You wrote:

what is your take on this

   It is Romans 13: 1-7

 “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which god has established.  The authorities that exist have been established by god.  Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what god has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.  For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but those who do wrong.  Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority?  Then do what is right and he shall commend you.  For he is god’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing.  He is god’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. There fore it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.

    This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are god’s servants, who give their full time to governing.  Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”

Dear Chris,

This is an excellent weekend (Apr 15, 2012) to tackle the topic of how to interpret this chapter of the Bible that has been used to justify unspeakable horrors down through human history. (You see how your email you are passing on tries to say that we should coerce the wage-earner and business-owner to pay for murdering the most innocent- and helpless-possible human beings by their own mothers. It escapes their notice that, earlier in history, God had ordained laws that punished these kinds of murderers. Why aren’t they expressing their objections to the people that resisted the ordinance of God, when they worked to legalize feticide?)

We will be acknowledging Palm Sunday, and next week will be the Easter celebration across the world. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, the whole city was stirred/shaken, saying, “Who is this?”. The kids were singing that He was the Son of David, the appointed Messiah who would fulfill Psalm 2 (Son of God), Psalm 110 (sit at My right hand), and Daniel 7. This was scaring the legislature and religious community so much (What would the Romans do to us if we try to acknowledge this prophet as king of the world?) that they had determined to kill Jesus lest the Romans come and interrupt their monopoly on robbing worshipers coming to the temple (oh, and kill a whole bunch of people). So…Palm Sunday, you know, like the first Sunday after the supposed President signed the Obamacare bill in 2010?

The resurrection, ascension, and session (enthronement) of the fully human Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenly realm at the right hand of Almighty God, the Creator – is the assumed truth and context that the Apostle Paul writes in. He begins this letter to the Christians in Rome. He mentions this is Chapter 1;

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

(Rom 1:1-5 ESV)

No discussion of Rom. 13 can be complete without reference to Matthew 22, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s”. If you study out the likely inscriptions on that coin they handed Jesus, you find that, besides Caesar’s image on it, it had Caesar’s titles. Depending on the minting, it had text like:

Son of the Divine Augustus

Pontifex Maximus (highest priest)

Soter (Savior)

The coin’s claim was, that since Tiberious was these things, he should be recognized as such by the citizens of every nation in the empire. Everyone owed him a worshipful obedience, and service (keep the tribute & taxes coming). We are reminded of this in the song of the angels the night Jesus was born in Bethlehem. “Unto you is born this day….

In the City of David (reminding us that He will be the promised Son of David who will everlastingly rule all nations)

A Savior (because His laws are so much better)

Who is Messiah, (appointed by the creator as the legitimate ethical authority and power over all the earth)

the Lord (boss, owner, master – Again, one of Caesar’s favorite titles)

So, Caesar absolutely claimed to be the secular messiah:

Prophet, everyone had to  believe and obey his words because they came from the gods,

Priest – he was the mediator and intercessor between the gods and the people, and

King – obviously commander in chief of all military and police forces, final court of appeal for the judicial system.

So when Jesus instructs us to, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” it forces the antithesis for us to declare our loyalty. You will either trust the Lord’s Christ to protect you from Caesar calling you a traitor, or you will hope Caesar can protect you in your treason against the Christ. Remember Jesus solemnly promised the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation within a generation. Was Caesar able to protect his loyal subjects from Jesus, the imposter, trying to carry out this retaliation against those who rejected Him and His laws? Or did this despised, rejected, murdered self-proclaimed Messiah prove to be Caesar’s Boss (by the resurrection and ascension) and use Caesar’s armies to carry out His predictions in 70 A.D? You can be the judge.

Indeed, Caesar has authority and power, deriving both from the Creator God, and from a sufficient minority of influential men who support him with money & manpower. Yet, it behooves Everyman, reading his Bible, to be alert to whether a Caesar is being obedient to God’s definitions of crime and punishment – or rebellious against them. If rebellious, then the reader will know that God has ordained this kind of Caesar as curse and punishment to the civilization for their rebellion and disobedience to God. He will know it is past time to double-down and repent toward God (renewing worship, service, and gratitude to Him), and to rescind any support for this Caesar, but especially to back away from using any of Caesar’s repressive laws to be unloving to his neighbor.

