Paying Your Taxes, Part 1

The Jews, of course, hated Roman taxation. They resisted it.

Should they pay taxes? Pay your taxes to Caesar and give your worship to God. That's what Jesus said. Pay your taxes, give your worship to God. That is the principle affirmed throughout the Scriptures. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Benjamin Franklin said, In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes. Well, with taxes in mind, if your government uses tax money for things you disagree with as a Christian, what should you do? What does Scripture say? Find out as John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, continues his series titled The Christian and Government. But John, before we get to the lesson, I want to ask you to talk directly to the men and women who support Grace to You with their finances. Maybe you could give a snapshot of where that partnership stands and how God continues to use it to transform lives worldwide. Phil, I think one way to kind of jump into that is, I think at our last board meeting, the figure was something like 80 percent of this ministry support comes from donations. I mean, we have books and Bibles that people order and we give away far more than are purchased, but the vast amount of resources that this ministry depends on and uses to proclaim the word around the world comes from donations.

And that's the marvelous thing. That is a blessing to my own soul, to be supported by God's people because they believe in the ministry that we're carrying out. That means that we are dependent on people that we really don't control. I mean, we're dependent on people who just say, look, the Holy Spirit has laid it on my heart. I believe in this ministry.

I'm going to give. We understand that those people are under the direction of the Lord and He moves on their hearts to make possible their giving and to motivate their giving. But this ministry is completely dependent on how people who believe in the teaching of the word of God respond to the prompting of the Spirit of God. And so we just pray that the Lord will move on the hearts of folks, that they'll see this as a viable investment for the sake of Christ and His kingdom, and we're dependent on it. And since we're dependent on it, we are thankful for it beyond what we can express. This ministry touches really hundreds of thousands of people.

This is amazing. We were talking about the fact that a Grace to You broadcast goes out in the city of London, and there are about 110,000 people listening to that single broadcast in one city. And we're spread across the globe. That's the spread that this radio ministry gets, and then you add all the other elements to our ministry with CDs and downloaded sermons and books and blog articles and everything else that we make available. It's an amazing global outreach, and now with translating sermons into multiple languages, it's an amazing amount of ministry that is carried by these faithful folks and by you who are listening to us. So whether you're giving us support in prayer or financial donations, we are dependent on that to keep preaching God's transformative truth, and we want to say a big thank you to you.

Yes, friend, thank you for all that you do for this ministry. You are a blessing to all the people you help reach with verse-by-verse Bible teaching that transforms lives, and you're a blessing to all of us. And speaking of verse-by-verse teaching, here's John to continue his series, The Christian and Government. Romans chapter 13, we're going to be talking about the biblical instruction to pay your taxes. That's where we find ourselves in our continuing study of this great epistle of Romans. Now for just a moment, I want to develop this theme biblically for you and pull back some things we've studied in the past and maybe some new things so you get a perspective on this. Taxation is not a new idea to Romans 13.

It is a very, very old biblical truth. From all the way back to Genesis, we find systems of personal tax being levied against individuals within a given nation. Taxation is a major theme. Now when God established the nation of Israel, did He have a taxation system?

Did He ever? The first tenth that had you paid of tax went to support the national government, to pay the salaries, if you will, and provide the food and the resources needed by the people who ran the nation. The second tenth went to cultivate the culture and the national life, not unlike our taxes. And the third one took care of the poor, the orphans, the widows. It was the welfare tithe.

Now that wasn't all. It was prescribed also in the law of God that there were some other provisions to be made, to share so that the nation could enjoy its life together and the resources could be matched with the needs. For example, in Leviticus 19, 9, when you reap the harvest of your land, it says, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field. Neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. In other words, when you go through your field, don't try to get every piece out of every corner. And whatever you might leave or miss or drop, don't go back and collect.

Don't gather that. And you'll not glean your vineyard, nor gather every grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the sojourner.

I am the Lord your God. So they really had a kind of a profit sharing plan. When harvest time came, they took all that they could take in the normal process of harvesting and anything that was left they couldn't go back and get that was left for folks who had very little. And they could enjoy the bounty of someone else's crop in the provision of the Mosaic law. So in a sense, that was another percent of your gain that you had to leave for someone else. Then in Exodus 23, 10 and 11, it tells that every seventh year, what did you have to do?

You had to let your land rest and lie still in order that the poor of your people might eat. And what is left from them, the beasts of the field shall eat. Have you ever seen a field that's been planted and planted and planted and planted and then one year it isn't planted? What happens in that field? Well very often things come up anyway.

Here and there and everywhere. And if a field was vacant, a poor man might come in and in a corner of that field plant a little bit of something to survive. And what the poor didn't glean, the animals could have.

