Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what is God's (Matthew 22:21)
In our modern society there is constant pressure being exerted on us to have a definite division in our lives – the sacred has to be kept out of the secular. But Jesus's words to us, "and pay God what belongs to him", show us that this attitude is not right: you cannot separate the secular from the sacred.
Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what is God's (Matthew 22:21)
In our modern society there is constant pressure being exerted on us to have a definite division in our lives – the sacred has to be kept out of the secular. But Jesus's words to us, "and pay God what belongs to him", show us that this attitude is not right: you cannot separate the secular from the sacred.
How can you separate the creator from his creation? Christians transferred their loyalty from the world to God at the moment of their Baptism. So, because of our declared loyalty to God, we need to keep in mind that all our secular choices and decisions that we have to make, have to be made within the context of our faith.
We can't be like the Jewish lawyers who accused Jesus and were then exposed as being inconsistent in their own behaviour – we have to be 100% consistent in our own behaviour.
What we do and say in our sacred life has to be revealed in our secular life. Then and only then will we be obedient to Jesus's words to us: "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what is God's".
Rev REO Goodfellow Christ Church
Christ Church
