Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical. net.

Mark chapter 12 verses 13 through 17.

And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians

to trap him in his talk. and they came and said to him,

Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion,

for you are not swayed by appearances but truly teach the way of God.

This is pure flattery here.

Insincere praise for selfish purposes. Then they ask him, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not? But knowing their hypocrisy he said to them,

Why put me to the test?

Bring me a denarious and let me look at it.

And they brought one.

And he said to them,

Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to them, whose likeness and inscription is this?

They said to him, Caesars.

And Jesus said to them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are gods and they marveled at him.

I love these exchanges all throughout the Gospels between Jesus and people who are trying to

trick or trap him and then he just turns it around on them. So what's so marvelous about what Jesus said, oh we could spend like a long time talking about this, but let's just picture this way. They're trying to trick Jesus and to saying, okay, if you say don't pay taxes, then that's going to be like

traitorous in a sense toward the Roman Empire, towards Caesar.

If you say do pay taxes, then that could be perceived as compromising and

devotion to God.

So what is he just going to say? Here's Jesus response. devotion to God. God.

What is he just going to say?

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