And again, it was another way of sharing the blessing of resources with those who were less privileged. And then there was one other provision. In Exodus chapter 30 verse 13, they were required to pay a half shekel temple tax for the operating of the temple.

It was very expensive to operate the temple. Everybody paid a half shekel. So you have then a tenth, a tenth, every third year a tenth which is three or three and a third. Then you have the corners of the field and you have what's left when the field isn't planted in the seventh year. And then you have the half shekel temple tax and you're probably looking at 23, 24 percent, maybe even 25 percent depending on how good you were at harvesting your field.

And that's what you paid every year. That was not free will giving. That has absolutely no parallel to giving in the church.

That's taxation. It is not related to free will giving from the heart. It is not related to what it says in the Old Testament about let every man give willingly as he wants or wills in his heart. Like when they gave to the tabernacle and when they gave to the temple.

It's not talking about that. It's not talking about the free and spontaneous, sacrificial, generous giving that is given to us. For example, in Proverbs 3 where it says, Honor the Lord with your substance and the first fruits of all your increase and so shall your barns be filled with plenty and your presses burst out with new wine. Which is just saying give the Lord the best of what you have and give the Lord the top of what you take in and you'll be blessed. That's free will giving. That's just being generous and offering to God beyond this. But the prescription of the Old Testament was that they had to pay an income tax. They had to pay it. And if they didn't, according to Malachi 3, 8 to 10, they robbed God and were in line for judgment.

On the other hand, if they paid it, they would be blessed by God. Now when you come into the New Testament, we find that the Lord upholds the same standard. Look at Matthew 17. Matthew 17.

Very helpful. Jesus is in the process of instructing His disciples and they came while they were in Galilee to the town of Capernaum where Peter lived in a very familiar place. Our Lord Himself was resident there for a time. They came to Capernaum which is on the very northernmost point of the Sea of Galilee at the foot of the sloping hills that sloped down from Lebanon to the north. They came to Capernaum and they that received taxes came to Peter and said, Does your master pay taxes?

Now the background is essential. Jesus had told the disciples that He was going to die. In fact, He had just told them that. Look at verse 22. While they abode in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men. They shall kill Him. The third day He will be raised again.

They were exceedingly sorry. He just says, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. How is He going to die? Well, He told them that back in chapter 16 verse 21. The elders and chief priests and scribes are going to kill Him. So they know now, at least they have heard, that Jesus is going to be killed by the Jewish leaders, by the Jewish authorities, the chief priests.

They're going to have to face the fact that He has said He will die violently at the hands of Jewish authorities. Now here come these very same authorities asking for money. And this they ask for is the temple tax.

They're not asking Him to support the Roman government. This is not the Roman taxation system. This is the temple tax. We know later on that the coin was needed for that and the coin was wonderfully provided.

Does your master pay the tax? It's amazing to think about it. But here were men collecting money to put into the temple treasury. Thirty pieces of silver of which would be paid to Judas to betray Christ Himself.

So talk about giving your money to something you really wouldn't want to pay for. Here is Jesus putting money in a treasury where money will be extracted for His own execution, His own betrayal leading to death. Furthermore, Jesus had already once in His life taken a whip and cleaned out the whole temple and let everybody know what He thought about it. Furthermore, before He died He would do it again and He would predict its own devastation and destruction and call it a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer. So now here is a Jewish priest or some ancillary character functioning in response to the mandates of those in authority at the temple coming along saying, we need your money to support our temple. The temple which Christ Himself had cleansed and cursed which would ultimately be destroyed, the temple treasury out of which the betrayer would be paid.

What's going to be his response? Every Jewish male was required as I said to pay a half shekel tax annually. It was called the double drachma tax. It was equal to two Greek drachma or about two days wages.

The tax could be made obligatory by the authorities. They had the power to demand it and if a man didn't pay it they had the power to take compensation out of his personal goods for the amount. The coin that they wanted was not in use at that day, historians tell us, so it was common that two people went together. It was only exacted upon males in the population so two men would go together and pay the one coin on behalf of both of them.

This was done before the Passover to provide for the special needs of getting the temple ready for the Passover season. It kind of fascinates me that even after 70 A.D. when Titus came in and destroyed the temple and wiped it out, he saw the tax as such a good thing that he made the Jews pay it anyway and it went into the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, Josephus said. So they were stuck with paying this tax even after their temple was destroyed. So here come the temple tax collectors to Peter and they ask if Jesus paid the drachma.

Does your master pay the tax? Now you might think there might be a little bit of equivocation on the part of Peter and he might give them a speech about why Jesus doesn't put money into something he doesn't believe in, but that isn't his answer. In verse 25 it says Peter said what? What did he say?

