Matthew 17

17:27 "However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me."

Personal liberty takes a backseat to the testimony of God's plan of salvation. Jesus clearly explained that He and His disciples were not required (in God's eyes) to pay the temple tax, but out of concern for the observing unbelievers, Jesus found a way to pay for His whole group of disciples.

I thought this was an interesting comparison to the recent reading in chapter 15 where the disciples were concerned with offending the Pharisees (v. 12). In the example from chapter 15, Jesus was more concerned with preaching the truth to unbelievers than with the potential for them being offended. In this example, Jesus is more concerned with the unbelievers being offended than His right to not pay the tax. Why the difference? It's all about salvation.

In the first example, Jesus cared more about people's eternal souls than their emotions and needed to preach truth to save them. In the second example, Jesus knew that exerting His rights might create an obstacle to an unbeliever and hinder their path to salvation. Jesus always put the gospel as priority over everything, including Himself.

How quickly will I shed my "rights" for the sake of the proclamation of the gospel? One of my favorite pastimes is fantasy football. Fantasy football has had a stigma of being a gambling enterprise and I have met some people who didn't know you can play it for free and with no betting pool involved. Now, if I met a person who, for some reason, was convinced that I was gamblin' pagan because I played fantasy football, and there was absolutely no way of convincing him otherwise, what would I do? Do I keep beating my head against a wall trying to convince him he's ignorant and wrong? Or do I at some point consider that in order to reach out to that person with the gospel, I might need to quit my cherished game? I REALLY hope that never happens, because I really enjoy the game, but I need to make sure that my attitude towards such earthly things are tempered and that my highest admiration and aspiration are for the things above.

Lord, help me to make Your priorities my priorities. Help me to put the furtherance of the gospel ahead of all else and that whatever I do is for Your glory.