Jesus told some folks who were seeking His destruction that it was okay to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar’s. He took it a step further, however, and spoke to them of how they also were to render to God the things that are God’s. Seems fair and balanced on the surface, but it isn’t.

The fact of the matter is that God is the Creator of heaven and earth and of all that is in them. Caesar would have no place to strut his stuff if it were not for the Creative engineering of Almighty God. When Jesus took Caesar’s coin he was taking something that was developed from s substance that was created by God and then turned into something useful for Caesar.

We live in societies governed by some sort of “Caesar.” Jesus tells us to render to that Caesar what is his. However, the rendering is not a surrendering. We are not to surrender to Caesar for Caesar is not God. A few verses later, in Matthew 22:37, Jesus set the record straight. He said, “You shall love the Lord Your God with all Your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” We are not commanded to love Caesar with that kind of entirety, but simply to render to him what is his. God is the one to have first place in all things throughout our lives.

As the Church of Jesus we are to be good citizens but always remembering that our true “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). As citizens of the kingdom of heaven we stand as ambassadors of Christ in Caesar’s little kingdoms, and we lift up the cross there.