March 13, 2013
Tax Season
Like a big dark cloud of unfinished business hanging over my head, I never
feel I can actually start the New Year until I get my income taxes done for last
year. Sitting across the desk from my tax preparer I know that he is not a
government tax collector, but he is the closest thing I have to putting a human
face on an electronic filing. Paying taxes seems less painful after I’ve read
Paul's explanation, “This is also why you
pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to
governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if
revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.” (Ro
13:6-7 NIV)
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Gail;
-----Merely because we have to pay taxes does not mean we must automatically have any right or opportunity to direct their usage or effect what the government is. God just tells us, “Pay.” Since the government has the power to direct and effect most aspects of our lives, with or without respect and honor for us, we need feel no more guilt about or spiritual connection to how it uses our money than we would about what a thief does with his booty. Paying taxes to a government which punishes production, responsibility, and uprightness while rewarding consumption, irresponsibility, and debauchery does not mean you are participating in its indiscretion. It just means you’ve been robbed by what God empowered to protect you.
-----The only payment remaining, then, will be for that government to make before God. God might call upon His righteous people to collect this debt now; not all revolutions are evil, bloody, and disastrous. Or the payable might ride God’s books until a more ominous time for wicked governments. “He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from my Father.” (Rev 2:26-27) As good and bad servants alike are wont to do, all governments will give account for how they used what they exacted. Now, pay your taxes with a confident, wry smile.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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