We live in a culture that is both politically and religiously charged.  As Christians, how are we to conduct our lives in the midst of so much controversy and strife?  What is the separation between our duties to the kingdom of God and duty to our Government? In Matthew 22:17-21, the Pharisees sent their servants to ask Jesus this very question, in an attempt to trap Him by His own words.

“¹⁷Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

The wise answer of our Lord served the dual purposes of both answering their question, and exposing their hypocrisy.

¹⁸But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? ¹⁹“Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. ²⁰And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” ²¹They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

I think the main problem is that we try to compartmentalize our lives; our Christian life, our work life, our family life, our political life. But Jesus makes it much simpler for us. Instead, there should be only our lives as Christians. Our service to God and to our government need not, and indeed should not, be mutually exclusive. The two go hand in hand together.

Over the course of my next several blog posts I will explore in greater detail what the Bible has to say about this subject, and how we can incorporate the advice of Jesus into our lives.