Paying Taxes   Luke 20:19-26

This post concerns paying taxes as a dilemma for Jesus.

Paying Taxes describes a trick the scribes and chief priests used to try to trap Jesus. They wanted to seize and kill Jesus but feared the people. So, they sent spies to try to put Him in a dilemma, namely should the Jewish people pay taxes to the Roman government? Then, if He said no, they could take Him to Pilot as a rebel against the government. If He answered yes, then the people would turn against Him because they hated paying taxes to the Romans.

So, Jesus saw what they were doing and asked for a coin. Then, He asked whose likeness was on the coin. They answered “Caesar’s.” Therefore, Jesus said they should render, or give, to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Then, He added an important rule: “Give to God the things that are God’s.”

Thus, coins in any country belong to the government and are only utilized by the people for commercial purposes. They had asked about paying taxes. So, Jesus’ comment to render to the government what belongs to the government also authorizes governments to regulate and tax people. This also means we should pay our taxes.

But Jesus took the occasion to add this important lesson. They should render or give to God what was His, namely faith and obedience to His word and respect for His temple.

The religious leaders had rejected all three. They did not believe or obey Jesus and had desecrated the temple by buying and selling in it.

So, what did we learn?

1.We should respect the government and pay taxes.

2.We should believe in Jesus and show respect for God by following His word.

3.We should honor the church which Jesus established.

For more on the Bible, click tdroberts.org or https://justchristian.com or https://podcastjustchristian.com

#dilemmaForJesus #payTaxes #renderToGodWhatIsHis