“In this world nothing can
be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
So said Benjamin Franklin over two hundred years ago, and his famous
saying still holds true today. Though
preachers speak very often about the first of 'life’s two certainties', it is
good to remind ourselves that the Bible has something to say about the other
too.
Taxes have been in the news rather a lot this month. Quite a storm broke when it was revealed that
some of the entertainers who had performed in the Jubilee concert outside
Buckingham Palace, men who were already fabulously wealthy, were using a scheme
which enabled them to pay just 1% income tax.
Although the scheme was perfectly legal, it did nothing to improve these
stars’ popularity. One of the jokes that
went around was that the OBE that was recently awarded to one of the organizers
of that concert stood for ‘Offshore Banking Expert!’
The Prime Minister even weighed into the debate, talking
about the questionable morality of what was happening. Though it might be asked whether he was in a
position to throw stones, leading a party financed largely by people who avoid
tax in the same way, and leading a government that is set on further
undermining Biblical moral standards,
especially those relating to marriage, is of course another matter.
What does the Bible say?
As we saw in our recent studies on Abraham, the Bible always calls upon
Christians to be the best of citizens, and as far as it is possible before God
to obey the laws of the land. The Lord
Jesus told his hearers to “Render to
Caesar (the earthly authority of His day) the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.” (Matthew
22:21). The Apostle Paul repeated that
in Romans that command in Romans 13, reminding us that the earthly authorities
are God's ministers. That is
particularly striking when we remember the way that the government of Paul's
day mistreated the Christian church. We
should pay our taxes whatever we think of the way they are used.
But though you may pay your taxes honestly and on time,
indeed though you may be the best citizen of an earthly kingdom in every way,
there is something more that is required to be a citizen of God's Kingdom. That is the eternal Kingdom that entered this
world with the first coming of Christ and will come in power at His second
coming. We need to be rendering to God
what is His due. That is a life of
worship and thanksgiving. It is the
awareness of His holiness and of our sinfulness. It is a continual cry of
repentance and faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent into the world as
an answer to our selfishness and pride, and who has died to give us eternal
life if we come to Him. All the
tax-paying morality in the world cannot save us. Only He can!
