Many believers today are troubled by what’s happening in our nation. Every time I scroll through social media or listen to a podcast, another Christian leader is sounding the alarm over some new social or political crisis. It feels like everywhere you turn, there’s a flood of agitated, angry rhetoric.
Don’t get me wrong—it is vital to call out evil for what it is. We must stand firm and protect our families from the encroaching darkness. But here’s the hard truth: the Church is not as innocent as we like to think. Some of the same issues that corrupted society in Jesus’ time are alive and well in the twenty-first century.
Let’s take a step back to the first century. Picture this: the scribes and Sadducees boldly criticizing the Roman Empire in the Temple courts and bustling marketplaces. They drew hard lines in the sand, loudly denouncing Rome’s greed and immorality. To the people, these religious officials looked like heroes—defenders of righteousness in a corrupt world.
But behind closed doors? Many of those same leaders were profiting from Rome’s oppression. The Sadducees, in particular, lined their pockets with wealth from the very system they condemned. They lived in luxury, benefiting from the taxes they helped Rome collect. Pretending to be holy, they were actually entangled in the apparatus of the empire.
This hypocrisy came to a head in Matthew 22:15–22. Religious leaders, trying to trap Jesus, asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus saw right through their game. He asked these Jewish religious officials for a coin, and one of them had one readily available.
That’s the irony we often miss. These men, who publicly raged against Rome’s corruption, carried Caesar’s money in their own pockets. And that coin? It bore an inscription declaring, "Caesar is god."
And here’s where it gets uncomfortable—because this is exactly where the modern Church stands today.
We rail against “Caesar”—against corrupt politics, Hollywood, immorality, and the decay of culture—yet so often, we’re holding the empire’s coins in our own hands. We consume some of the very entertainment that we condemn. We chase influence, wealth, and status while preaching against the systems that offer them.
Just like the religious system of Jesus’ day, modern day church practices can prop up the corruption that we claim to oppose. Our hollow religiousity desensitizes us, lulling us into compromise while we convince ourselves we’re standing for truth.
The question remains—What’s in your pocket? It's time, my friends, to heed the words of Jesus and "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to render unto God what is God’s."
Steve Gray and I wrote a book—"Mighty Like Gideon"—that's being published through Chosen Books. Check it out here.
Good stuff young man. The lines get blurred very easily.