Render Unto Caesar

The concept of the Divine Right of Kings has largely gone out of vogue around here. It makes one think of the oppression of England's monarchs, the beheading of Louis XVI, and such ugly things - and yet we see from Scripture that while monarchs are not unaccountable for cruelty, there is the fact that kings are God-appointed. The same is true for all leaders, since no one gets where they are outside of the Providence of God. Jesus Himself accepts this in His answer to those servants of the Pharisees in the Gospels, who asked if it was lawful for Jews to pay taxes to the heathen Caesar. Jesus' memorable response? "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's."

On the surface this seems pretty straight forward, but it really demands some consideration. What, therefore, is Caesar's, and what is God's?

First, we know that all things are God's, for "in Him we live, and move, and have our being," and "apart from Him [Christ] nothing was made that was made." We know that as our King, our God, our Creator, our Savior, and our Lord, we owe Him our very selves. This includes both mind and bodies, as indicated by Paul's admonition to "present our bodies a living sacrifice"; it includes our worship, adoration, and love. The fact that everything is God's means that the most minute details of our lives should be dedicated to His glory, including the payment of taxes to our Caesars.

And what is Caesar's? That which belongs to Caesar is that which God has given him. Jesus in speaking to Pilate said, "You would have no authority over Me if it were not given to you from above." Clearly this shows the divinity and power of Christ, but it is true in other situations as well, for no created being can have any authority unless it is given to them from God Almighty. Rulers, whether they gain their situation by moral or immoral means, have authority which they could not have if it was outside of God's plan. Therefore, the laws which are theirs, the taxes which are theirs, and the allegiance which they demand, are all due them - always beneath the higher Kingship of God. But, unlike what we owe God, our homage and worship is not due to Caesar, which is something that may have come to the Jews' minds when they thought of the Romans' deification of their ruler.

There is not, I don't think, a hard and straight line between giving to Caesar and giving to God. As God has ordained that we are to "render to all their due," therefore our giving to Caesar with the object of doing right is also giving to God: we give to Him our obedience and submission to His will, by giving to Caesar what is his.

An earlier passage in the Gospel of Luke, which is what I'm currently reading, speaks of the widow and her two mites; Jesus exclaims that she has given all she possessed to God, and commends her for it. But why did she not use them to pay her taxes? While it is possible that she had already paid her taxes and used what was left to give in tithe, I don't think that is what the passage indicates. It simply shows that the woman understood that, first and foremost, all she had was due to the God who gave and sustained her life.