“Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”(Mark 12:17). Jesus is clear. We have a responsibility to the State and we have a responsibility to God.
Our responsibility to the State has to do with justice. As citizens we have rights and we have duties, we have entitlements and we have obligations. We give and we take, we put in and we withdraw, we contribute and we receive, we pay our takes and we claim our benefits. Not to pay our taxes is exploitation of the State and unfair to other people, our fellow citizens. Not to pay our taxes is unjust practice.
We also have a responsibility to God. At its most fundamental our responsibility to God is based on the fact that God is our Creator. God made us. God gave us the gift of life. God brought us into being and continues to hold us in being. God is also our Liberator. In Jesus, God has saved us from the destructive power of evil and death, from annihilation. Our primary responsibility to God therefore is to acknowledge God as our Creator and our Liberator and to thank God for the gift of life and the gift of salvation. This in fact is what we do when we celebrate the Eucharist. The word Eucharist literally means thanksgiving.
If our responsibility to the State has to do with justice, our responsibility to God has to do with love. The truth is our responsibility to God should be motivated by love. God’s motive for creating and liberating us is love, pure unconditional love. To believe this, to know in our hearts that God loves us passionately, leads us to love God in return. Love begets love. What God wants with each of us is a loving relationship. If our faith is built around a loving relationship with God then we will naturally and spontaneously give back to God the things that belong to God.