In previous articles, I discussed how good things can become idols—how Christian nationalism, in both its formal and informal forms, can fuse our discipleship to our political identity. That is one side of the coin, where our faith is misused to baptize the powers.
Here, I want to look at the other side of the coin, when—through blending faith and politics—politics silences the gospel.
Caesar and God
In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked about paying taxes to Caesar. His answer is as famous as it is provocative: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.”
Jesus refuses two traps. He will not baptize Caesar’s power unequivocally. Nor will he join the zealots in their revolt as if Jesus’ kingdom were of this world. Instead, he reframes the question: Caesar’s image is stamped on coins; God’s image is stamped on people. Caesar may have his money, but God must have our lives.
This was more than clever rhetoric. It was a theological claim with political implications. Caesar has authority, but it is limited. God alone has ultimate claim.
Jesus’s answer to the question of paying taxes also demonstrates “it is possible to pay one’s dues both to the emperor and to God, to be both a dutiful citizen and a loyal servant of God,” as R.T. France wrote in his commentary on Matthew (New International Commentary on the New Testament, p. 830. Emphasis in the original.).
That helps us see two distortions of faith and politics:
• On one side of the coin, Christian nationalism: our faith is misused to baptize Caesar, tying the witness of the Kingdom of Heaven to the agendas of worldly powers.
• On the other side of the coin, silence and inaction: politics is misused to muzzle our faith, keeping us from speaking or acting clearly on Kingdom issues because they sound “too political.”
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Both are forms of an unhealthy blending of faith and politics. The first weds our devotion to our party or nation. The second makes us submit our proclamation of Christ to the political categories of the day. Both can be ways of giving Caesar what belongs only to God.
Silencing the gospel: The error of inaction
Silence often believes itself to be “neutral” or even “loving,” but it also might allow the powers to set the agenda apart from the prophetic voice of God’s people.
Issues like racial injustice, poverty, war or abuse of power can get dismissed as “political” when they, in fact, are deeply theological. Scripture speaks directly about them. The prophets thunder against exploitation. Jesus blesses the poor and the persecuted. James condemns favoritism. Revelation unmasks empire.
Labeling issues “too political” may arise from a sincere desire to unite people, but it also might water down the gospel until it becomes little more than sentiment. And that’s simply not the picture we’re given in Scripture.
John the Baptist is a clear example. His ministry wasn’t confined to the wilderness. It collided with the politics of his day. When Herod Antipas took his brother Philip’s wife, John confronted him openly.
John could have stayed silent. He could have thought: “This is too political; better to keep my message more spiritual.”
But he didn’t. He named the corruption. And for that, he was imprisoned. For that, he was executed. John was not killed for keeping his faith “pure” and private. He was killed because he refused to muzzle the truth of God’s kingdom when it cut across the powers of the day.
To stay silent because we fear being labeled partisan is to let Caesar decide the intricacies of what God’s image is and where God’s image matters.
To remain quiet when rulers dehumanize the vulnerable or twist justice might not be faithfulness; it could be complicity.
And when the church falls into that silence, it simply is blending faith and politics in another way—not by baptizing the state, but by letting the state muzzle the gospel.
God’s image and Caesar’s coin
The coin bears Caesar’s image. Human beings bear God’s image. Giving to God what is God’s means honoring that image in ourselves and in others—friends and enemies alike.
The world’s power structures are not evil in themselves. They are part of God’s creation and were given for good—to restrain chaos, preserve order and serve human flourishing.
Yet, like the rest of creation, they are fallen. They can be twisted by sin, corrupted by idolatry and bent toward death. When they demand ultimate allegiance or when they silence God’s people, they overreach.
The body of Christ should bear witness against the powers when they distort their purpose of serving God and his image. That is part of giving to God what is God’s.
And so, to give God what is God’s means to honor God’s image wherever it is threatened. To advocate for Israeli families devastated by Hamas’s terror and for Palestinian families devastated by Israel’s retaliation.
It means to advocate for the lives of the unborn and born, and for mothers and fathers, for the lives of the murdered and the murderer, for the sanctity of marriage, and to care for the experiences of those disillusioned with institutional definitions. To honor one and ignore the other is to deny God’s image in both.
We don’t champion only one side’s victims. We grieve every person dehumanized by oppression and every person who dehumanizes themselves by becoming an oppressor.
The church’s cruciform witness
Our ultimate allegiance always must be to God, and that means speaking and living out the message of Jesus with clarity: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The church is not called to baptize Caesar’s authority. Nor is it called to retreat into silence. It is called to bear witness to Christ crucified and risen—through words, through scars, through cruciform love that honors the image of God everywhere on any side of any aisle.
The church can bear the Spirit’s fruit and embody cruciform love. We can look like Jesus, giving God what is God’s and showing the world the true face of his kingdom.
Nick Acker, a native Texan, is co-lead pastor of Grace Ventura Church in Ventura, Calif., adjunct faculty member at Stark College and Seminary and a resident fellow at East Texas Baptist University’s B.H. Carroll Theological Seminary, and author of Exegeting Orality: Interpreting the Inspired Words of Scripture in Light of Their Oral Traditional Origins. He finds his greatest joy in his wife and three children. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.
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