An accidental blog

"If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit." Abraham Kuyper Common Grace 1.1.

Wednesday 26 July 2006

God and Caesar: a question


In Mt 22:15ff, Mk 12:13ff and Lk 20:20ff the Pharisees and Herodians come to Jesus in an attempt to catch him out by asking him 'Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?' Jesus responds by asking them to show him a coin with Caesar's image on it and he answers:
'Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's'.
I was wondering what people understood by this phrase of Jesus'. Answers in the comments, if you dare, please!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oliver O'Donovan has an extensive commentary on these texts in his book "The Desire of the Nations," which is quite thought provoking.