Render Unto Caesar?!

There are a lot of Christians who are anxious and up in arms about Politics (the world over). Yet, if I read Scripture, there’s a common thread between Jesus, Peter and Paul, and it’s not just Christ’s appointment of apostles. On Politics, Jesus said “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” (read Mark 12:13-17 for context), and, to Pilate, “you would have no authority unless it was granted to you from above” (John 19:11).  Some use the former statement to justify their political choices, and many use the latter to argue for a political faction. Yet, here is the point of both statements: the government (yes, even oppressive ones) are permitted to exist for a time, but are all, ultimately, answerable to God. And, what is more, you render to God what belongs to Him: the coin was stamped in Caesar’s image, YOU are stamped in the Lord’s image! Your heart does not belong to the government, nor your allegiance: your heart and allegiance belong to the Lord!

The Apostles Paul and Peter both respectively stated to live at peace, submitting to earthly authorities (Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-14), but it was also Peter who said “We must obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29). These are not contradictory statements! Christians aren’t to be revolutionaries, nor was Jesus about Social Justice (absolutely not), BUT we’re also to live peaceably in the places God has placed us. We’re ambassadors for the Kingdom of Heaven! And, just like Peter and Paul being executed by the governments they said to submit to, we’re in enemy territory. We do not bend knee to Caesar, but while we live on his soil, we respect his rules, so long as they do not go against God’s will. And then we, like Shadrack, Meshach

, and Abednego face the Furnace, or, like Daniel, face the Lion’s Den because we will not bow to the idols set up by the government. We worship God, and not the government. We live at peace with it, but we do not depend on it. And that, Christian, is what makes us dangerous: when we depend on Christ, His life, death, burial, and resurrection, nothing of this world can hinder us.

Philippians 3

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.