Paying Taxes To Ungodly Governments
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles
In the life of Jesus, the Pharisees and Sadducees would often seek to entrap Jesus with questions so as to destroy His influence as a teacher among the Jewish people. Matthew records one attempt to trap Him by the Pharisees (Matthew 22:15).
Note that they “took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.” The word “entangle” in the Greek, is the word, “pagideuo” which means “to ensnare, entrap,” like a bird caught in a hidden noose of thread. Thus, the Pharisees sent out their disciples along with the Herodians (Matthew 22:16).
Luke calls these emissaries, “spies which should feign themselves just men”. Their intent was to “take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor” (Luke 20:20).
The Herodians were a minor political, non-religious group, who were supporters of the Herodian regime. It galled the Pharisees to have to pay taxes to a foreign power like Rome, therefore they were enemies of the Herodians who naturally favored the Roman tax, since it was the means of their livelihood.
However, on this occasion, they joined hands with the Herodians, who would serve as witnesses to Herod, hopefully being able to say, “dare Jesus say that it was unlawful to pay tax to the Roman government.”
Hence, the setting for the baited question:
“Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?” (Matthew 22:17).
Jesus perceived their wicked intent and their pretentious flattery, and knew that they asked the question to tempt Him. Nevertheless, He answers their question with such wisdom that they marvelled and left Him (Matthew 22:22).
His answer was simple – since the denarius had Caesar’s inscription on it, it belonged to Caesar; therefore, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21).
Jesus taught that taxes were to be paid even to Rome, the most ungodly nation and government the world had ever known up to that time.
Today, we find ourselves under a similar ungodly government that uses our tax dollars to subsidize the murder of unborn infants and promotes the perverted immorality of homosexuality. Still, we are not excused from paying taxes (Romans 13:6-7).
Rest assured that worldly governments will be held responsible to God for their ungodly deeds (cf. Psalm 9:16-17; Psalm 75:1-8; Jeremiah 25:12-14; Jeremiah 50:29; Jeremiah 51:6; Daniel 2:21; Daniel 4:17).
Related Articles:
- Assessing Our Taxes
- Submitting To Unjust Governments
- Exploiting Human Weakness: A Look At Vice Taxation
- “What Would Jesus Do?”
- Defending Human Life
- When Freedom Becomes a License for Evil