Legalidades

Obey Rulers

1 *Obey the rulers who have authority over you. Only God can give authority to anyone, and he puts these rulers in their places of power. 2 People who oppose the authorities are opposing what God has done, and they will be punished. 3 Rulers are a threat to evil people, not to good people. There is no need to be afraid of the authorities. Just do right, and they will praise you for it. 4 After all, they are God’s servants, and it is their duty to help you.

If you do something wrong, you ought to be afraid, because these rulers have the right to punish you. They are God’s servants who punish criminals to show how angry God is. 5 But you should obey the rulers because you know it is the right thing to do, and not just because of God’s anger.

6 *You must also pay your taxes. The authorities are God’s servants, and it is their duty to take care of these matters. 7 Pay all that you owe, whether it is taxes and fees or respect and honor.

Love

8 Let love be your only debt! If you love others, you have done all that the Law demands.

12 Always let others see you behaving properly, even though they may still accuse you of doing wrong. Then on the day of judgment, they will honor God by telling the good things they saw you do.

13 The Lord wants you to obey all human authorities, especially the Emperor, who rules over everyone. 14 You must also obey governors, because they are sent by the Emperor to punish criminals and to praise good citizens.

17 Tell us what you think! Should we pay taxes to the Emperor or not?"

18 Jesus knew their evil thoughts and said, "Why are you trying to test me? You show-offs! 19 Let me see one of the coins used for paying taxes." They brought him a silver coin, 20 and he asked, "Whose picture and name are on it?"

21 "The Emperor’s," they answered.

Then Jesus told them, "Give the Emperor what belongs to him and give God what belongs to God."

Paying the Temple Tax

24 *When Jesus and the others arrived in Capernaum, the collectors for the temple tax came to Peter and asked, "Does your teacher pay the temple tax?"

25 "Yes, he does," Peter answered.

After they had returned home, Jesus went up to Peter and asked him, "Simon, what do you think? Do the kings of this earth collect taxes and fees from their own people or from foreigners?"*

26 Peter answered, "From foreigners."

Jesus replied, "Then their own people* don’t have to pay. 27 But we don’t want to cause trouble. So go cast a line into the lake and pull out the first fish you hook. Open its mouth, and you will find a coin. Use it to pay your taxes and mine."

25 Before you are dragged into court, make friends with the person who has accused you of doing wrong. If you don’t, you will be handed over to the judge and then to the officer who will put you in jail. 26 I promise you will not get out until you have paid the last cent you owe.

18 Because of me, you will be dragged before rulers and kings to tell them and the Gentiles about your faith. 19 But when someone arrests you, don’t worry about what you will say or how you will say it. At that time you will be given the words to say.

The Birth of Jesus

1 About that time Emperor Augustus gave orders for the names of all the people to be listed in record books.*2 These first records were made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.*

3 Everyone had to go to their own hometown to be listed. 4 So Joseph had to leave Nazareth in Galilee and go to Bethlehem in Judea. Long ago Bethlehem had been King David’s hometown, and Joseph went there because he was from David’s family.

5 Mary was engaged to Joseph and traveled with him to Bethlehem. She was soon going to have a baby,

15 *To the Lord, all nations

are merely a drop in a bucket

or dust on balance scales;

all of the islands

are but a handful of sand.

17 God thinks of the nations

as far less than nothing.

9 because there is a wonderful opportunity for me to do some work here. But there are also many people who are against me.

10 "Why won’t you answer my question?" Pilate asked. "Don’t you know I have the power to let you go free or to nail you to a cross?"

11 *Jesus replied, "If God had not given you the power, you couldn’t do anything at all to me. But the one who handed me over to you did something even worse."