Caesar or God

And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly: Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?  But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me?  Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's.  And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's.  And they could not take hold of his words before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace. – Luke 20.21-26

I wish I didin’t love politics like I do. Nothing gets my blood flowing like a good political discussion. One of the topics I like to talk about is the notion of separation of church and state and the question of how we as Christians deal with both. 

Believers are dual citizens. We are citizens of ‘Caesar’s kingdom’ and we are citizens of God’s kingdom. We owe Caesar’s kingdom certain things. We need to obey the law and honour the king and pay our taxes and be the best citizens we can be. We need to live our lives in such a way that fellow-citizens see Christ in us and desire to know about Him.   

We owe God our love and devotion and hearts and lives and time and effort and everything. 

In the culture we live in today though it seems like a lot of God’s people give Caesar what is really God’s. There are times when we get so focused on our earthly citizenship that it seems to consume the time and resources that belong to God. We are so focused on political agendas and current events Political expedience becomes more important than godly standard. Pragmatism can override principle. 

While we are While we are giving Caesar his due, lets not sacrifice giving God what He is due.