When it comes to money, land, property, or men’s labor service – Caesar only has legitimate claim to what God has declared in His law. And, curiously, nowhere does God’s law authorize Caesar (human government) to enact any punishment for failure to voluntarily support the civil government by service or money. It may be sin not to support righteous government, but the Bible does not define failure to pay tax as crime.  Don’t you think it would be odd for God’s ideal will to allow men to punish you for not paying tribute to men, as if it were a more severe failure than paying your tithe to God? God takes care of disciplining for the failure to pay tithe, and there appears to be no authorization for men to punish men for not submitting to any human’s idea of how much tax is owed the civil government. Just as it transgresses into idolatry (in putting men higher than God) for civil govt to exact a tribute greater than the 10% specified as the Lord’s tax, so it would transgress into idolatry for men to punish other men with a greater punishment for not paying men’s tribute – than for not paying God’s tribute.

If men are going to err, it would be better to err in exacting more severe reimbursement when men fail to tender their tithe to God, than if they fail to pay a human tax. If men are going to err from the Bible’s standard, it would be better to err in limiting the aggregate percentage of human tax to under the 10% required by God – than to arrogate to itself the greater worship and service of taxing more than what God requires of men. Imagine the comparative freedom Americans would enjoy if corporate, income, sales taxes, and fees were limited to 3.3% Federal and 6.6% State (as percentage of increase). As it is, in my own State, we have seen the last couple of years, the highest State income tax bracket exceed 10% for the first time, and also the tax on business that was both retroactive, and a tax on Gross Revenue instead of increase. All three motions against the inherited legacy of Christendom are a huge signal that we have chosen to worship and serve the Created Thing more than the Creator – and we are being disciplined for it. This is the theological reason my State is under the domination of Public Unions (committed to Marxist group-ownership goals) and every man is plundering his neighbor through an entitlement system.

When it says, “pay tax to whom tax is due”, it means God will discipline us with unjust government, if we prove unwilling to support righteous government. It does not mean we can make it better by having human government punish people for not contributing some percentage of their increase to support human government, whether that government is righteous or unrighteous.

Now it has always been essential to orthodox Christianity that the Triune God is the ultimate lawgiver, judge, and rewarder/punisher over all human behavior. When He judges, and hands out consequences to men, either in time or eternity, it goes without saying that He has the authority to do so, since He has absolute power to accomplish it, no matter what resistance is offered. So it is no surprise to find in passages like Psalms 94-100 that God is labeled as king of all nations, the emperor that judges all men everywhere, thus the head of all human civil government. If God judges all deviation from his moral law, it is no wonder that He will be the definitive authority over every vote of the voter and legislator, every executive order of king or president, and every action of every man in law enforcement or military.

The “new” thing, with the Lord Jesus Christ, is that here is a Man claiming to be one in essence and attributes with the Yahweh of the Jewish Scriptures, who has received absolute authority from His Father to judge all men. This Man predicts that He will be executed, Roman-style, by both religious and Roman civil authorities, rise again in 3 days, and return to destroy Jerusalem and the Jewish nation within a generation, and that His empire would displace the Roman domination of the civilized world, in spite of hard persecution of his followers.

Then, He did it.

After you read Daniel, chapter 7 again, you are almost ready to begin looking at Romans 13. The new shock about the God the Son being enthroned in heaven, is not that He is designated by the Almighty as effective ruler over every border, language, and culture – the Old Testament never suggested anything else. Remember it was only after Israel had rejected Yahweh as being their lawgiver, judge, and king - that they were inflicted with a tax-happy human king (Saul) who began to abscond with a horrific 10% of their land, crops, livestock, and servants. The amazing thing, which is still a shock to Christians today (when they finally realize the implications), is that this supreme ruler, as Son of Man, has raised His covenant members (“saints of the Most High” per Daniel 7) up with Him to a place of rule.

And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.'

