Matthew 17:27<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wherever and whenever possible, let us avoid being an offense to people. Even when we know we are not wrong or we are not supposed to do a particular thing, if it will help bring peace, let\u2019s do it. We must be known as peacemakers, and therefore we need to continually work to avoid conflict, where that conflict is not critical to anything or adding value to anything. We must choose our battles carefully, and we need to avoid fighting unnecessary battles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this issue of paying the temple tax, Jesus knew it was wrong for Him to pay that tax, but He went ahead to pay it anyway because He knew it was not critical. There were other times Jesus would stand His ground on an issue despite the apparent offense it might cause, yet in this case, He bent to the will of the religionists. Know when it is wise not to fight. Fighting all the time over every little thing is not wise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLord, help me to know when to conform to the demands of people around me and when to fight against such demands. Grant me the wisdom to know the difference, in Jesus name. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 17:27 \u201cNevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.\u201d Wherever and whenever possible, let us avoid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t