I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 25th of August, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the New Testament, Romans 13:1: ”Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.” Then we go back to Matthew 22:20-21: ”And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?'” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” We have to obey the authorities. I can hear somebody right now getting very hassled, ”How can I obey a corrupt situation?” Well, when the Pharisees confronted Jesus about this very thing, the Romans were oppressing the Jews at that very time and yet Jesus said we must obey the law. I remember many years ago, I was down in the Eastern Cape. I had been invited to speak on a panel to farmers. There were a number of us. I don’t like panels, by the way, because you get put on the spot in front of everybody, and often you don’t even have time to think about it. There were five or six of us on this panel, and there was a group of farmers, and one farmer got up, he was quite upset. He said, ”How can I pay taxes to a corrupt governing authority?” And he aimed the question straight at me. For a moment, I didn’t know what to say because it is a very difficult question, and God is speaking to somebody right now. You are trying to justify why you are not paying your income tax. My friend, don’t do that because Jesus said, ”You must give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Anyway, I said to that upset farmer who stood up in front of everybody, I said, ”Do you have a ten rand note in your pocket?” He said, ”Yes.” I said, ”Can you bring it to me, please?” And I took the ten rand note and I said, ”Whose name is on that note?” He said, ”It’s the name of the government.” I said, ”Well, give to the government what is due to the government and give to God what is due to God.” And that was the end of the story. I want to say to you, there are a lot of things in this world that are not fair, but I want to tell you that if you start doing your own thing, there will be chaos when everybody does their own thing. We have to obey the authorities, and we have to pray that God will convict them if there is dishonesty and unfair governance. Let us concentrate today on what God has told us to do, and He will see to it that we, in the end, are justified. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.
