Matthew 22:15-22 Whose Picture is It?
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: July 18, 2019 Matthew 22:15-22
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
(Understanding the Text) The Pharisees viewed Jesus as a threat. Their lives were centered around rituals that focused on the God of heaven, yet they viewed that very God as a threat when He came down to talk to them. They were too proud to learn and too worldly to see the treasure in front of their eyes, so instead of cooperating with Jesus, they actively worked against Him. Their attitude was the exact opposite of John the Baptist’s. His life was also centered around rituals related to God, and when he saw Jesus, he recognized Jesus as the Messiah and actively promoted His popularity, choosing to become less and less influential in order to expand Jesus’ influence with the people. In contrast, the Pharisees’ saw Jesus and had plenty of evidence that He was from God, but they chose to ignore that evidence and worked actively against Him simply because they couldn’t let go of their power. The people were listening to Jesus more than the Pharisees, and that was unacceptable. They viewed Him as a rival who had to be eliminated, so they kept plotting ways to do that. However, it wasn’t a cold plotting. They felt strong negative emotions towards Jesus. Malice is not a cold word. It is expressive of strong emotions.
This time, they sent some of their followers in conjunction with some of King Herod’s followers with a question that they were sure would trap Jesus. If Jesus answered that the people should not pay taxes, the Herodians were there to be witnesses to the answer. If Jesus said that it was right to pay taxes, then the followers could spread discontent among the people that Jesus was in league with the oppressors and an ally to pagans. Thus, He could not be the Messiah. However, they had tripped themselves up years before by using Roman currency for everyday life. Thus, they had already submitted to Roman authority and paganism, which included paying taxes. Thus, Jesus’ answer showed the hypocrisy of the questioners who were daily using a pagan symbol to buy and sell. In fact, the money changers who Jesus had thrown out of the temple, would have had lots of these pagan coins sitting in containers or bags within the temple precincts.
(Revelation of God) God is a jealous God, but He is only jealous about things that truly matter. Money is useless and senseless in the kingdom of heaven. God is jealous of our affection, not our wealth or poverty. He wants to be with us regardless of our station in life. That social position is also senseless in the kingdom of heaven. We get so tied up in senseless activities that we forget God. That is what He is jealous of because it hurts us. He loves us and only wants to build us up. Being caught up in the senseless and inane tears us down.
Jesus’ principle of giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s is simple, yet profound. Unfortunately, we seem to want to give Caesar things which are not his. I see people worshiping the flag and the national anthem as if they were part of a religious service. Christians get angry at people for kneeling rather than standing like there is some kind of worship ceremony going on. Playing the national anthem and standing for the flag before a game is like a prayer ritual asking for the country’s blessing on the activity. The JW’s have a point about the flag. It’s one thing to give a certain level of loyalty to a country, but it’s another to be so immersed in loyalty to the government and country that we become outraged when certain forms are not done.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to be giving more worship and authority and loyalty and control of my life to God and stop stealing it away from Him. On the other hand, breaking the rules of the government is not a choice for me. I have to give to the government what is due to them also. Living in this world is such a balance between doing what is right for God and surviving within the secular institutions that control our lives. Please help me to maintain the right balance between giving to Caesar and giving to You.