Long Island Abundant Life Church長島豐盛生命教會
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  Long Island Abundant Life Church長島豐盛生命教會

Luke 20:19-40

5/2/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Taxes
We are again in the situation we were in yesterday:  we've covered both pericopes that are in today's passage when we were in Matthew and Mark.  When we talked about this passage before, I approached it from the "big picture" standpoint: that the purpose of the passage is that we should render to God what is made in His image - that is, our whole selves.  Today's post will be a little more specific and practical that that big idea:  as citizens of a country, we need to pay our taxes.

The big point that Jesus is making here is that we need to present ourselves to God because we are made in His image, but let's not miss the small point as well:  Jesus affirms that we should pay taxes. 

Christians should be known for their respect and integrity in ALL interactions, even those with the government.  From Bock: "We are called to serve, to display righteousness and personal integrity in the midst of a world that is slow to acknowledge the presence of sin and moral accountability. " [1]

A few practical thoughts on what this means in terms of taxes:

1. Pray for our government leaders, specifically that the funds they collect will be used for good purposes.

2. Pay your taxes on time.

3. Don't complain.  We live in a very privileged country and should constantly be thanking God that we are not persecuted for our faith and have an amazing amount of freedom.  If you want something changed, use your freedom to do something about that change, don't just complain about it.

4. Do your taxes with integrity.  Taxes are confusing.  Do them honestly and to the best of your ability.  Take any credits/breaks you qualify for, but the goal is not to get back the most money possible:  it's to do all things with honesty and integrity.  Don't lie or deceive about the money you've made, even if you know you'll never get caught. 

Again, the main idea is that in EVERYTHING we should conduct ourselves as if God is our master/governor/president, because He has put all of those authorities in place.  Because of this, we act honestly, even when no one is looking (Colossians 3:22). 

These are just a few thoughts/suggestions.  Any other thoughts or suggestions?

[1] Darrell L. Bock, The NIV Application Commentary: Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 514.
Andrei
5/2/2012 07:01:08 pm

For some reason, this made me think of Martin Luther King Jr. I think it has something to do with the theme of following the law as Christians. Does paying taxes fall under that general umbrella that we've talked before about Christians being under the law as well?
I know I asked questions before about this, so I'll put up a redundancy alert; my bad if I've asked a similar question. I know it has been mentioned before that Christians should only not follow the law if the law is totally opposed to God or something? Seems like there might be a lot of room for grey areas on that? (sorry if my questions aren't making sense; i'm in the middle of staying up to do a school assignment right now)

Greg
5/3/2012 03:48:08 am

It is true that there are cases that the governmental law may be in conflict with God's laws. Those cases (particularly in our country) are few and taxes definitely would not fall under that category. How would paying taxes be against God's law? Jesus here even says that we should pay them. I don't think it does any good to say "But the government will use that money for something bad, so I can/should stick it to them" because Jesus was saying that they should pay taxes to the ROMAN government, which was much more questionable in its decisions than our own. It is true that there are cases where we must obey God rather than man, but they are very few and we should be VERY careful about claiming them. The vast majority of Biblical passages that mention government say we should obey, pray, and support it because it was put there by God. We in our country do have a right to petition and protest if we don't like something, but even as Christians I think if we do use that right it should be done respectfully and uprightly. Making use of our rights in a democracy is not a blank check to be a jerk.

There could be grey areas possibly, but you have to take them on a case-by-case basis. The thing to be careful with those is that you are always checking your heart and asking "Do I oppose this because it's wrong, or just because I don't want to do it?" We as Christians need to make a discipline of being wise and always checking our own motives with integrity.

Gina
5/3/2012 12:57:03 am

This is one of my favorite passages. I marvel how Jesus answered the question just by using a Coin.(peg right in) He put things in perspective about our role/responsibility towards God and the present life we live in.

Greg
5/3/2012 03:48:41 am

Amen!

Rachel Vruggink
5/3/2012 06:37:49 am

Great thoughts today! Very applicable to our lives!


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