Taxes
Tom Shrader addresses the challenging topic of paying taxes from both a practical and biblical perspective. Using Jesus' encounter with the Pharisees in Matthew 22 and Paul's teaching in Romans 13, he demonstrates that our response to government authority reveals the condition of our hearts toward God. He emphasizes that Christians should be model citizens who submit to governing authorities as part of God's ordained order.
“When I rebel against the government, I'm rebelling against God because God has delegated authority to the government so that when I rebel against the authority, I'm in rebellion against God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Financial Foundations
Recorded: March 09, 2006
Duration: 37 min
Themes: taxes, stewardship, authority, submission, government, citizenship, obedience, responsibility, taxpayer, citizen, struggling with government, financial responsibility, election season, civic duty, paying bills, steward of resources
Scripture: Matthew 22:15-22, Romans 13:1-7, Exodus 1, Daniel 3-6, Acts 4, Acts 17, Ephesians 5, Colossians 4:5, 1 Peter 2:13
Theological Themes: biblical authority, government authority, stewardship theology, civil obedience, romans 13, matthew 22, christian citizenship, divine sovereignty
Full Transcript
You've got in front of you outline session 6, and if you are here for the first time, or if you're here and maybe it's the second or third time and you're just checking into all of this, I want you to know that this is a tough session. I'll unpack that as we get through it.
Scripture-wise, in terms of the outline, I'm really going to take care of points 1, 2, and 5. So if you have Bibles, there are two passages that we want to start with: Matthew 22 and Romans 13. The topic is paying taxes. This is very dear to me. We, meaning Sandy and I, just sat down and wrote what for me is a big check to the Internal Revenue Service. So I'm talking about something that I feel pain in.
The series is financial foundations, but the overarching topic is that we are not owners—we're stewards of all that God has given us. We are to steward them. Now, this situation with the IRS gets into a lot of subtopics, especially in an election year like this. Sandy and I had dinner with a couple last night, and the guy made an observation: nobody's happy with their candidates. So I don't know that that's totally true, but the whole thing gets fired up more in the environment that we're in.
What the IRS Says About Paying Taxes
Paying taxes. I went and googled, "Why pay taxes?" and the number one site that came up was the Internal Revenue Service. I thought I'd read you what they wrote. I will just tell you ahead of time—they are dead serious about this. This is not something they're exploring with the heading.
It's important to pay taxes in full. Whether paying taxes with a timely filed tax return, or filing late and paying late after receiving a bill from the IRS, and the bill is correct, taxpayers are encouraged to pay their taxes they owe in full. If taxes are not paid and no effort is made to pay them, the IRS can ask a taxpayer to take action to pay taxes, such as selling or mortgaging any asset owned or getting a loan. If effort is still not made to pay the bill or make other payment arrangements, the IRS could also take more serious, underlined, bold, enforced collection action, such as levying bank accounts, wages, income. It goes on.
Ways to pay taxes—next heading. Payment can be made by credit card, electronic funds transfer, check, money order, cashier's check, or cash. That doesn't sound like the most effective way there to pay it.
There's more information. Other ways to resolve tax debt: cash advance on credit cards, bank loans, liquidating savings accounts, savings bonds, stocks, borrowing against 401k, life insurance, using equity in real estate or other assets. So they're trying to help you in some very creative ways to pay.
The last heading: When do penalties and interest apply? I'm not going to read you all this, but I'll give you the gist of this. Penalties and interest do not apply in years in which a taxpayer is entitled to a refund. About a third of those who filed returns for past years discovered they have a refund coming. A little more information: the penalty for filing late is generally 5% per month or part of a month, up to 25% of the amount of the tax shown due. The penalty for paying late is one half of 1% per month, up to 25 months of unpaid amount due.
So I condense this down to this—here's the bottom line: Take every deduction, get an honest accountant, take every deduction you legally have, and then pay it. If you want to mess around with them, understand—some of you have friends who can give testimony to this—they're serious about this. That's just straight talk, simple.
The Pharisees' Trap
What about in our context as we look at this from a biblical perspective? In Matthew chapter 22, verse 15, it says this: "Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap Him"—that's Jesus—"in His words." So there's a trap here. This is not about seeking information. They've got to ask Him a question.
