Top X August 2, 2025 Devotional
August 02, 2025
MARK 12:15-17 | 15 Should we pay them, or should we not?” But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.” 16 And they brought one. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?” They answered, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him.
Yesterday’s devotional on theft and taxes leads into a political implication of commandment eight. Private property is connected to freedom and to the well-being of families and communities. Political freedom, including the ability to vote and to speak without compulsion, depends on economic freedom. The freedoms to work, save, invest, share, build, and create undergird our other freedoms. When government controls the private sector economically, other freedoms erode. The government’s role in protecting all individual’s rights is then compromised by the particular interests of the ruling group. Regulation and extraction becomes a means to elevate the interests of some and damage others. All politics become a spoil system, and connections displace achievement, ingenuity and hard work. When this happens, trust in fairness is lost and trust is the key to contracts, partnerships, and economic enterprises.
Do you see the way the commandment against theft is meant to ensure healthy politics?
Gracious God,
Preserve individual freedoms. Show us how to guard against all forms of exploitation and manipulation, neither public or private.
Amen.
