Christian Message Boards: Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God what is God's

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Posted by Eden (Member # 5728) on :

SoftTouch's posted article about businesses and organizations not being allowed to discriminate hiring for the workplace against homosexuals, provided that the individual homosexual qualifies for the job, then homosexuals should under the law of Caesar have an equal opportunity of being hired.

That made me think about this "rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's":

Matthew 22:21
They say to Him, Caesar's. Then He {Jesus} said to them, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's.

I was wondering, for bornagain Christians, is there anything that belongs to Caesar that we Christians “should not render unto Caesar”?

When Jesus said that we should “render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar," what, if anything, was Jesus excluding ANYTHING from having to render unto Caesar if it belongs to Caesar?

With love,
Eden

Posted by BrianGrass1234 (Member # 5845) on :

Wanted to respond so I did a little research.

They were wanting to trap Jesus by either pitting the jews or the romans against him. So they were infering that paying taxes to rome was jews submitting to gentile authority, which is agaist the law. So if he went with jewish law the romans would be against him, and if he said to pay taxes, then the jews would be against him.

But look what Jesus did. He showed that the coin that they were to pay taxes on was owned by Caesar. Then calls them hypocrites. Why? Because by trading in Caesar's coin, they are submitting to Caesar's authority. And since they already submitted by taking Caesar's coin, they should then fulfill their end of the bargin and pay the expected return.

Now as far as obeying laws, this is not the verse to look to as it is pretty obvious its just talking about paying for sevices rendered. They took the roman coin, then they need to pay the romans for their cut in using that coin in trade. So when you partake in a good or service, you should pay what is owed for that good or service.

In saying we should follow laws because of this verse, you are then saying that those that make the laws own you. But only you or God can own yourself, no one else.