Pay your taxes

For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour. – Romans 13.6-7

Taxes. Yuck. It's a topic we all wish we could avoid. Nobody likes the idea of dealing with taxes. We would all just rather ignore it.

Some folks even claim that if we don’t like what the government is doing we don’t have to pay taxes. Other folks look for ways to cheat the tax man. Others falsify records or fail to report income in order to avoid paying their due.

There are even Christians who fall into this trap. There are several cases where pastors or Christian leaders in America are in jail because they refused to pay their taxes. Here in Ireland only recently an entire church was taken over by the revenue office because the pastors had refused to do the right thing and properly handle their taxes. This was Ireland’s one mega-church and it was very visible.

We have to ask what kind of testimony that leaves. The church that was just shut down here in Ireland had been unscrupulous in their business dealings since they started. I have had people ask me ‘you’re not like them are you?’

This kind of behaviour does not make martyrs. It is not persecution. There is no excuse. It only causes harm to the body of Christ. 

The answer is simple. It is right here in verses 6-7. ‘Pay your taxes.’

It is like what we saw above. We do what is right and we trust God with the results. Doing wrong never profits in any regard. If we think our tax structure is unfair and we live in a country where we have a voice we can of course try to change it. But we can’t just ignore.

We must may our taxes. We must do it according to the law. We must do right. 

That is clear. To fail to do so is sin.