Who is responsible for taking care of the poor? Previously we said God did not assign this role to Caesar (government) but rather to the individual. How each of us responds to the needy gives evidence of where we stand with Christ. (Matthew 25:31-46)

Notice what John the Baptist told his audience when they inquired as to how they should conduct their daily affairs. "So the people asked him, saying, 'What shall we do then?' He answered and said to them, 'He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.'" (Luke 3:10-11)

The man with two coats, two meals, is called by God to freely, willingly and cheerfully give to the man who is without. One man gives, testifying to the providence and provision of the Heavenly Father. The other receives giving glory and gratitude to the same Father. And hopefully, a relationship, both horizontally and vertically, can be established. This is God's will.

Now, let's change the previous statement. Two men, two coats, two meals and an interloper named, Caesar. Caesar confiscates the extra coat, the extra meal by taxation from the first man, and then has a bureaucrat send the bounty to the second man. The first man is robbed of his opportunity and responsibility to help the one in need, they both lose any possibility of relationship and neither man can testify to the providence and glory of God. The second man will soon come to rely on and give allegiance to whom? That is correct - Caesar. This is not God's will.

Why then are there so many professing Christians sanctioning Caesar's plunder? Why ignore the immorality of the pilfering of the first man's goods? Why so content to drop the needy man into Caesar's all too welcoming enslaving arms? Because far too many professing Christians ignore Scripture and render to Caesar what belongs to God.

Next time - A Babylonian education.