"They sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians." So they stopped. I'm not going to give you a ton of background, but the Pharisees were—and I mean this not in a negative, pejorative way at all—they were the super Jews. They were the separatists. They followed the law. They created new laws. The Herodians, if we put it in American history, were more like the loyalists in the Revolutionary War.
Now, I'll net this down. These two groups despised one another. For them to say, "We're going to go do something together," this would be like Rush Limbaugh calling Harry Reid to play golf. It's not going to happen. The one thing that could unite them is Jesus was a threat to them.
So they come together to trap Him, and they trap Him with flattery—although it's true—and then a question. They say, "Teacher, we know You are a man of integrity and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men because You pay no attention to who they are. Tell us, what is Your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
The Political Trap
Both groups have an agenda, and both groups feel that they have Jesus trapped. If He says, "Yes, pay tax to Caesar," the Pharisees, the Jews, are going to say, "There He goes. He's put Caesar ahead of God." If He says, "No, don't pay tax," the Herodians are going to say, "Well, He's in rebellion against the Roman authority." So they think they have Jesus in a very difficult position—totally a trap.
Taxes and Government Have Always Been Issues
Taxes, government—always been an issue. When I was in college, it was 1968 through 1984 or 5, something like that. I don't know. I was there a while. I liked it. But in 68, 69, in our school, think about this today. Those of us that are maybe conservative and a little bit older—our student body struck. We refused to go to classes and closed the school. Can you imagine that? Somebody burnt down the music building. I mean, it was chaos.
There were no rules. We went in and negotiated—think about this—with our teachers. It was right after Kent State, so you might all have the date in there. It's about this time of year. We went into each class and you...
could opt out. You could take the grade you had. I had an economics class taught by a gentleman from India who I didn't understand any of the economics and I didn't understand any of his English. As close as I could get on my meeting with him, I had a D, which was trending. As best as I can tell, he recommended I take that D and run. But that was utter chaos. It was utter chaos. This is a little town in Davenport, Iowa, and that was the case all over campuses with Richard Nixon and everything else.
So there's often this kind of undercurrent of dissatisfaction. We had George Wallace. Some of you will remember John Anderson ran as an independent. We had Ross Perot. What we didn't have yet that I think matters is social media, because I think people have always been dissatisfied. Because you have social media, all this is exacerbated. It's on TV every night. It's 24-7.
The Bombshell Teaching
So I get this. I get this topic, and let me tell you something else. I get the volatility of what I'm going to say. It's bombshell-ish. When you read Romans 13 from the NIV, here are the opening words: "Everyone is to submit himself to the governing authorities."
You don't need a Greek scholar to unpack this. Everyone means everyone. Submit means to line up under. Governing authority means authority structure.
The first time I ever taught Ephesians 5, "wives submit to your husbands," I laid this baby out, and we're driving home. I said to Susan, "How was that?" And she said, "Not very good." I said, "Well, it's all sound. It's all accurate, solid biblically." She said, "Tom, your attitude was so bad, demeaning, patronizing." So I realized she had a heart problem. I stepped back, and my email box was loaded up. I'm dealing with this stuff for a long time. I thought, "Women, they just don't want to hear this."
Well, then I was in a Bible study where Larry Wright was teaching Romans 13. He said, "Everyone submit to your government." I'm going, "Well, have you seen who's president and what's going on? Have you ever met a state legislator? Do you want to? Really?"
A Revelation of the Heart
Here's the big point, massive point here, bigger than taxes. This is a revelation of your heart, not of the government. You don't want anybody to tell you what to do. That becomes the issue.
Larry used to tell the story, and it's exactly right. If you drive up through these county roads, you see these pristine yellow signs that say "curve ahead." It's like they just hung these signs, "sharp right," brand new sign. Then you see a sign that says "no shooting," and it's full of bullet holes. Every time you see a no shooting sign, look at it. It's full of bullet holes. Why? Nobody's going to tell me what to do.
But in our life, we need order, and God has chains of command for order in our life, at least four that we talk about all the time: family (wives submit to your husbands, husband love your wife), work, church elders, and government.
Personal Wrestling with Authority
I was a coal banker when God saved me. There's no question, the number one influence in my life was Larry Wright. I had two guys in particular. Every week, I invited these two guys to the Thursday morning study. Every week. I didn't miss.
