Give to God what is God's

Later the leaders sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them, or shouldn’t we?”
Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin, and I’ll tell you.” When they handed it to him, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
“Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”
His reply completely amazed them.
- Mark 12:13-17

Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's is a subtle but pointed way of implying Caesar wasn't Lord, Jesus was. Caesar had real power, he oversaw an amazing economic system that was greater than anything else in the world for hundreds perhaps a 1000 years afterwards. The denarius was a symbol of that system and the Jews and the Christians afterwards who lived in the empire were expected to participate by the rules of the system that Caesar set. Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's

But the Jews knew that God was the creator and sustainer of the universe. Everything belongs to God, so that anything that Caesar had, must only be Ceasar's in a secondary sense. Give to God what is God's. We owe all to God.

We regularly miss an important factor here. We think "Jesus is Lord" is just a private religious statement. But in those times there was no distinction between politics and religion. To say Jesus is Lord is just as unambiguously a political statement as saying "Keir Starmer is our Prime Minister". Without really thinking about it, how often do we descend into the de facto position that because the kingdom of God doesn't have the equivalent of HMRC the second half of these words don't apply anymore.

"Give to God what is God's" applies to every single tiny facet of life with no exceptions. Do we make the mistake to think that what we have is ours and not God's? We have to stop and force ourselves to ask what am I holding onto and insisting this is mine! What thing? What role? What right to do something? What segment of time do we say this is mine? When all the while these things are gifts from our Father in heaven who freely gives.