Some people once came to Jesus, sent to him by the Pharisees, with a very difficult question, it was, "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar?"* They hoped that Jesus would reply in such a way that they would be able to take him prisoner and bring him before the court. But as we know he replied, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's". There is in fact much to be said for people nowadays looking a bit more closely at this Solomonic answer that Christ gave to these Pharisaical hypocrites. In this ingenious answer lies one of life's greatest occult truths. It is not so much a caution against avoiding paying tax as it is an indication of divine behaviour. It is worthy of note that Jesus asked to see the tribute money. They showed him a denarius, whereupon he asked, "Whose is this image and name?" and they answered "It is Caesar's". He then said to them, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's". The Pharisees' messengers were puzzled by this answer, but they couldn't find any fault with him. His answer was completely above criticism. But why were these people puzzled? Was not his answer something obvious, a straightforward caution against tax evasion? No, within the answer lies a whole world of wisdom, the magnitude of which makes the issue of paying tax seem quite insignificant; in fact it does not have any meaning at all. And nevertheless the Pharisees' representatives had to go away ashamed. Jesus had replied to them in such a way that he was above criticism both in the eyes of God and of people, and without him actually having directly answered what he had been asked about.

As Jesus did not say that one should of course pay tax to Caesar, but said, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's", there must be two different kinds of ownership, namely, Caesar's and God's. So what is Caesar's ownership and what is God's? Jesus showed directly and explicitly what was the property of Caesar, because he pointed to the coin and asked whose image and name was imprinted on it. When they answered "Caesar's" he said that one should render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. The object of Caesar's ownership was in fact precisely Caesar's image and name on the coin. Jesus did not say, "In that case give Caesar the coin". He was speaking expressly about Caesar's image and name. Our physical appearance, the form of the organism that we live in and the name of this organism are the only things we possess, whether we are Caesar or any other person. Everything else is God's property, and therefore neither Caesar's property nor our own. Even what we produce with our own organism, everything that we create, is in the absolute sense the work of God. We are organs in God's body; it is "in Him we live, move and have our being". It is because of this principle - that all living beings are organs of God - that our organism has come about at all. Are not our parents those organs in God's body by means of which our organs have come about? Without these parents it would have been impossible for our existence today to have formed itself in the way it has. In the same way as our parents are the organs through which our present organism came about, we are each of us an organ through which God creates or manifests quite irrespective of what this manifestation might look like. We therefore owe God absolutely everything that we can manifest, everything that we are able to produce. So in the absolute sense we cannot own any part of Nature at all, nor anything that we ourselves have produced. Everything is God's property with the exception of our appearance and our name or that sign by means of which we can be recognised. A terrestrial human is an organ in God's organism in the same way that an eye is an organ in the terrestrial human's organism. A lion or a tiger is an organ through which God can manifest that special type of behaviour and way of being of the beast of prey. A cannibal is an organ through which a similar type of behaviour and way of being is displayed, at the same time as the divine creative faculty in a small way has begun to unfold within him as human powers of thought. The tiny lark is an organ through which God creates a special form of beautiful sound, song and jubilation that can bring joy to other living beings right through the summer. In the same way the manifestations of all living beings are the work of God, the property of God, whether it be what the worker makes in the factory, what the artist creates in his studio or what the scientist or technician produces. It can never rightfully end up belonging to any other being at all, not even to the person who produced it.

So who are God's organs for receiving what each of us produces or creates, products, creations and that thus belong to God? They are not kings or emperors or other institutions set up by humans, but every single being, human or animal, plant or mineral, that comes under the influence of our manifestation. Whichever form of concentrated life, whichever living being we experience is our neighbour. And it is to our neighbour that we owe all taxes, indeed, every single thing we can do. The tax Christ demanded of the Pharisees' messengers is, in reality, a far greater tax than that charged by the state, a tax which the Pharisees thought they would be able to get Christ to reject. Ordinary tax evasion is, in fact, insignificant compared to the degree that one evades paying tax to one's neighbour, which is commonplace on the present evolutionary step of terrestrial humans. This avoidance of paying tax to one's neighbour is so widespread that seizing one's own creations and valuing them at one price or another, at such and such an hourly rate, seems to be a vital necessity, something that is absolutely essential for existence. Everyone is evading paying tax to everyone else; it has become a vital necessity, a common and natural occurrence that in order to live one has to first of all look after oneself.