We finished Romans 12. Larry says, "Next week, we're going to do Romans 13." I know what it says, and I thought, "I'm not going to invite these guys." So if you're here for the first time, I want you to understand, I know what you're thinking here, or what you're going to be thinking here. So I didn't invite either one.
This is like for 18 months, every week. On Wednesday, both of them get a hold of me and say, "You've been driving me nuts for 18 months to go to this study. I'm going to come tomorrow." I said, "Really? I don't think we're having it. I don't think we're doing it tomorrow." I said, "All right, get there 10 minutes early. I'll have a table. We'll get some coffee."
They show up. Ten minutes into it, one guy says, "Schrade, I got to go to the bathroom." He must have a real problem, because he's been gone 33 years and never came back. He never came back. The other guy sat there until it was over. We stood up. He said, "This is the biggest crack I've ever heard in my life. Don't ever mention this to me again. Don't ever bring this up. Don't ever suggest coming to this again. Don't ever give me a tape. Don't ever give me a CD. Don't ever."
So I want you to understand, I get a natural flinch to this.
The Universal Questions
I've taught "Wives Submit to Your Husbands" by invitation into lots of groups with ladies. I'll give this to you in real time. "Wives Submit to Your Husbands" — I have a question. You don't even have to ask it. I know the question. "What if he's a jerk? What if he's stupid? What if I'm smarter than him?" I assume that. He's a guy. I assume you are. I'm sure you're smarter than him. I've met him. He can't spell UCLA. It ain't going to happen for you. In other words, what's the exception?
Now, I'll talk government, because I sat there. "Submit to Your Government" — I have a question. "What if they're no good? What if they're wasting money? What if for some unknown reason, they've decided to turn the 101 into a parking lot every day?"
God's Establishment of Authority
Here's what it says: "Everyone submit himself to the governing authorities." Why? Well, because no authority has been established except it's established by God. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
Consequently — huge point, time to start taking notes and thinking now — consequently, he who rebels against the authority
is in rebellion against God. So think chain of command. Think delegated authority. God has delegated authority to the government so that when I rebel against the government, I'm rebelling against God. If I, Tom, am not loving Sandy as Christ loved the church, it's not just that I'm hurting Sandy, though I am, or hurting myself, though I am, but I'm in rebellion against God.
Now, I understand all of these questions. I got it. What if you're in Nazi Germany? Well, Google it. You're in Paradise Valley. Similar, but not identical in the whole way we operate our water. No, I mean something, but it's different. And I got all those questions. My mind's not big enough, and my interest is not deep enough to sit and unpack all of these things.
The Exception to Government Obedience
99.9999999% of the time, you are to obey the law. Now, if you want an out, I'll give you an out: unless they command you to do something God forbids, or forbid you to do something God commands. And those of you that are going to want to have a biblical argument here, let me give you three passages.
Exodus 1, and Daniel 3 through 6, and Acts chapter 4. These are times when the government says to the Israeli midwives, "Listen, when a lady gives birth, if it's a boy, kill it. If it's a girl, let it live." And their answer is, "These Israeli women, these Israelite women, they are not like the Egyptian women. They're tough ladies. They're all plowing the field. They take a break, have a baby, get up and plow again. We can't get there fast enough." Daniel said, "No, I'm not going to bow down." Peter said, "We'll do whatever you tell us to do, but we can't stop preaching the Word of God."
So if you want to go down that line and you want to go into that, there's some ammunition or at least a place to begin your study. In all of those, there's still the governing authorities, and you have to be willing to live and deal with the consequences of it.
Turning the World Right Side Up
Here's the problem. This is a long way around, but it gets us to the point. In Acts chapter 17, there's this time when Paul and I can't remember who's with him, Barnabas or Silas, they come into Thessalonica in Acts chapter 17. The people, the opposition, are concerned, and so Paul writes this. They come in and they say, "They're here." Here's the words from the English Standard Version: "Paul is here and he is turning the world literally," so it's like Acts 17:6, "upside down."
Here's the question: did Paul turn the world upside down? I don't think so. The world got turned upside down by Adam. God created paradise. Adam said, "That's not good enough." That's why this theology and the study of the word is so important, not so much as an end but as a means to the end to be able to put everything else into its perspective.
