(Mark 12:17)
The believer is entrusted with faithfulness to his Lord. God is his ally, with whom he forms an eternal covenant. And although he regards heaven as his true homeland, this does not turn him away from commitment to the earth on which he lives. Rather, from the very essence of faith, he must be the ideal image of the citizen. The believer is in continual revolution, because he seeks the good of all people and strives to raise up their dignity. He does not appease or compromise with regimes or with political decision-makers when they rule falsely and transgress the laws. The believer must be a disquiet to rulers, or he is no believer. For the believer, in the words of Metropolitan George Khodr, "is that revolution which keeps revolutions from losing their soul" (Meditations on Church and Politics, Lisan al-Hal, 21 August 1966).
Hence, Christianity is a part of this life upon earth and not a flight from it. A Christianity that "flees" the concerns of life is no Christianity. For Christianity is the meeting of the life of the people of earth with the love of the people of heaven, and companionship with them so as to raise them and their earth to the Maker of earth and heaven. Christianity is a tireless labour to bring about God's will "on earth as it is in heaven," as the Lord taught us to pray (Matthew 6:9–13). Life in Christ is the practice of faith translated into acts of love toward all, otherwise it is not Christianity. Christianity is a cry of prophecy in the wilderness of this world. And Christ's words, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?" (Matthew 5:13), and "You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14), leave no room for doubt about the role of Jesus's followers in the countries where they live. Indeed, their work springs from God's call to bring about social justice, as with the prophets of the Old Testament such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and others. But if we confine Christianity to "spiritual" matters alone, we have struck down all the work and word of God, and have thereby also frozen the working of the Spirit within it and made of it a prisoner of narrow walls.
Hence, the phrase "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" must not be understood as a total separation between "religion and state" at the level of practice, but rather as a basis for dealing with the state, on condition that this responsibility does not contradict faith and spiritual principles. In this context, Metropolitan George Khodr explains this verse, saying: "As for His saying, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's,' it calls us to that submission which contains no betrayal of God's rights over the state; it casts us into two submissions between which there is no contradiction, if the state knows itself to be a servant of God's purposes in the universe and His aims within it. And so the believer was submissive to the sultans yet warning them by the law of the Lord — peaceable, not surrendering; gentle and severe at once; kindly, yet butting the heavens with his head, until heaven listens to him and the earth trembles" (Meditations on Church and Politics, Lisan al-Hal, 21 August 1966).
The Church stands in this constant, constructive tension with power and the powers, since it submits to none but its Lord alone, and strives continually to be the reflection of the light of His face in the world. And the world, alas, as we have known it, loves "the darkness rather than the light" (John 3:20). The Church is not content with words, for its Lord became incarnate, and it is called, like Him, to embody its word by every means its Lord dictates to it. It does not appease the people of power nor beg from them. For it does not bow its head to flesh and blood, but to the Lord who became flesh. Every appeasement of the holders of power would change the word of the Lord Jesus to become "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God also the things that are Caesar's." God forbid.