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I have a feeling that this is going to be one of the most popular episodes that I have ever done, because I am going to tell you to pay your taxes.
Oh, you were just waiting for this episode, weren't you? Well, it's in the Bible to pay your taxes when we understand the text.
You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. Day two of Just Me and the Kids. While my wife is in Indianapolis for the
Gospel Coalition Women's Conference, going pretty well. They did pretty good that first day. In fact, I mostly just wore them out.
We went out to Homer's Pond here in Junction City and decided to walk around it. Kids thought it was a great idea.
I wasn't going to try to force them to do that, but they were like, yeah, let's go all the way around. So we got two -thirds of the way around, and they decided that wasn't such a great idea.
But anyway, we had picked the hottest day of the year to do it, 105 degrees.
Hadn't gotten up that high yet in 2016, but that's what it was yesterday. So then the rest of the day, the kids were worn out.
It actually was a pretty good evening. Omi and Opa came over, took them out to eat while we had
Bible study here at the house. And because of an imposing storm, we didn't have too many people here at the house, but it was still good.
Sat around and talked about the genealogy of Christ, even though we were supposed to be studying Joshua. We're supposed to be studying
Romans chapter 13. So let's go there. Romans 13, we'll read through one through seven, and we're going to finish up this section today.
Beginning in verse one, let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment.
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?
Then do what is good and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain.
For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection not only to avoid
God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes for the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing.
Pay to all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed.
Respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Let's go back to verse three.
Then do what is good and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good.
And we talked about this yesterday. So if you do what is good, if you are a law abiding citizen, you meet the approval of the person who is in authority.
Not like Barack Obama's looking down at you going, good job, Stan, I appreciate you and knows you by name.
But rather, you're not wanted by the law and the law is not after you. There's not a warrant out for your arrest.
You don't have outstanding crimes against your name. So therefore, in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of the of the authority that has been placed over this particular government, you meet his approval.
So going on in verse four, but if you do wrong, be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out
God's wrath on the wrongdoer. So when the government comes down on a person for breaking the law, they are doing what
God has appointed them to do. This is the authority that they have to promote good things and discourage bad things.
That's the service of government, which we had there in verse three. Rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.
So by keeping the law or upholding the law and punishing those who break the law, the person who is in authority is a servant of God.
You can apply a police officer to this as well. So we're not just talking about presidents and kings and governors and things like that, but anybody within a civic government who would have a position of authority or deserves honor for being an authoritarian in that particular government.
They are the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
Now apply this verse four to the context of what we read at the end of chapter 12.
I'm going to go back to verse 19. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.
So remember here that the authoritarian in the government is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out
God's wrath on the wrongdoer. So when those who are lawbreakers are being punished by the law keeper,
God's wrath is being poured out on those who broke the law. So let me go on here in verse 12.
For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. That was verse 19.
Chapter 12, verse 19. Okay, here's verse 20. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Now verse 21. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Now there are two ways that this verse tends to be viewed. When a person is evil, they're, you know, everybody's evil, but I'm saying that they're doing malicious acts toward other people, or perhaps they are treating you with ill intent.
You respond to them with kindness rather than responding to them in the same way that they are treating you, and you are able to overcome their evil deeds, perhaps even convict them in their hearts of what it is that they are doing to you, and they will repent of that behavior.
Okay? That's one way that we interpret verse 21. Here's another way that we interpret it. Whenever somebody does an evil criminal act, then all of the good things that people are doing in a community in response to that evil is overcoming the evil that was done.
More good flourishes in the community instead. To give you an example of this, after the horrific shooting that took place in Orlando this past weekend, the victims of that shooting desperately in need of blood, and there were people standing outside blood donation centers in lines that were five, six, seven hours long, but they stayed in those lines anyway.
Even when they were told that's how long the wait would be, they stayed there anyway in the hot Florida heat until they could get inside and be able to donate blood.
