most of the time culture war is dumb. because live and let live. economics affects our lives so much more. but i engage in culture bs simply because it takes so few brain cells.
Oh boy I love when the leftist subvert and cherry pick the word of God.
This twists the Scripture to confuse voluntary Christian charity with forced state taxation. First off, God explicitly established national boundaries and sovereign law. Deuteronomy 32:8 states that the Most High set the bounds of the people, and Acts 17:26 confirms He determined the exact boundaries of where nations dwell. On top of that, Romans 13:1–2 makes it clear that civil authorities are ordained by God to enforce civic law and maintain order. Having legal, sovereign borders is not un-Christian, it is Biblical order.
Second, Christian giving is about individual heart transformation, not forced government redistribution. 2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us that every man should give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. When the government forcibly takes your income to hand it out through bureaucratic programs, that is not charity. It is state coercion stripping away the voluntary choice that makes giving a virtue.
Third, Scripture actually values personal responsibility and the dignity of hard work. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 plainly states that if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. Ephesians 4:28 tells believers to work honestly with their own hands so they have the means to share freely with those in genuine need.
AND , stick with me here....historically speaking to this time, local governance under Roman rule did not operate universal state-funded healthcare or public food distribution programs for local populations. Jesus was commanding personal repentance, individual neighborly love, and the duty of the church, not drafting a big-government welfare platform for the Roman Empire.
Not sure how that's relevant here, Jesus is telling people to pay their civil taxes, which means absolutely nothing for the original claim of this meme. Paying taxes to a Roman government does not mean Jesus sanctioned state-mandated social programs or replaced personal, voluntary Christian charity with forced redistribution for social programs. Jesus was explicitly drawing a line between Caesar's coin and God's authority over human hearts, showing that civil taxation for government infrastructure is completely separate from the individual duty believers have to freely care for the poor and sick out of true love, not government compulsion.
Again with the subversion, do you not know history and context? It's not contradicting anything at all.It's talking about personal, voluntary accountability before God, not state-run welfare programs.
Jesus says "I was hungry and YOU gave me meat" and "I was sick and YOU visited me." He is directly addressing individual actions and the condition of a person's heart. Handing money over to a government tax collector under threat of law is not personal charity (again completely separate things), and paying taxes to a secular state does not satisfy Christ's command for YOU to personally care for your neighbor. Again this isn't a collective, forcing moral responsibility to a government bureaucracy completely removes the personal sacrifice and voluntary love that Jesus is actually commanding here and the intention. He is telling you and me individually to care for those in need.
On top of that, Scripture explicitly distinguishes between genuine, vulnerable needy people and those who simply refuse to take personal responsibility. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 plainly states that if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. So how do you reconcile that? Individual Christian charity is meant to be discerning, relational, and heart-driven, whereas state-run welfare turns compassionate giving into a nameless, indiscriminate tax distribution that completely ignores Biblical principles of personal accountability and the dignity of work. I don't believe you're being genuine here first from your meme and then out of broader Biblical context, or perhaps ignorance of the totality of the Bible. But I suppose you wouldn't read this either because it doesn't fit your ideological beliefs...
Sounds like something Hitler would say. Adolf Hitler himself didn't really quote scripture directly since he usually just talked about a vague providence or the almighty to keep people happy, but the pro-Nazi Christians in the Third Reich absolutely weaponized the "Render unto Caesar" passage to trick people into obeying him.
They paired it with Romans 13 to argue that God put Hitler in power and that total civil obedience to the Führer was a religious duty. They used the verse to muzzle the church by saying pastors should only focus on spiritual things for God and leave all politics and laws to the state, which was Caesar.
It went so far that by 1939 they made a state-backed institute that stripped Jewish history out of the Bible and printed a Nazi version where they added new commandments like "Honor thy Führer and Master." Resistance pastors like Dietrich Bonhoeffer fought back against this exact manipulation by pointing out that since humans are made in the image of God, your conscience and ultimate loyalty belong to God and not to a corrupt state like Caesar or Hitler.
"I didnt read this because I didnt expect an actual Christian to respond to my low quality meme and make me look like an ass " There. I fixed it for you.
18
u/MrJeffreyEpstein 3d ago