(Dan 7:27 ESV)

Christians have made two mistakes for the last couple centuries, in their idea about how this Kingdom will develop. Since they are focused on imagining anything governmental as being coercive from the top down, they conclude that God must not have intended this new promised arrangement to be implemented until some future date. It is obvious, since Jesus is not here, now, in Jerusalem - strong-arming everyone to obey Him instantly or else He zaps them. They conclude that during this age of the world (before the “end times”), we are not expected to be obedient to God’s moral laws applied to crime, as in the Theocratic legislation in the books of Moses. For now, we please God by being respectfully obedient to whatever Tyrant the Will of the Majority will tolerate as ruler in Church or Civil Government.

So when we read that the “authorities that exist are established by God” we conclude that it is, at least, OK to take advantage of human legality, if it is to our profit to rob, kidnap, or (as in the case of feticide) murder – our fellow-man. If it is to our advantage to have free education, food stamps, or energy-efficient appliances – who cares that the taxpayer or inflation-victim ends up paying for it? The important thing is that I get more out of the System than I have to put in. If I can make a lot of money (especially if the government or insurance companies will automatically pay for the procedure), or save years of caring for a child or spending my wages on his support, why not take advantage of the government’s permission (or encouragement) to murder “it” before anyone begins to think of it as a person with civil rights?

What is missing, is the understanding that when the full Gospel (that includes Jesus in his Messianic Offices of lawgiver, judge, and King) is faithfully proclaimed throughout the culture by Bible-teaching pastors, and Bible-teaching fathers – the consequence is that all the little boys will grow up with that kind of moral training to become voters, legislators, judges, soldiers, and policemen; who will understand the difference between sin (which God will punish, though human government is forbidden to do so), and crime (those actions for which God requires ‘innocent’ men to punish with some appropriate loss of life, freedom, or property). That type of men will understand that God will punish them if they coerce their brother in matters of sin, and that God will also punish them if they allow the criminal to go unpunished.

With that background let’s take another look at the text:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

"Every person" is going to have to mean each voter, as well as each king. The human king, even if he holds imperial authority over more than one nation, is just as subject to a Governing Authority as is his lowliest peasant subject of one of his lesser vassal kings. If Messiah is divinely appointed head of all earthly authorities, then even the highest human emperor is responsible to the Lord Christ and will be evaluated by His law. We could say any king/president/prime minister is responsible for his people, but he is responsible to his Master, Jesus, as to whether he rules lovingly over his nation according to the laws of God.

For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

If you look up the historical word-usage for “tyrant” & “tyranny”, it means to rule without authority. Remember Ben Franklin’s desired motto for America – Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. Think of the authors of the Declaration of Independence “…whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government..”. This demonstrates that there has been an understanding in the past, that not all men who exercise coercion over men are to be considered “authorities” in the way the Apostle Paul means it here. Some men can attempt coercion without authority to do so.

There can be two situations with humans in authority. These reflect the two categories we have in theology for the revealed will of God, and the decree of God. Another way of discussing this is under the classic philosophical (apparent) dilemma – the Problem of Evil. Decree is what happens, because we know God controls all things. But the evil and injustice that happens in the world, we know is contrary to the revealed will of God, and yet God is also in control of these events. So we find in history than men attain to the control of police and military and money – who did not rise to power righteously, or even legally according to man-made law. Maybe they cheated in an election, maybe they just killed everyone who suggested having an election, maybe they bribed, maybe they just hired better mercenaries and whipped the poor guys that were trying to defend their farms. Men can usurp legitimate authority, men can rebel against “good” authority, lead a revolution, and become imposters who rule a country, but do not have the “right” to do so. Are these authorized and instituted by God? Do they deserve the faithful loyalty of the populace, or is the Populace responsible before God to muster under a Lesser Magistrate and apprehend and execute the head of the Revolution (and his armies) who just conquered and killed the previous administration? How would they know if the 'new administration' might be better than the previous one?

So in one way of speaking, if you have a king who rose to power in more-or-less legitimate ways, in accordance with the laws of God, and he rules according to the laws of God, then you have a true and relatively just government that deserves your voluntary support, and God will hold you accountable for the degree that you follow such a government in obedience to God’s law applied to all of life. But in the other type of condition, if you have a human ruler who is not the legitimate authority, but has usurped it – it doesn’t matter if he has all the guns, each citizen has a responsibility to appeal to him, and possibly resist him with a righteous resistance - on the basis of the authority of God’s revealed moral directives.

Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

So what do we think when the men in power are a terror to good conduct and punishing those who do good? We are in such a time now, when the people who have borrowed money for their houses and faithfully attempted to make their payments on time, even though the market price of their house has dropped below what they owe. Others are having debts forgiven or are living “rent-free” in their foreclosure for years and may eventually get kicked out of a trashed house that leaves the creditor with a loss. Hard-working entrepreneurs are slaving away with severe regulatory restrictions and their profits and savings (by inflation and taxes) are being plundered for the sake of perverse education, food stamps and welfare, foreign aid, and destructive wars, and bailing out the banks which have been controlling the governments of the world to their own profit and protection. Is this the kind of government God has put in authority that we are supposed to respect and obey? Does He mean for us to uncomplainingly submit to every new encroachment on our civil and economic liberties? Does He mean we should take advantage of every new guarantee, rebate, tax-credit, subsidy, welfare payment, social service (education?), and competition-quenching regulation? Why is God doing this to us? Is this the way He delights to provide for us?

The answer is found in looking at Biblical history and the bigger picture. After God’s people had moved into their own land of Promise after Egypt and the 40 years of wandering after Sinai, God promised them they would have freedom, justice, and prosperity if they would obey His law and not pretend other created things (or "nothings") were gods in His place. When they disobeyed, He used the raids of marauder nations around Israel to come and discipline them and take away their freedom and property. There were cycles in the book of Judges where they would cry out to Him because of the oppression, then He would restore their freedom and prosperity in response to their faithfulness to His worship and law….until the next apostasy.

Maybe they got tired of His ruling them in this fashion, and they thought having a human king (instead of Yahweh as their Divine King), might be strong enough to protect them against these raids – without them having to repent from their rebellion and disobedience. During Samuel’s time, they prematurely demanded a human king -- not the kind of King that God had always intended to give them -- but a king “like all the other nations”. They wanted someone they could manipulate or control, who would rule them by a law different than Yahweh, yet would be strong enough to protect them from God's judgments. Story is in I Samuel 8 & 12. God had promised to provide a king from the tribe of Judah, who would be the kind of king God intended for them:

Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

(Exo 18:21 ESV)

 …you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never return that way again.' And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. "And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

(Deu 17:15-20 ESV)

So God kept His covenantal promise to them to discipline them according to His law, but this time using their own king, in addition to marauding nations like the Philistines.

And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, the LORD has set a king over you. If you will fear the LORD and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God, it will be well. But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you and your king.

(1Sa 12:13-15 ESV)

See the promise that if you will serve and obey God, your king will also follow Yahweh and His law, which has always given societies the greatest possible freedom and highest standard of living. That is why the New Testament calls God’s law the “perfect law of liberty”. James 1:25

Later in Israel’s history we see the rise of Assyria as God’s weapon of discipline (after long seasons of prophetic warning, and increasing depredation by Syria). God used Assyria to destroy the Northern Kingdom, [Samaria], and ravage the land of Judah – short of destroying the Jerusalem capitol in the time of Isaiah. Jeremiah tells us the story 100 years later of the rise of Babylonia and the ultimate destruction of the city and exile to Babylon. Assyria and Babylon were “ordained by God” certainly, but conquering, killing, starving, and enslaving people at the point of a sword is hardly our ideal of legitimate, democratic, representative government.

The point is, we have to draw our box – our frame of reference - larger than just man’s injustice to man. The kind of government authority that God ordains over a people is going to accomplish His purpose of delivering the appropriate consequences of their faithfulness to Him as their Creator and Redeemer, AND the natural consequences of their own choices – even of the man-to-man interactions. Remember that prior to having their nation being plundered and destroyed by Babylon, they had commandeered the Lord’s altar and Temple grounds to worship imaginary gods (demons, really), they were indulging in the most perverse sexual orgies as part of their spiritual worship of these gods, and they were burning their baby children as sacrifices, in attempts to persuade the “gods” to protect them from going into slavery to Assyria and Babylon. King Hezekiah’s older brother was murdered by his father in one of these rituals.

