{"id":7232,"date":"2015-12-25T02:30:30","date_gmt":"2015-12-25T10:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7232"},"modified":"2015-12-25T02:30:30","modified_gmt":"2015-12-25T10:30:30","slug":"one-way-to-pay-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/12\/25\/one-way-to-pay-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"One Way to Pay Taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, \u201cThe Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.\u201d And they were exceedingly sorrowful. <\/p>\n

When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, \u201cDoes your Teacher not pay the temple tax?\u201d <\/p>\n

\tHe said, \u201cYes.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tAnd when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, \u201cWhat do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?\u201d <\/p>\n

\tPeter said to Him, \u201cFrom strangers.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tJesus said to him, \u201cThen the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.\u201d (Matthew 17:22-27)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tGoing fishing rarely pays the bills. But once, that\u2019s just what Jesus had Peter do. But when he told Peter to go fishing to find the money to pay for the temple tax, he was not giving Peter a universal pattern on how to solve our tax or financial woes.<\/p>\n

\tDoes that mean there is no universal principal at work in the passage? Of course not. We learn that when God does tell us to do something, we can be confident that it will work out. And we learn, too, that, like Peter, we are sons of the kingdom. We are not just servants. We are not just citizens of the heavenly kingdom. We are members of its royal family, with all the privileges and blessings that are a part of that. <\/p>\n

\tWe also learn that Jesus picked his battles. Sometimes he was happy to offend the religious establishment. But over this tax, he wasn\u2019t willing. How come? Because of the principle of love. The temple tax supported those who worked in the temple: it paid the priests, it paid those who did maintenance, it paid small businessmen who kept the temple supplied with ink and paper and oil. The livelihood and welfare of ordinary people were dependent upon the tax.<\/p>\n

\tTherefore, though Jesus and the disciples were technically exempt, it was better to pay than to not. The needs of others sometimes take precedence over our own.<\/p>\n

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Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, \u201cThe Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.\u201d And … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7232"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7234,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7232\/revisions\/7234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}