Remember when I said, If you're a pastor or a church leader, God called you to speak biblical and spiritual truth, not just biblical and spiritual truth but all truth, social truth, historical truth, health and wellness truth. You can't teach biblical and spiritual truth and perpetuate, support, deny, or be silent about those truths. That still makes you a liar. Truth from the lips of a nonbeliever is still the truth; conversely, a lie from the lips of a believer is still a lie. Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd." So pastors and church leaders must be like that shepherd.
Well, case and point, Matthew 22:21 isn't Jesus stating the civic-economic duty, nor his agreement with the laws of taxation, nor did his answer have anything to do with economic responsibility. Conversely, it was more of Jesus making a distinction between himself and the polio-socio-economic-religious system, which was the Herodians, the Pharisees, and the followers of that system. Jesus called them hypocrites. He was telling them; I have nothing to do with this world's system, and this world's system has anything to do with God. What Jesus asked the Herodians and Pharisees totally debunks this idea that Jesus was teaching some civic-economic ideology and responsibility; when he asked them to show him the currency used for paying the tax, Then when they brought him a denarius, he asked them two things. One whose image is on the coin, and the second question was whose inscription was on the currency?
The image on the currency was the face of Tiberius Caesar, the emperor when Christ lived and was crucified. Ironically the flipside of the denarius is Livia, wife of Augustus and mother of Tiberius, representing her being a goddess. The inscription on the currency was "TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS," basically meaning — "Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine (god) Augustus emperor (Augustus)." So the coin in and of itself was not only a symbol of a greedy and corrupt system but a symbol of idolatry of that system. Jesus was saying this coin was made for the express purpose and use of this world, I nor heaven have no use for such things. I will say this to the Church, and I will say it with the same urgency as Jude; contend for the faith, for in the last days, false pastors, prophets, preachers, and teachers will be on the rise. These wolves dressed in sheep clothing will devourer the flock; these hired shepherds who run when wolves come will remain silent, and some will hide behind, use, and compromise the life of the very congregation they are given to lead and protect for self-indulgence, self-ambition, self-interest, and self-preservation.
This is also why Jesus said: "But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him."
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