Judah’s king that reigned longer than any other (Manasseh: 55 yrs.) “filled Jerusalem with innocent blood”. So it was more than just offense against God, innocent men were also getting murdered, robbed, and enslaved by both private and official government oppression. Who would say that the Apostle Paul is advocating that a culture like that should honor and respect those type of laws? The proper response advocated by the Judges (in Gideon’s day), as well as in Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s day, is not perpetuating such an abhorrent legal system, but for the culture to repent and change their mind about what they worship as Strong and Good. Instead of worshiping nothing, demons, or sinful men (be they Majority, Oligarchy, or Dictator), they will only find relief by regarding the True God as their benevolent Lawgiver, Judge, and King, and submitting to His freedom- and prosperity-producing laws.

Until then, the beatings will continue until the morale improves.

Paul’s point, is that human government is God’s delegated agent to convey His wrath to those who do evil, and His blessing on those who do the good of loving God with all their hearts and their neighbors as themselves. The crucial point is whom men depend on to define good and evil. Ever since the Garden of Eden men have continued Adam’s sinful tendency to define good and evil for themselves -– in defiance of God’s definitions of good and evil. When we complain that God has ordained an authority over us who is enforcing laws that seem evil to us, we can surmise two things are going on simultaneously. It may be He is giving us the kind of government the general society rebelliously prefers - and yet deserves - at the same time.

Right now, the Majority does not want God’s law, which delegates the ownership and control of property and labor to the Family. That would result in maximum freedom where the workman is worthy of his wage, and no one is coercing anyone for the purpose of stealing their property, even by majority-approved redistribution of wealth. We like to think it is cheaper to consider all property in land and labor as belonging to the government (sometimes considered as the WeThePeople or the Body Politic) so that it is legitimate for the government to charge acceptable rates of “rent” on Real Property, and on wages of labor and then do “good” things with that money, like fight wars, provide subsidies, social services (like education), a “safety net” for the poor, and funding for retirement and medical care. These “rent” fees collected are now wasted by higher-than-private-sector-wage government  employees taking their bureaucratic “cut” before they distribute the funds – many times to counter-productive and destructive programs that destroy men’s desire and ability to produce desirable goods and services for trade.

How’s that working out for ya? Are you awake enough to see how the unavoidable consequences of these erroneous ideas of “good” are not in the “general” best interest? Don’t they always benefit some at the expense of all (if they truly benefit anyone at all)?

Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

What goes on, is that if men won't willingly and freely obey God’s laws to their blessing, God uses the forces of government to coerce them to participate - unwillingly - in the destruction of life, liberty, and property.

For 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.

The only thing government officials (and it is proper to think of the responsibility of voters here, as well) can do, by definition, is punish evil and bless good. How we define evil and good is so crucial. We could frame it this way: Government uses the sword to punish (execution, threat of execution, incarceration, or forcing payments in property) those who do evil, and by so doing, protect the blessings of freedom for all those innocent of doing evil.

Now whether you have a exclusive professional class of hirees who do most all the law enforcement, or the whole society participates more materially – such as local militia, jury duty, boycotts, and neighborhood watch groups – if you let God’s Word define evil (in respect of what crimes need to be punished and how), it will take very little tax to accomplish what needs to be done. This is the meaning of  “for this cause….you pay tax”. The only reason to collect and expend tax, is to accomplish the punishing of the crimes God defines, in the way that He says to punish them. Mankind can never deviate from this ideal without erring on the side of either punishing the innocent, or rewarding the guilty.

One of the surprises of taking this approach, is discovering that there are no Biblical punishments prescribed for failure of payment of tax, whether that tax is decided upon by the majority, or by a dictator! This reality shocks in the face to realize that if the society, in the main, refuses to support – by both individual effort, wealth, and teaching and association in their family, church, school, business, and civic community – the enforcement of God’s good laws that bring a maximum of freedom and prosperity – then they will, by default, suffer through the tolerance of Men’s inferior laws which will deviate from that freedom and prosperity God has graciously intended for us.

Support good government willingly, or you will get bad government, unwillingly.