When Adam sinned, he turned everything upside down. When you had this point in time when you come to Christ in repentance and faith, all of a sudden your perspective changes and things are turned right side up. Things begin to make sense. I begin to understand that God has an order.
Living by God's Principles
I can look at family or work or business or church. Families are a great example. I taught one Sunday on marriage, all done. This cute couple comes up and she said, "We've been married 68 years." I said, "Wow, that's terrific." Now I always say something stupid at this point. I said to her, "What's the secret?" And she said, "You just taught it." Just testing to see if you remember.
You meet people all the time and you'll go, "Financially, they don't have a lot of stuff, but they've done well." You meet people that don't know Christ and you'll go, "They have a really good family." They, for whatever reason, accidentally, inadvertently, intentionally, somehow are operating oftentimes by the principles that God's put in place.
My friend Larry Wright and I had two things that we disagreed on, and one of them drove me nuts on this. He would say, "I know Christianity works because I put it in the test tube of my life and it works." And I would say, "Larry, don't say that, because the guy over here is going to say, 'I put an orange peel behind my ear and stood on one foot and it works.'" The evidence of our faith is not that it works. The evidence of our faith is that it's true, that it's real.
Biblical Worldview Influences Everything
So what happens, and this should tie together three, four, five, six, seven lessons that we've had recently, is my view of the Bible and my view of God are what influenced this. I am teaching this same study in Tucson about 15 years ago, and a guy came up and said, "If I loan you a book, will you get it back to me?" And I said to him, "No, I don't do well with loan stuff. I don't loan me something you're not going to get back at all."
He said, "If I give you a book, will you read it?" And I said, "No, in all likelihood. I get a lot of books. I start a lot of books. I rarely read them." So he pulled the book out and he said, "It's only 88 pages. It was after I taught this lesson. Will you read it?" And I said, "No." And he said, "Well, take it with you." So I did.
Now I've lost this. I just found this book last week, and how it got into my shelf where it is, Sandy put it there obviously, but I don't know how it got there. I've been looking for this book for 15 years.
A Dangerous Book
So the book is titled "The Christian and the Income Tax." Now it's not fair because you won't be able to see it completely, but there's kind of a diagonal across it. The Christian represented by the cross, the income tax represented by the historic hammer and sickle. So without even reading the introduction, I sensed a bias perhaps on the part of the author.
But he caught me. I was curious. I had a slow week. I read every word of it. I came back the next week. He said, "Is there any chance you read that book?" I said, "Every word." He said, "What did you think?" I said, "I thought it was awful." And he said, "What? It's written by two pastors." And I said, "You know, historically they write some of the worst stuff, just so you know."
But I said, "It totally took verses out of context. It tried to explain away clearly things God says. What's the attraction to the book? Why are you attracted to this book?"
I'll bet you can guess why he said "I owe a hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars in back taxes," and he's looking for his own conscience. I'm sure he's looking for some pastor, priest, rabbi, spiritual guru—somebody to give him a biblical excuse. He kept saying it's filled with Scripture. I said, "But what do you do with Romans 13? What do you do with the clear biblical principle that explicit interpretation trumps implicit? Scripture explicitly says submit to the government, and they have every right."
The Reality of Authority
I went a different way today because I was running late. I've said this to you before—every Thursday morning I have a certain route I take. I'm probably the only guy in the world that uses cruise control on Lincoln Road. I set it at 40 and I don't go over 40, and that comes from years of driving down there. It looks like the Fourth of July with all these lights going on.
So I drive through today and run a red light, and it flashes. I don't know why—the light was green for everybody around me. But I know how that feels. The government has every right to put that speed limit wherever they want. They can put it at five miles an hour, they can put it at 45 miles an hour, and if they put it at 40 and I go 41, I've broken the law.
I understand that feeling: "Why aren't you out catching a real crook?" To which they should appropriately reply, "We just did. We got a real one here going 41."
The Human Nature of Rebellion
Here's the tension of this. I have a friend whose mom had a massive heart attack and was in the hospital in Sun City. She subsequently died, and I said to him, "What did you learn out of this?" He said, "Sex education doesn't work." Now that's a little insight into his mind.
