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In God We Don't Trust  /  Chapter 15: Refusing to Pay Caesar  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 1
David Bercot frames hardship-producing commandments as a “test” of whether we trust God’s care and best intentions; what does that suggest about God’s character, and how does it challenge the way you interpret inconvenient commands of Jesus?
Another way to ask: Bercot says hard commands test whether we trust God’s care. What does that say about what God is like, and how does it change how you read Jesus’ “inconvenient” commands?

Direct Answer Based on David Bercot’s teaching, hardship-producing commands assume God is good and wise—He “really care[s] about us” and has “our best interests in mind”—so inconvenience becomes a trust test, not a loophole hunt. It challenges us to treat Jesus’ commands as loving directives even when they cost us.

Support from Transcript:

  • He opens the chapter: “When a commandment of Jesus places a hardship on us, it tests our trust in God.”
  • He frames the test with two questions about God’s character: “Does He really care about us? Does He truly have our best interests in mind?”
  • He immediately applies this to taxes, quoting Jesus: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”
  • The Molasses Act becomes a real-life example of what people do when a command is costly: colonists “decided they simply would break the law by smuggling.”
  • He implies the issue is not merely practical hardship but whether we will obey Christ when obedience hurts.
Discussion Follow-ups What kinds of “hardship” trigger your instinct to justify disobedience? How might you reframe inconvenience as God training you to trust Him?

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