zealots-and-herodians\/","url_meta":{"origin":86191,"position":2},"title":"Jewish Sects: Zealots and Herodians","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Fred A. Shewmaker via Truth Magazine, XVI: 14, pp. 6-8 February 10, 1972 Josephus referred to the Zealots as \"the fourth sect of Jewish philosophy,\" as we noticed in the first article of this series, \"Some Terms Considered.\" In that article, we classified the Zealots as a political party.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7785,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-you-a-501c-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":86191,"position":3},"title":"Are you a 501C church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I ran across your site after my daughter asked me where can she find a clear and concise list of God's statutes.\u00a0 I pondered that for a while and happened upon\u00a0your explanation. It's perfect. Thank you. As is stated in Isaiah, \"For precept must be upon precept, precept upon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1440,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/may-a-christian-serve-in-government\/","url_meta":{"origin":86191,"position":4},"title":"May a Christian serve in government?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: May Christians serve as punitive agents, such as soldiers or policemen, for the civil government? Answer: There are several denominations which hold pacifist views. Some, such as Quakers, refuse to serve in any capacity where killing might be involved. Others, such as the Amish, reject all ties to civil\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16706,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/but-you-did-nothing-to-refute-catholic-claims\/","url_meta":{"origin":86191,"position":5},"title":"But you did nothing to refute Catholic claims","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read your response to \"Why did Catholicism start and when did it happen?\" But you did nothing to refute Catholic claims. You just repeated them. The question also makes no sense. \"Why did Catholicism start?\" - because it is the teaching of the apostles. \"When did it happen?\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}