Reading your Bible for Today January 17

January 17: Matthew 22:15-22

KJV Key Verse: Matthew 22:21
21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. 

Devotion:
I am often asked about whether it is right to do certain things when we are Christians and most of the time I am able to point out we live in a world that is run by various powers including kings, queens, governments, politicians and the like. Because we live in such a world, we are subject to the laws and rules of this world. This does mean we should follow the rules and regulations of this world without question. This does not mean we have the power to go out and do things against the governments just because we are Christians. What is does mean is that we have to live as Christians in a world run by non-Christians.

The first commandment is “(Exodus 20:3)  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” This means that God wants to be first in our lives. It does not mean we should ignore the rulers in our countries. It means we must make sure we don't treat them or anything else in our lives like gods. Yes, they are important people and they are doing a difficult job, but they are people. As Christians, we need to show them that we are true and faithful to God and we will always strive to keep God first. There is no need for them to work against God; they are the ones who should be looking to God first in their lives too...

We will always meet people who will want to trip us up by trying to show parts of the bible as being false or contradictory; but the only way they can seemingly succeed is to take phrases or verses out of context... anyone can do that with almost anything anyone says! There will always be questions about whether we should be doing what the government says or whether we should be doing what Christ wants. Our rule should be that if you cannot take Christ first in your endeavours, then you must be doing something wrong! A long as we are confident Christ could walk next to us in everything we do, then we are doing ok... if not, then maybe we need to re-focus on what we are doing!

Points to Ponder:
Do you use your religion to get out of doing things?

Are you confident that God would approve with what you are doing?