- Apr 21, 2009
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Rendering Unto Caesar, What Is Caesar's, and Unto God What Is God's
Implicit throughout the Bible is the commandment that every Believer has two obligations that are not disharmonious. These two obligations are to render unto God, what is God's, and unto Caesar, what it Caesar's.
This teaching is one of the most fundamental basis' of our Faith, and yet it is little discussed or preached upon, and is a nearly taboo subject in the church. The reason for this is most Believers don't want to render anything unto either of these two powers, as they are by nature selfish, lazy, and risk averse.
Rendering unto either of these is expensive, demanding and dangerous. And there is always the danger of these two coming into conflict with each other. Thus most Christians are content to soft pedal any obligation to either God or Caesar.
In a representative Republican Democracy, such as America, we have to face the fact that because we have the vote, and a host of other rights, that we, in effect, ARE Caesar. Proceeding with this to a logical conclusion, every act of government at every level, no matter how small, has our fingerprints all over it, and our signature at the bottom. This is scary, but it follows logically from the facts.
Thus we are especially called to do our Civic Duty every day of the year. If we are Caesar then we are we are responsible for everything Caesar (our government) does.
This call to Civic Duty is something Christians seem to shrink from, but yet cannot avoid. What Church has a Civic Duty Ministry, or even a Registration and Voting Ministry? Very few do much of anything to see that that as many as possible of their church members are registered to vote, and actually do vote every time, much less that church members are made aware of the issues and candidates put before the voters.
NOW, this in no way should imply that the Church should tell anyone who, or what, to vote for, or against. This is not commanded, or required, and would be personally demeaning in any case. People can vote as they choose, but register and vote in an informed manner, they must, if they are going to follow Jesus' teaching to "Render unto Caesar, what is Caesar's."
Implicit throughout the Bible is the commandment that every Believer has two obligations that are not disharmonious. These two obligations are to render unto God, what is God's, and unto Caesar, what it Caesar's.
This teaching is one of the most fundamental basis' of our Faith, and yet it is little discussed or preached upon, and is a nearly taboo subject in the church. The reason for this is most Believers don't want to render anything unto either of these two powers, as they are by nature selfish, lazy, and risk averse.
Rendering unto either of these is expensive, demanding and dangerous. And there is always the danger of these two coming into conflict with each other. Thus most Christians are content to soft pedal any obligation to either God or Caesar.
In a representative Republican Democracy, such as America, we have to face the fact that because we have the vote, and a host of other rights, that we, in effect, ARE Caesar. Proceeding with this to a logical conclusion, every act of government at every level, no matter how small, has our fingerprints all over it, and our signature at the bottom. This is scary, but it follows logically from the facts.
Thus we are especially called to do our Civic Duty every day of the year. If we are Caesar then we are we are responsible for everything Caesar (our government) does.
This call to Civic Duty is something Christians seem to shrink from, but yet cannot avoid. What Church has a Civic Duty Ministry, or even a Registration and Voting Ministry? Very few do much of anything to see that that as many as possible of their church members are registered to vote, and actually do vote every time, much less that church members are made aware of the issues and candidates put before the voters.
NOW, this in no way should imply that the Church should tell anyone who, or what, to vote for, or against. This is not commanded, or required, and would be personally demeaning in any case. People can vote as they choose, but register and vote in an informed manner, they must, if they are going to follow Jesus' teaching to "Render unto Caesar, what is Caesar's."
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