Failure to pay a tax is not one of God’s crimes. He does not even authorize men in Family, Church, or Civil Government - to punish other men for failing to honor Himself through tithes and offerings. He will certainly bless or curse men, Himself, according to their faithfulness in these actions – but nowhere does He define a civil punishment by men – upon men – for failure in this recognition of Himself as the One who provides “increase” to man’s efforts on the earth.

The story of David and Nabal may be a case in point. Apparently domestic rustling, or foreign raids were common enough in the sheep pastures of Israel’s hills, that Nabal’s herdsmen truly profited from the protection of David’s band. Aside from the fact that Nabal should have honored David because he had been anointed to be the next king—there was a non-legal obligation to show gratitude for the Band’s protective service. They came, asking nicely, instead of just helping themselves openly or otherwise. No human spanked Nabal, it just says God smote him. He failed to willingly support a whole band of men who had protected him, by staying up all night in all weather. Contrast this with Saul, who let Doeg, the Edomite, murder all the priests around Yahweh’s tabernacle along with their wives, children, and livestock – all for giving David 5 (or less) loaves of bread (oh, and a huge sword that was probably a little hard to wield effectively).

It is only in this way that these last phrases can be fulfilled:

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

(Rom 13:1-10 ESV)

When men began to coerce taxes from unwilling payers, or if that collected wealth is utilized for any other purpose than punishing God’s crimes – it will be antithetical to loving neighbors – either theft in its appropriation of wealth, or ultimately damaging in its “benefit” – or both.

Think of this, now, in the context of that other major passage regarding paying  taxes to Caesar:

Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

(Mat 22:17-21 ESV)

Notice how Jesus has no objection to giving to Caesar what truly belongs to him. In Paul’s language, we could detail out – Taxes, Revenue, Respect, and Honor. These should all be given to Caesar, if they are rightfully his. But you must see that Caesar is not the one who defines what is Caesar’s. Neither does Caesar’s subjects, friends, supporters, or Soldiers. Only God, the creator of all men, has the authority to define what is Caesar’s, along with Caesar’s job description. God is the one who will render unto Caesar, for all eternity, what Caesar deserves according to how well he honored God and was a good steward of his human responsibilities. And, of course, we can plug in Caesar’s place, any soldier, policeman, judge, juror, bureaucrat, intelligence officer, any civil servant, or voter.

This may be an uncomfortable thought for you. “What if all the good guys are busy planting their gardens and raising their families and concentrating on their vocation while a bunch of rich bad guys voluntarily support bad politicians that will be propped up by corrupt media and voter fraud, and guarantee them special privileges through force of human law? Won’t that hurt everybody?” If it was made strictly voluntary, wouldn’t it be too easy for the bad guys to take over?

What is it that you think you have now without this self-conscious attempt to revise the tax code towards God’s freedom? The bad guys have taken over so long ago that only a serious student of history could begin to trace to a beginning.

This is the loopback for what we were discussing above. God is going to bring on a culture the kind of government it deserves. No society can deviate from God’s law without either punishing the innocent or rewarding the guilty. If a substantial element of a population would be focused on the details on how God says to love your neighbor as yourself, not only would God supernaturally protect that culture from a bad government of evil men who wanted to murder, steal, and enslave – but the very aggregate actions of the people would naturally be a damper on these influences. They would not be asking the civil government to redistribute the wealth of others to them in violation of God’s law. They would not tolerate in others -- or allow in themselves – the acceptance of “benefits” they could see were stolen from others. They would not be favoring laws that fine, kidnap, or execute a man for actions God never authorized punishments for.

Hopefully these ideas “outside the box” of how this passage is normally viewed, can help you see that what a complete perversion it is to use this passage to “conserve” or authorize the prerogatives of a wicked government that a Majority has put in place or tolerates. We will not have a law that protects the rights of parents to murder their children unless parents want to murder their children. We will not have a law that steals property from the owner, unless we have a society that wants to steal that property in the name of righteousness.

What is to be done? The whole culture must refuse dishonest gain. Men are responsible to not elect leaders to office that show sympathy with legal plunder. No politician should be supported if his salary is going to tend towards punishing the innocent or rewarding the criminal. This is one of the main qualifications for public office as we read in Exodus:

Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

(Exo 18:21 ESV)

A society that will not heed these requirements for electing their officials, will become their lawful prey.