Unlimited: Pay Your Taxes
Sep 5, 2023 438
This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing (Romans 13:6).
The Bible never shies away from the issues that deal with our pockets, because how we deal with our wallets reflects how we deal with God.
Since earthly governments have required taxes, there has been tax-avoidance. In the time of the apostle Paul, Rome was the authority that governed the world, and all taxes were ultimately given to Caesar. On the one hand, Roman rule ensured peace, but on the other, it was harsh and oppressive.
What does your attitude towards your payment of taxes reveal about you as a Christian?
The Jews were a conquered people. It was because most Jews disagreed with having to pay taxes to their Roman conquerors, that in order to try to trap Jesus, the Pharisees asked him whether it was right to pay taxes to the emperor. Jesus responded,
“Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Mark 12:15–17.)
Many people try to pay as little tax as possible, and to use whatever legal loopholes they can find to hide their income and minimize their tax. Just because something is border-line legal doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t make it any less a sin.
Spiritual Application
What does your attitude towards your payment of taxes reveal about you as a Christian?
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