Yes, unqualified. Yes, Jesus paid his taxes. I mean that ought to end the argument right there if there is an argument. Jesus paid his taxes. And when he was coming to the house, Jesus spoke first to him and he said, what are you thinking, Simon? He read his mind.

He didn't even say what had gone on. He had just been accosted by the tax collector in the street and he comes walking in the door and the Lord says, what are you thinking, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute?

Of their own sons or of strangers? So he reads Peter's thought. Peter is saying to himself, the Lord does pay his taxes, but why?

Why does he do that? So he says to him, now Peter, think about it. Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own sons or of strangers?

Well, the answer is obvious. The kings in this particular time of history and I'm sure in other places and times exacted taxes from everybody but their own family. What's the point of taking taxes from their own family? That would be taxing themselves to put it back in their own bank account.

So it's pointless. So Peter says, of strangers, verse 26, of strangers. Jesus said unto him, then are the sons, what? Free. Free from taxation. Now the illustration is a perfect one because the issue is the temple tax and the temple was supposed to be the house of God and Jesus was the son of God, so God wouldn't tax Jesus. Nor would God tax any of his own children either. That's why, dear friends, there is no limit, there is no set amount on giving in the church. God doesn't tax his own family.

You understand that? We give what's in our heart to give. So Jesus is saying, in the truest sense, as children of God, we're free, we're in his family, so we wouldn't really have to pay this tax.

But, notwithstanding, lest we should what? Offend them, we'll pay it. And then he says, Peter, go and throw a hook in the sea, pull out a fish and you'll find the tax money in his mouth. And then take it to them and give it to them for you and me. I mean, that's not fair.

I mean, we wouldn't mind either if we could pull it out of the mouth of a fish, I guess. But what the Lord is demonstrating here is this, look, I'm not obligated to pay this tax. My father wouldn't tax me, nor would he tax any of his own children, but I do it so that I don't offend them.

I do it so I don't offend them. The Lord, think of it, was actually giving his tax money to an apostate religion that ultimately would execute him. A place that held public services that were a mockery to God, a place that was a den of thieves, but because taxation was designed by God and Jesus was not about to start a tax revolt and offend everybody and get the whole issue skewed off of the spiritual and on to some other thing, he paid it.

You understand that? I mean, it would be a horrible thing if Christians ever got to the point where they started some kind of uprising over taxation and got all their focus off on something like that instead of what it really should be on, which is the spiritual dimension. And Jesus says, look, pay it so that we don't offend.

And it will ever and always be clear what our purposes, what our focus is, what our message is. I love the fact that he paid the tax to the temple when it was right and he took a whip and cleansed it when it was right. And because we pay the tax doesn't mean we don't have a right to speak in holy indignation against the abuse of the tax.

But we pay it and then we say what needs to be said in the right place at the right time when the issue is a moral and spiritual issue. Now look at Matthew 22 verse 15. Matthew 22 verse 15. Well, the Pharisees come.

This is the Wednesday of Passion Week, you remember. Jesus is in the temple and they're confronting him. All these questions are coming up and so they try to entangle him in his talk.

They want to get a way to trap him. So they sent out unto him their own disciples with the Herodians. Now the Pharisees and the Herodians hated each other with a passion. The Pharisees were anti-Herod. Herod was a vassal king.

He wasn't even a Jew. He was given the right to rule by the Romans. The Herodians were those who belonged to the party of the Herod's.

They wanted them in power. Therefore, they were those who padded the seat of the Romans. They were those who played up to the Romans.

They were not at all anti-Roman. They were pro-Roman because they favored the remaining Herodian monarchy and therefore they had to do careful obeisance to the Romans. And because they were so pro-Roman for their own political gain, they were the very hated enemies of the Pharisees who were violently anti-Roman. And even though the Pharisees and the Herodians politically were miles apart, they got together on one thing. They both wanted Jesus out of the way. They were enemies but became strange bedfellows over the elimination of Jesus. And the idea here was to bring the Herodians into the issue because if they could get Jesus to affirm that He was protesting taxation, that He didn't pay His taxes, that He didn't believe Rome ought to be acknowledged, if they could get that out of His mouth, then the Herodians would run to the Romans and report it. If the Pharisees ran to the Romans and reported it, the Romans would think it was some kind of a trick because the Pharisees wouldn't want to tell Rome anything that would help them. But the Herodians would. And so they enlist the Herodians to be those who will go to the Romans when they capture Jesus in His words.

And so they come up to Him with a whole lot of flattery. We know you're true and you teach the way of God and truth and you don't...you're not respecting any particular individual. When it says you don't care for any man, it doesn't mean you're indifferent. It just means you don't play any man's favoritism. You don't do something to gain an end with a certain individual. You don't regard the person of men.

You don't care what rank they are, what money they've got. You're just truth and honesty. They really lay it on him in flattery.

