Photo by Annerose Walz
on Unsplash

Are you registered to vote? If not, get busy!  The deadline to vote in Travis County, Texas, where I live, is October 7.  An astoundingly large percentage of believers do not vote. Please do not be one of them! If you do not vote in an election, you have, by default, voted for whoever wins that election.  Think about that.

Unsure if you are registered? Maybe it’s been a while since you voted. If you are not sure whether you are registered to vote, visit Can I Vote | NASS.  You can also contact your county’s tax office.

Are the people you know registered? Ask others if they are ready to vote. It only takes a few seconds to ask someone else if they are registered to vote. You can work that into a brief exchange with the person who sells you one bottle of aspirin at the drug store or the person who bags up your groceries. And certainly you can easily ask family and friends.

Being good citizens. Jesus taught that we are to be responsible citizens. Part of good citizenship is to pay taxes. In Matthew 17:24-27 Jesus demonstrated this aspect of being a good citizen. The NIV labels this portion of scripture “The Temple Tax.”

²⁴ After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

²⁵ “Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

²⁶ “From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. ²⁷ “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

And in Mark 12:13-17, which the NIV Bible labels “Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar” is another example of where Jesus said to pay taxes.

¹³ Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. ¹⁴ They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? ¹⁵ Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” ¹⁶ They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

¹⁷ Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

And they were amazed at Him.”

Another part of good citizenship for an American is to vote. Think about it. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren and our fellow citizens – and most importantly, to God!

Photo by Chris Hardy
on Unsplash