Those of us who follow Jesus possess a kind of dual citizenship. We live in an external kingdom of family and cities and nationhood, while at the same time belonging to the kingdom of God. In his command, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” Jesus underscored the fundamental tension that can result. For the early Christians, loyalty to God’s kingdom sometimes meant a fatal clash with Caesar’s visible kingdom. Historian Will Durant, in The Story of Civilization, concludes:
“There is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned and oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with a fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting the sword with the Word, brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state that history has known. Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won.”
–Philip Yancey
This is important for us to consider and to remember as we worry about the state of our own nation. We are to bear our own trials with fierce tenacity as we quietly multiply while fighting the chaos of our own nation with the Word of God. If we will do so faithfully, we will find that Christ can be triumphant in our nation again, just as He was in Rome.