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Enjoy Life, Enjoy God


Dale Patterson

CAESAR

January 28, 2014

We may think the church & state debate is relatively new.  And we would be wrong, even Jesus wrestled with it.

 
[Jesus] said to them, "Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
                                                ---Luke 20:25 TNIV
 
So I suspect Jesus’ response may have made everyone ticked.  Some didn’t like Jesus supporting Rome’s collection of taxes—they wanted Jesus to tell Rome to take a hike.  Yet others hoped Jesus’ piety and love of God would cause him not to soil himself with such details as tax payments and worldly matters.  And so the debate goes on today.
 
God is Lord of all, reigns over all, yet is not other-wordly.  Jesus lived in devotion to His Father in heaven, but knew we all lived in an all-too-earthy situation, one that necessitates things even like the Roman Empire.  We cannot escape today either only to a heavenly-existence, or only to this world.  Jesus is Lord of this altogether real world, whatever Caesar’s name is today.
 
Joyfully,
 
Dale Patterson