Since you're so wonderful, tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to give tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay our taxes to Rome?

Of course, the Pharisees said absolutely not. Don't pay Rome your tax. That's putting money into the Roman government. They say Caesar is a god. That's idolatry.

You're supporting idolatrous, pagan, apostate religion. By the way, the Roman emperor even took the liberty to pronounce absolution over sins, acting as some high priest and taking the title of high priest. So they, the Pharisees, wouldn't think of doing that in their hearts. I mean, they may have done it under constraint. I don't know, but on some occasions they may have had no choice. But for sure, they would have said to this question, it isn't right to pay tax to Caesar.

I don't know that they would have said it publicly, but that was their feeling. They wanted Jesus to say that, then the Herodians would go and report him. Should they pay taxes? Kensos, the personal tax, the head money tax, the one denarius poll tax that every one of them had to pay. The Jews, of course, hated Roman taxation. They resisted it. If you study the history of Israel from about 6 AD on, you'll see a whole bunch of revolts against this taxation. I really believe the destruction of 70 AD came about in part as a result of a tax revolt in 66 AD when this sentiment of anti-Roman tax was revived in 66 and it ultimately led to the Romans just coming in and slaughtering the people. Basically, the revolutionaries who led it became known as zealots.

Have you heard that term? Zealots who did all kinds of terrorist activities against the Romans. So they asked him the question and they want him to say, don't pay your taxes, and then they'll go report him to the Romans who will treat him like an insurrectionist and get rid of him. But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, why do you test me, you hypocrites, you phonies?

You don't really want an answer. Show me the tax money. And they brought a denarius because it was the kensos, the poll tax, the one denarius head tax that everybody had to pay.

Show me that denarius, that one day's wage. And he said, when they brought it to him in verse 19, who is the image and the superscription? Whose picture is on it? And the picture was the picture of the emperor and he was designated on the coin as the high priest so it was religious. Augustus, by the way, even called himself, get this, the son of God. He wanted to be worshiped as deity. So it was a serious issue of idolatry to the Jews.

Whose image is on this? They said Caesar's. And then he said this. So render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

You know what he said? Pay your taxes to Caesar and give your worship to God. Pay your taxes, give your worship to God. That's what Jesus said. That is the principle affirmed throughout the scripture.

Pay your tax. You say, but Caesar is an apostate. But Caesar calls himself the son of God. Listen, Jesus was saying give your taxes to this man who is my rival, who is saying he's the son of God.

He is the high priest who is an apostate. So when anybody comes to me and says, well, I'm not going to pay my taxes because they use my taxation for abortion, you don't have a leg to stand on. We don't like that and that isn't right.

And we need to speak up every time we have opportunity against it and any other moral evil of our society. But that doesn't preclude the fact that we are obligated so as not to offend to pay our taxes even as Jesus paid taxes to an apostate Roman government and encouraged the people to do that because government, any government, no matter how bad it is, is better than no government and is instituted by God for the protection and preservation of life and property. And Jesus even paid a temple tax which ultimately could have been used for his own destruction.

So the principle is very simple. You pay your taxes. And I believe we can claim the same promises that the Old Testament gave, that when you pay your taxes you can be sure God will what?

He will bless. I'll tell you one thing. I pay my taxes as an act of obedience to God, believing that in doing it God will bless me. I don't pay one penny more than they say I have to pay.

But I don't pay one penny less. And I'm getting more careful all the time because I want more for the kingdom. But I think the principle is clear. Now next time we're going to look at verses 6 and 7 and see the purpose and the particulars. And this is a really interesting section as it unfolds the rest of Paul's word to us.

You obey your Heavenly Father when you submit to the government you live under here on earth. That may have surprised you. Hopefully it encouraged you as John MacArthur continued his current study called The Christian and Government on Grace to You. Keep in mind, you can own this series on six CDs.

It's great truth to share with loved ones who may be concerned about the direction their government is going. Just ask for John's series titled The Christian and Government. Get your copy today. Call 800-55-GRACE or go to our website GTY.org. Again, to get this six-CD album to put in someone's hands, call 800-55-GRACE or go to GTY.org. And remember, you can also download John's study, The Christian and Government, for free at our website. All of John's sermons from 51 years of his pulpit ministry are free to download at GTY.org. And when you're at GTY.org, I would also encourage you to check out articles from John and the staff at the Grace to You blog. You will find helpful posts on the lies of the prosperity gospel, frequently abused Bible verses, biblical characters like Jonah and the Apostle John, and much, much more. The blog is one of the numerous free Bible study resources available at GTY.org. And to follow Grace to You on social media, search for us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, reminding you to watch Grace to You television Sundays on DirecTV channel 378, or check your local listings for Channel and Times. Then be here tomorrow for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.