James R. Edwards (9)

"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed" (v. 6). Then as now, Christians become aware of the inadequacy of their faith when they are made responsible for leading others. As leaders, they face challenges greater than their faith. They hope for great faith, certainly greater faith than their followers. Surprisingly, Jesus does not require superior spiritual endowments of Christian leaders, even apostles, nor does he offer them such. He promises, rather, to be present in the smallness of their faith. A mustard seed is so small that, held in the palm of one's hand, it appears as a speck of dust, barely visible. The image of the mustard seed is another hyperbole, but the point is clear. Christians, even apostles, are distinguished not by the quantity of faith, but by the employment of faith; not by greatness or smallness of faith, but by acting on faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed.
James R. Edwards
Pillar Commentary, Luke

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James R. Edwards Faith

Jesus' answer exceeds the exact limits of the question asked him. His addition, "give to God what is God's" (v. 25), is essential to his understanding of political authority. If ultimate authority belongs to God, then political allegiances must also be subordinated to God. In v. 25 the unmistakable exousia, or authority, of Jesus again emerges. Caesar and God vied for ultimate authority in the political and religious climate of Jesus' day, yet Jesus presumes to speak for both. That ultimate authority resided with God is clearly implied in Jesus' use of "image" (v. 24; Gk. eikÅn), the same word used in Gen 1:26 of humanity's creation in God's image. If coins bear Caesar's image, then they belong to Caesar. The Greek verb apodidonai (v. 25) reinforces this point, for it means to give back to Caesar what already belongs to him. But the same verb is also applied with reference to God. Humanity bears God's image. Humanity must therefore render ultimate submission to the God in whose image it is made.Pillar Luke Commentary (Luke 20:24)

James R. Edwards Civil Government Authority

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Jesus echoes the OT that God is sovereign over all human affairs, including political affairs. The response of Jesus implies that there are duties to governments that do not infringe on ultimate duties to God, but it also denies that governments may assume total claim over their citizens, "as though the State, over and beyond its special commission, should and could become the single and totalitarian order of human life, thus fulfilling the Church's vocation as well."Pillar Luke Commentary (Luke 20:24)

James R. Edwards Civil Government Authority

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The reply of Jesus does not echo the politics of the Zealots, who were bent on armed combat with Rome; or of the Sadducees, who accommodated to the state; or of the Pharisees, who followed an independent course indifferent to the state. Nor does the judgment of Jesus advocate a separate and perhaps even contrary sacred order within the larger secular society. Both Jesus and his followers situate themselves within their respective political and cultural milieus and advocate service of the common good within them. This political order, according to the early church, could be served irrespective of the rulers' and magistrates' religious beliefsPillar Luke Commentary (Luke 20:24)

James R. Edwards Civil Government Authority

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A denarius, the average daily wage in Palestine (Matt 20:2, 9), was a Roman silver coin bearing the semidivine bust of Tiberius Caesar (ruled, 14-37) with an abbreviated Latin inscription, TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS ("Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus, Augustus"). The obverse bore an image of Tiberius's mother, Livia, with the inscription Pontifex Maximus ("High Priest").Pillar Luke Commentary (Luke 20:21)

James R. Edwards Currency

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[the] love of God expresses itself in love of neighbor (1 John 4:20). Jesus' answer avoids the danger of mysticism, which results in a detached and disembodied love of God; as well as the danger of humanism, which acts toward humanity without reference to God and without the understanding that human beings are inviolable creatures of God.Pillar Commentary

James R. Edwards Loving God Loving Neighbour Greatest Commandment

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It is, in other words, a text of concession, not a text of intention. You do not learn to fly an airplane by following the instructions for making a crash landing; you will not be successful in war if you train by the rules for beating a retreat. The same is true of marriage and divorce. The exceptional measures necessary when a marriage fails are of no help in discovering the meaning and intention for marriage. Jesus endeavors to recover God's will for marriage, not to argue about possible exceptions to it. His opponents ask what is permissible, he points to what is commanded.Pillar Commentary

James R. Edwards Marriage Divorce

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Caesarea Philippi was an unlikely place for the first proclamation of Jesus as Messiah, for its population was chiefly non-Jewish. It was also the site of two painful memories to Jews. It was in Caesarea Philippi that Antiochus IV gained a decisive victory over Egypt in 200 b.c., causing Palestine to fall to the Seleucids and plunging the whole region into twenty years of war following the Maccabean Revolt in 168 b.c. The city was also famous for its sanctuary to Pan (from which the city gained the name Caesarea Panias). Half man and half goat, Pan was revered as guardian of flocks and nature and worshipped in a grotto at the foot of Mount Hermon next to the cave from which one of the three major tributaries of the Jordan River gushes forth. It is here in the outer regions of paganism and even hostility to Judaism that Jesus is first proclaimed Messiah!Pillar Commentary, Mark

James R. Edwards Geography

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can be found in Greek literature with reference to a variety of illicit sexual practices, including adultery, fornication, prostitution, and homosexuality. In the OT it occurs of any sexual practice outside marriage between a man and woman that is prohibited by Torah. This sense is retained and intensified in the NT, which "is characterized by an unconditional repudiation of all extra-marital and unnatural intercourse."Mark Pillar Commentary

James R. Edwards Sexual Immorality

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