Chick -fil -A, which is now this was happening on a Sunday, Chick -fil -A is typically closed on Sunday.
Well, they made food and took food out to those who were standing in those lines to donate blood.
And Chick -fil -A, one of those organizations that has taken flack in the past for being anti -gay because of statements that Dan Cathy made,
Dan Cathy, one of the owners of Chick -fil -A, saying that marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman.
And so there were people from the gay community that said that Chick -fil -A was hateful toward gay people, which is not the case at all.
And of course, this shooting, in case I didn't mention it, happened at a gay bar there in Orlando. And yet this is the way that Chick -fil -A is serving in their community.
A lot of other great acts have come out of this as well, showing people rallying around one another in the midst of a tragedy.
There's a quote by Fred Rogers. You've probably heard this before of Mr. Rogers neighborhood. He said, when
I was a boy, I would see scary things in the news and my mother would say to me, look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.
So this is another way that we read Romans 12 21. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
When an evil act happens, you will see good things rising up in a community to in response to that evil act.
I'm going to add a third interpretation of verse 21. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Do not be in despair when evil comes against you, nor take the matter into your own hands, but leave it to the government, the civic order, the law that has been established to respond to that evil and, and therefore bring good about by punishing those who have done evil.
That is an appropriate definition to apply to verse 21, given that the same language is being used in chapter 13 to describe how the person who is in authority is the
Lord's servant, an Avenger who carries out wrath on the wrongdoer. So if you have somebody that breaks into your home and steal stuff, do you, you know, grab your gun and go chase the guy down and gun him down in the street?
No. If you caught who the person was, maybe you saw the vehicle as it was pulling out. You are able to tell law enforcement who you saw, what you saw, and then they can try to track down the person and justice will be served.
And that's the way that it should be, that it's left in the hands of the law to take care of those matters rather than rather than every person is a law unto themselves.
Because then you just have chaos, then it's anarchy, and then it's, you know, subjective.
It's whatever one person thinks the law is, another person's not going to feel the same way about the law.
So this is one way that the law helps to discourage evil and promote the good.
And so we leave it in the hands of the law to carry out wrath on the wrongdoer. Then we go on to verse five, chapter 13, verse five, therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid
God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. Now, that's a strange statement. I mean,
I understand that if I resist an authority that God has established, then I'm going to be under God's judgment.
I understand that. But why does the conscience come into play into this? Well, because your conscience tells you that submitting to the government is right.
And so when you break the law, you violate your own conscience. This conscience that God has given to each and every person we read previously in chapter two, verse 15, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.
So we all understand that there is a law, there is a right and wrong way to do things.
And so when we see the law of the government that has been set before us, our conscience knows that to obey the law is the right thing.
Whenever we break the law, we have violated our own conscience. So we must be in subjection not only to avoid
God's wrath, but also for the sake of our own conscience. For because of this,
Paul goes on in verse six, you also pay taxes for the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing.
So in order for the government to do the work that God has appointed for that government to do, it needs money in order to operate.
Correct. People need to be paid for the job that they are doing, which is why you pay your taxes. So you are in subjection to the authority that God has established.
That means you must pay your taxes. There is simply no way around this text in what is being said here.
Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed. You as a
Christian cannot say because the government is legalizing abortion and even using tax dollars to pay for abortion.
The government is, despite what the Hyde Amendment has been passed to prevent, the government is using your tax dollars to kill infants.
OK, but you as a Christian say to yourself, well, I don't want to support that kind of thing, so I'm not going to pay my taxes.
That's not on you. That's on the government. The government is going to have to answer for the three thousand babies that are being aborted every single day.
The law that is allowing that to happen and the tax dollars that are paying for it, that's on the government, that's not on you.
You still have to pay your taxes because your taxes are they're not just paying for abortions.
I mean, that's a small fraction of the money that you contribute to the government. But most of it is going to pay for the military, pay for our law enforcement, pay for people who work in the civic government in which we live, the cities and states and then federal government.
