Taxes: A Fallen World Under Authority

Governments: Necessary in a Fallen World

After the flood, God commanded Noah to be fruitful and fill the earth in a repetition of his command to Adam. Part of that command included instituting the death penalty for murder:

And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Genesis 9:5–6)

This has been interpreted as a command to institute governments to enact the death penalty and justice more generally.1 Luther commented, “This is the source from which spring all civil laws and the laws of nations. If God grants man the power of life and death, he certainly also grants power in matters of lesser importance—power over property, family, wife, children, servants, and fields. God wills that these things shall be under the control of certain men, who are to punish the guilty.”2

A command that required a government to enforce it would imply that citizens have a duty to fund the government’s essential functions. In a fallen world, of course, government rarely keeps to “essential functions.”

Israel’s Tithe: A Theocracy Tax

In ancient Israel, the entire tribe of Levi was set apart as priests and temple workers, and the Israelite religion specified temple sacrifices and duties. To pay for all of this, the Israelites were commanded to give tithes. While we think of a tithe as 10% of our income, and this is technically what it means, the existence of several different tithes meant that as much as 30% of an Israelite’s gain in property and money would be “taxed” in this way. In addition to the Levitical tithe (Numbers 18:21–24), there was also a “festival tithe” (Deuteronomy 14:22–27) and, in some years, a tithe to care for Levites and various classes of poor people (Deuteronomy 14:28–29)—though the inclusion of Levites in the latter tithe makes some interpreters think that the tithe for the poor replaced the tithe of the Levite in the third and sixth years.

This highlights a crucial difference between the Israelite tithe and Christian giving. Christians are commanded to give generously, and in some cases, this might exceed a tithe! Paul explicitly said that ministers deserve to be paid for their work, and he headed up an offering for the poor in Jerusalem. But nowhere in the New Testament is this generous giving explicitly linked with the OId Testament tithe. Different denominations interpret the relationship between the tithe and giving in the church differently, but the essential takeaway is that both in the Old Testament and New Testament, believers are commanded to give generously for the worship of God!

Taxes in the Monarchy: The Greed of Powerful Men

During the period of the Judges, there was no centralized government over the entire Israelite nation. They appeared to have organized around a family structure of tribes, clans, and families, with different people having authority over different areas. But this lack of a political head encouraged surrounding nations to attack. During times of spiritual faithfulness, God would grant them victory over their enemies, but at other times when they strayed, they were left at the mercy of the surrounding nations.

When Samuel’s sons were wicked and failed to judge well like their father did, Israel asked Samuel to appoint a king. But establishing a king meant more than putting a crown on a single person. As one commentator noted, “It entailed the establishment of a permanent, multitiered bureaucratic institution utilizing the services of thousands of individuals. To underwrite this form of government, vast quantities of personal and family resources would have to be given over to the king.”3

Samuel warned Israel that a king would conscript their sons into his armies and to work his lands, take their daughters to do household work, as well as take the best of their lands to give to his servants. He would demand his own tithe from their produce and property (1 Samuel 8:10–18). In short, he would tax them. Later Scripture tells us this is exactly what the kings did. Solomon’s “golden age” was funded by such heavy taxes and service that when Rehoboam threatened to be harsher rather than more lenient, 10 out of 12 tribes permanently split from Judah (1 Kings 12:1–20).

Rome: Render to Caesar

In the New Testament, the Jewish nation was in a much different situation. They were governed by Rome, a small province in the empire. And one of the most constant, hated symbols of Rome’s dominion was the obligation to pay taxes to Rome. Rome employed tax collectors from the Jewish people, and these men were hated both for agreeing to be middlemen for the Romans and for cheating fellow Jews out of their money.

Jesus chose a tax collector, known both as Levi and Matthew, to be one of the 12 disciples (Matthew 9:9; Mark 2:14), used a tax collector as a positive example of repentance (Luke 18:10–14), and celebrated the tax collector Zacchaeus’ repentance after he promised to make restitution for all the money that he swindled (Luke 19:1–10). One slanderous accusation was that Jesus was a drunkard and a friend of prostitutes and tax collectors (Matthew 11:19). This highlights his willingness to associate with those whom Jews were expected to shun.

When it came time to pay the temple tax, Jesus told Peter, essentially, that he was exempt from the tax but instructed Peter to catch a fish that would have a coin in it to pay the tax for them both (Matthew 17:24–27). This highlights his proper submission to authority even when he was above that authority.

Jesus’ most direct teaching on taxes came only days before his death and resurrection (Matthew 22:15–22). The Jewish leaders tried to stump him with a dilemma they believed he couldn’t resolve. They asked him whether Jews should pay taxes to Rome. If he responded affirmatively, Jesus would immediately lose the support of most of his followers. If he responded negatively, he would be a rebel against the Romans, and they would treat him as one.

Instead, he asked for a denarius—the coin that they would pay the tax with. It was actually considered an idolatrous item since it had Caesar’s face on it, but the Jewish leaders produced one—indicating that they were hypocrites. Jesus asked them whose image and likeness the coin bore, and they replied, “Caesar’s.” Jesus’ response was simple: Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.

Legitimate civic duties like paying taxes do not conflict with our faith.

If Caesar “owns” the coin because it bears his image, what does God own? That which bears God’s image—all people. Jesus’ short statement has many theological implications, but the most obvious is that legitimate civic duties like paying taxes do not conflict with our faith. But a government might conceivably ask for something that conflicts with rendering to God what is God’s, and then we must refuse. The most famous example from church history is when Christians chose to be martyred rather than offer a pinch of incense to Caesar—an idolatrous act.

Citizens of Rome and Heaven

Paul echoes this teaching in Romans 13:

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.

Importantly, Rome was not a good government. They were corrupt and persecuted Christians. The taxes Christians paid would go to immorality and policies that they would rather die than participate in. But they were still commanded to pay their taxes. Likewise today, governments in once-Christian nations spend tax money in ways that we disagree with. However, that doesn’t negate our obligation to pay taxes. In the context of the Christian church at the time Paul was writing Romans, Christians were a small minority that needed to be perceived well by the authorities. Refusing to pay taxes would cause them to be punished by Rome for their rebellion, not persecuted for their faith.

Christians During Tax Season Today

Christians in America and other Western nations enjoy freedoms that first-century Christians (or anyone else alive in that day!) could not even imagine. We have the ability to vote for people who represent policies that we agree with, and one of those is the level of taxation we want. There are also many tax laws we can take advantage of to make sure we are paying no more in taxes than is necessary. After all, there is no virtue in paying more to the government than is necessary to follow the law!

Just as in Paul’s day, there are areas where the Bible demands Christians to oppose the majority culture today. And when that happens, we don’t want something as silly as a tax violation to mar our witness for Christ. So this April 15, remember that practically the only overtly political statement Jesus made was to command us to give the government its tax money! But be encouraged that the things that belong to God alone, that Caesar has no claim to, are the things that are eternal.