Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Matthew 22:21

Matthew 22:21. Cesar's. Imperial money was current among them. ‘Wherever any king's money is current, there that king is lord;' is reported as a Rabbinical saying. The standard currency is an indication or symbol of the civil authority; the right to coin has usually implied the right to exact tribute.

Render therefore unto Cesar, etc. Render to ‘the powers that be,' the service due them. Comp. Romans 13:1-7. Obedience to this precept would have spared Jerusalem, but the subtlest snare they devised for our Lord became their own destruction.

Unto God the things that are God's. Religious duties are to be rendered to God. Possibly a hint that in denying Him, they denied the honor due to God, and also a reference to man as bearing the image of God, so that political and religious duties are distinguished, but not divided. The Jews themselves were under tribute to Cesar, because they had not rendered God His dues. Real religion makes men better citizens, since it enjoins a religious fulfilment of political obligations. The few exceptional cases that arise are to be decided by the principle of Acts 5:29. Under a free government, this religious fulfilment of political duties is essential to preserve the State against anarchy. This answer settles in principle, though not in detail, the relations of Church and State. Both are of Divine origin and authority: the one for the temporal, the other for the eternal welfare of men. They ought to be kept distinct and independent in their respective spheres, without mixture and confusion, and yet without antagonism, but rather in friendly relation in view of their common origin in God, and their common end and completion in ‘the kingdom of glory' where God shall be all in all.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Matthew 22:21

Old Testament

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