And now there's a lot of things that the government does that you're not going to agree with. But God's not judging you for those decisions that the government makes.
What you will be held accountable for is whether or not you paid your taxes, because God has established that authority and that authority needs money in order to operate.
So we pay our taxes. Jesus was asked, should we pay taxes to Caesar or not?
And Jesus, of course, knew that the question that was being asked of him, they were trying to catch him in a catch 22.
If he said, don't pay your taxes, well, then the Roman government was going to come down on him. And if he said, pay your taxes, then the
Jewish people were going to hate him because because the taxes were going to the Roman government who was oppressing the
Jewish people. But Jesus said, show me a denarius. And so they gave him a coin and he says, whose image is on this coin?
And they said, Caesar's. And Jesus said, then render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and render unto
God that which belongs to God. Now, in that statement that he made, he's implying there that you have been made in the image of God.
So you must render yourself unto God since his image is on you.
What a wonderful I mean, what a brilliant response that Jesus was a brilliant guy.
Yeah, it was it was such a wise response to that particular question.
Not not just being witty, he's giving a command. It is a command of God that we pay our taxes.
There was that fellow, that independent fundamentalist Kent Hoven several years ago had gotten in big trouble with the government because he wouldn't pay his taxes owed millions to the government.
They ended up requiring him only to have to pay one and a half million, which he would not pay. So he ended up going to prison.
And I think he just got out last year, something like that. He's back on YouTube now doing devotionals and things.
The guy's pretty crazy. And he was also living in sin because he was opposing something that is directly stated in Scripture.
We must pay our taxes. Understand that as Paul is giving this command in Romans chapter 13, this is the
Roman government that is in power here. And yet Paul is saying, respect that authority and pay your taxes.
So a tyrannical government as radical as Rome was. And yet we here today are called to pay our taxes.
And that is a biblical command. So let us do so. Let's finish up here. Chapter 13, pay to all what is owed to them.
Taxes to whom taxes erode. And let me add this also. Sorry, let me jump back in on this a little bit.
You got to pay your taxes joyfully. If Paul's instruction in First Thessalonians five is to give thanks in all circumstances for this is
God's will for you in Christ Jesus, you need to give thanks even when you pay your taxes. If Paul's instruction in Philippians four, four is to rejoice always.
I will say it again. Rejoice. Then you must rejoice even when you pay your taxes. Yes, you have to do it with a happy heart.
So anyway, paid all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed.
Respect to whom respect is owed. Honor to whom honor is owed.
And as Peter concluded his section on being submissive to the governing authorities, honor the emperor.
Even our president of the United States deserves our respect. No, despite the fact that he's a fox to use the word that Jesus used to describe
Herod, but he still deserves our respect. If we would oppose the things that it is that he says, we must respond to those things respectfully and within the confines of the law.
Otherwise we are disobeying God and we are also going against our own conscience.
Our conscience, which was given to us by God and tells us that we should obey the government, follow the law, our great
God, we thank you so much for your word and the instructions that we have been given, and I pray that we would have a heart that is more respectful of those people who are in positions of authority that we would pray for them.
Knowing that they are men and women who are created in the image of God. They don't just represent an ideology.
They are people. And so we pray for their hearts that they would desire godly counsel and they would lead this country in a right way.
The decisions that they make would be honoring to you as well.
And so therefore promoting things not only that are good within our civic government, but things that are honoring to the
Lord, but even when those authorities, not if, but when, even when those authorities are, uh, are going to go about evil ways and doing evil things, there will be a time and a place for us to respond to some of the decisions that they make, but let us do so respectfully and still showing honor to the emperor, still paying our taxes and revenue to, uh, whom we owe our revenues.
Uh, let us be able to do this with a right heart so that nobody can bring any charge against us, except that we were followers of Jesus Christ.
Let the gospel be proclaimed. And it is you whom we serve forced first and foremost as king of all in the name of Jesus, we pray.
Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt