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Matthew 22:15-22 and Mark 12:13-17 is an interaction between the Pharisees and Jesus asking if it is right to pay the imperial taxes to Caesar or not. Jesus in Matthew 22:21 told the Pharisees to give back to Caesar what is Caesars, and to God what is Gods In Mark 12:17 the same statement was reiterated by Jesus. Jesus specifically called the Pharisees Hypocrites for asking and attempting to trick Jesus with an answer. I have studied this chapter in the past and if we look closely, we can see that in one aspect Jesus is providing guidance on how we as Christians should submit to authoritative governance in our lives. Jesus wants us to submit to the Grace provided by him, but if we cannot submit to a governing body how can we possibly submit to an omnipresent body that is Jesus Christ our savior? Looking at the scripture passage from another viewpoint, Jesus is showing us how Gods presence in our lives is a total embrace of what He stands for which is all things were created by God, and therefore belong to God. Giving the tax to Caesar is only an affirmation that we can give to an authority that God has created everything. The interesting concept, if we read the gospels, it is apparent that Matthew wrote them and was a former tax collector. At the end of the book of John, the author is implied to be the disciple that Jesus loved (John 21:24 NIV). Matthew was a tax collector that became a disciple of Jesus showing that we are all given the Grace of God if we choose to accept it. By accepting His Grace we also accept the things that He has created, which is everything around us. We must have the attitude that taxes are not either good or bad, but they are an affirmation that we as Christians are able to submit to an authority that we may not always understand, but we know is the right thing to do. We are not to submit to evil, although we may feel that our taxes may be used for evil we should not judge the people that are the tax collectors, they may someday be a disciple of God through the same Grace that we have from Jesus

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