WE SHOULD PAY OUR TAXES

ROMANS 13:6–7

Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor

(Romans 13:7).

One of the problems we face as Christians is that we are supposed to pay taxes and tithes, and yet the institutions that receive these revenues sometimes use the money for evil purposes. For instance, our government today uses our tax money to finance abortion. Similarly, some of us belong to churches in denominations that support communist revolutions, terrorism, and abortion.

Do we have the right to “vote with our pocketbooks” by refusing to pay tithes and taxes? As regards paying tithes to the church, let me say this: When we join a church we take a vow before God to support that church with our tithes. If the officers of that church sometimes use the tithe in ways we disapprove of, that is simply something we have to live with. We are accountable before God to pay the tithe; they are accountable before God to administer it properly.

The same is true as regards taxes. Paul says that we are accountable to pay our taxes. We are not personally accountable if our rulers misuse tax revenues. We should work for change, but meanwhile we need to submit. We notice that this verse states that we are to pay the authorities what is “due” to them, what we properly owe them. Some have taken this to mean that we do not have to pay whatever taxes they happen to demand, but only those the Bible explicitly authorizes. The argument runs like this: The Bible does not authorize income taxes, so income taxes are not properly “due” to the magistrate, and for that reason Christians don’t have to pay them. In other words, if the tax is not just, I am not obligated to pay it. This certainly seems like straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. Paul does not set out any exceptions here. He is discussing our obligation to pay, not the government’s obligation to tax properly.

CORAM DEO

We certainly do need some changes in our government today and in our taxing structure. If refusing to pay taxes is not a legitimate way to bring about change, what are some proper alternatives? What specific things can and should Christians do to bring about a more just society? What can you personally do?

For further study: Micah 6:1–8; Matthew 23:23–28; Hebrews 13:15–21

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