As human life is at the moment, there is not much time, nor can people afford, to live for their neighbour. The person who really wants to live only for his neighbour in the absolute sense will be robbed and exploited, quite apart from the fact that he will be seen as eccentric or odd, someone not in full possession of his senses. He will end up in the workhouse or in an institution for social welfare, and then the possibility of being of benefit to the whole would be severely reduced. It is not through fanaticism that one contributes to developing peace and justice, but through logic, through an understanding of what is the most loving thing to do in that particular situation. Here the prayer that Christ taught mankind is of fundamental significance: "Father, not my will, but thy will be done". Through this attuning of his consciousness he always did what was of the most benefit to the whole in any particular situation, and that is why he was also able to say, "What I do, I do not do of myself, but the Father does through me".

As society is organised at the moment, parents are forced to have their children develop those faculties and talents that give the greatest economic return. The object in life that people are most interested in is money. With money people think they can safeguard their lives, so that they don't become other people's slaves, but instead can pay other people to be slaves for them. The main problem in existence is to do with money, to do with maintaining the upper hand economically and keeping others down. The whole of present-day civilisation is by and large simply profit-mongering, a struggle for money. And the system is so complex that even an ordinary worker's so-called tax liability to the state and local authority has to be worked out by experts. Many people are completely unable to understand how to fill in their tax returns, and if they have to buy or sell a property, that also has to be taken care of by experts to make sure that they are not taken advantage of and end up paying more money for it than it is worth. That a civilisation, still so bound by the law of the jungle or the right of the stronger, is a world of discord, a "hell", is quite natural. And this discord is therefore based on a cosmic tax evasion that rules all present-day existence and destroys all joy, peace and well-being. Christ's advice to render unto God the things that are God's is not just an empty phrase or something quite superfluous, because doing what is in every situation of benefit to the whole is the way to peace and "the kingdom of heaven".

It is not so remarkable that Christ says, "My kingdom is not of this world" because his world is the one where one would rather give than take, and where one would rather serve than be served. But he also says, "The kingdom of heaven is within you". The longing for world peace is becoming stronger and stronger in an ever-increasing number of people. More and more people cannot bear to kill, they cannot bear to do another person any harm, it hurts them to see others suffering. All this is the beginning of "the kingdom of heaven" or the united nations of the world, that will come about around us, when we, through our thinking, feeling and acting, sow the kingdom of heaven that is within us. Christ sowed, with his own life, a seed in which all the peoples of the world would be blessed. But it is not enough that he sowed it; he is an example for us to follow. He also said, "Take up thy cross and follow me".

One does not follow Christ by being a religious or political fanatic wanting to bring about a revolution by force or in any other way suddenly wanting to try to create better conditions than those we have at the moment. It cannot happen, neither by miracles nor through dictatorship. Mankind is in the midst of a colossal evolutionary process and at the moment is experiencing the downfall of one world civilisation and the birth of a new one, and just as it has taken its time for mankind to evolve from plant to animal and from animal to the present-day terrestrial human condition, so the further evolution towards world peace or "the true human kingdom" cannot happen all at once either. Admittedly, terrestrial mankind is in the midst of a forced evolution, viewed in relation to the amount of time it has taken to get from the animal kingdom proper to the present-day jungle mentality. But terrestrial mankind must of necessity go through the phases or evolutionary stages where it gains the experiences without which a world of peace would never become a reality.

Many people have now reached that stage in evolution where they are able to be a divine tool in the creation of "a new heaven and a new earth", which means a new mental attitude to life and an ensuing new way of behaving towards one's neighbour in everyday life. It is the mission of spiritual science to provide inspiration for human beings who are seeking in this great process of change. Dogma and religious fanaticism cannot change the world; only logic based on the cosmic laws or neighbourly love will little by little be able to create world peace through each individual person's manifestation of life. Without this change there is absolutely no possibility of bringing about peace on earth. Wars and workers' unrest, periods of scarcity, unemployment and idleness, destitution, distress and misery, hatred and bitterness will for still some time to come be commonplace traditions in this world and partly prevent the true human light, absolute joy, peace and blessing from gaining a footing. But the more the individual person endeavours "to render unto God the things that are God's", that is, gives to the whole their creativity, their joy in living and their love, without first and foremost thinking about what they can get in return for it, the more he or she will move onto the same wavelength as the keynote of the universe and will experience the great truth that lies behind the words of the world redeemer, "Whatever I do, I do not do of myself, but the Father does through me".