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1stCorinthians 4:20
Partnering with the Alpha & Omega |
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| Bible / teachings / Caesar | ||
Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, give to God what is God's
This is recorded in three gospels
Matthew 22:17-21,
Mark 12:14-17 and
Luke 20:22-25
Luke's account is shown below.
Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no? But He perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye Me? Show Me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's. And He said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's
This truth Jesus spoke is as valid today as it was two thousand years ago.
"Give unto Caesar" refers to the governing authorizes or the worlds system.
if we look at His response in this way it reads:
Give into the worlds system what is the worlds and give unto God what is God's
When we apply the following scripture in Romans; And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God, Romans 12:2. We see that there must be a separation between the things of the world and the things of God. This is not to say that we should not participate in the world, believers do need to interact in the world. Jesus used the conjunction and rather than or, thus we need to do both. Scripture tells us that we are in the world but not of the world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, John 17:16. And our example of this is that Jesus also paid taxes, Matthew 17:24.
Things that belong or are part of the world system are:
- Money and the material things that you can buy with money.
Things that belong to God are:
- For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's, 1st Corinthians 6:20. We are God's: we are made in His image, Genesis 1:26-28, we have His Holy Spirit, 1st Corinthians 6:19, and we are to glorify Him. Thus we are to live for God and our praise should not be because of material things of the world, but only because of our great God.