We shall do well to remember, that of all questions which have perplexed Christians, none have ever proved so intricate and puzzling, as the class of questions which the Pharisees and Herodians here propounded. What are the dues of Caesar, and what are the dues of God–where the rights of the church end, and where the rights of the state begin–what are lawful civil claims and what are lawful spiritual claims–all these are hard knots and deep problems which Christians have often found it difficult to untie, and almost impossible to solve. Let us pray to be delivered from them. Never does the cause of Christ suffer so much as when the devil succeeds in bringing churches into collisions and law-suits with the civil power. In such collisions precious time is wasted–energies are misapplied–ministers are drawn off from their proper work–the souls of people suffer, and a church’s victory often proves only one degree better than a defeat. “Give peace in our time, O Lord,” is a prayer of wide meaning, and one that should often be on a Christian’s lips.
J. C. Ryle
Commenting on Mark 12
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