I said, "Well, that's true. What do you mean?" He said, "My mom's laying up there in a room full of people—and I've been in that room now so I know what it's like—and you got wires coming out of here and tubes in here. The nurses that are taking care of them are down by the front door. They're 50 pounds overweight, eating a cheeseburger and smoking a cigarette."
Now they're in there every day seeing this. You don't even need to tell them or show them—they get it every week. But there's something inside of us: no one's going to tell us what to do.
The Power of New Affection
The whole secret—and that's too strong language, but certainly a key part of the Christian life—is for me to be intrinsically motivated. "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection" is the title of a little paper written by a guy named Thomas Chalmers. He says this: your natural love is for you. You love you.
This Sunday at about 1 o'clock we have our annual Easter egg hunt. There'll be 10, 12, 15 kids there. They'll range in age from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Now we learned the first year you've got to stage this. You open the door—the 2 and 3 and 4-year-olds go first, then the older kids. I hide Easter eggs and we find them on the Fourth of July.
But it'll start, and it happens at every one, usually with the younger ones because it's pretty low-hanging fruit. You'll see two of them go for that same egg, and they'll get there about the same time and they'll go, "My egg! My egg! My egg!" And then as they get older, they say, "My girl! My girl! My girl!" "My car! My car! My car!" "My job! My job! My job!" Because that's the heart.
God's Transforming Power
What God does is extraordinarily powerful. He gives you—and we'll close with this—because God says you submit to your government. One of the things that happens in the midst of this is that you begin to be used by God as a conduit to touch the people around you.
I'm a Facebook guy. I'm on Facebook probably three times a day. It's always the last thing I do at night. I never post—I've never posted anything. I love to read. It's a voyeuristic experience, and the Christians posting political stuff on Facebook—it's nauseating. And I'm not even talking about a candidate. I'm just saying what they say.
Here's the advice that Paul gives us in Colossians 4:5: "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity." Think of this now in the context of politics. "Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person."
Biblical Commands for Citizens
First Peter 2:13: "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men, whether to a king as the supreme authority, or to governors as those who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men."
Coming to Christ in repentance and faith is not just about sharing faith and getting somebody to pray a prayer and make a decision for Christ. It was the philosopher Kierkegaard who said, "If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, you must look a little more redeemed." And that comes in tough situations like this.
Personal Application
I am cynical and sarcastic. I have a quick mouth and I don't think sometimes enough. I can do the government stuff all day. I can do politics—compound Latin word: poly meaning "many," tics meaning "bloodsuckers." I can do it. You want me to do it? I'll go right down there, man. I can match you bar for bar all day. But that's the only thing you're going to remember.
God says when it comes to this, you and I ought to be the best citizens. I was voting the other day, and it took me 30 seconds to vote. I had an early ballot. For some unknown reason, I said, "I'm going to drive right to the front door." There's always a spot. I parked, I went in, and I was out. But people were lined up two, three, four hours to vote, and they're complaining.
My daughter Haley said, "Dad, I can't. They shut me out. It's an hour-and-a-half wait. I got a four-year-old and a two-year-old. They can't be there. I can't be there. The people around there can't be there." So I get that. But you had people—reasonably healthy people—complaining.
saying, "Oh, I had to stand in line two hours." I just got done watching a documentary on the Revolutionary War. They're like at Valley Forge—they stood for a lot longer than two hours. You and I are to be model citizens. Do I pay my tax? Yeah. It's an issue about your relationship with God.
I read an interview with Howard Stern. I don't quote Howard that often. But it was a simple dialogue. The question was to him, "Do you believe in God?" He said, "I'm afraid not to believe in Him, but I'm not a member of any organized religion." So what he did was just represent the majority of people. I'll leave the God word in there, but I'm not going to have anybody really tell me who that God is. I'll define that God. I'll define how that God's going to work in my life. I'll love my wife if, when, conditionally. I'll submit if, when, conditionally. When it comes to paying taxes, I think that's what God says.
Jesus' answer, by the way, to our original question was, "Give me a denarius whose picture is on it? Give to Caesar what Caesar, give to God what's God's." In a way, cut me slack here, this might be borderline corny. In a way, He's saying, "Who's on your heart?" If God owns your heart, then I present my life to Him.
Father, thank You for this truth. Let us live in a way that brings honor and glory to You. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.