IS IT ABOUT
WHAT IS RIGHT?
What do you do when you find out that what you want to be right is
not? If we really want something to be
true, we will often keep asking enough people until we hear what we want to
hear.
We laugh about children asking first one parent and
then another for what they want, hoping they can pit one against the
other. When that fails, sometimes they
will then broaden the search and include the grandparents—all hoping to find
someone who will tell them what they want to hear. Sometimes it works! But
that does not make it right!
On some subjects
we approach our walk with Christ in the same way. Rather than read what the Bible has to say, we will ask a lot of
people what they think until we get enough folks to agree with what we wanted
to do all along and then we go for it.
Never mind that the Bible is clear, or that Jesus answered the question
in such a way that there is no room for misunderstanding. When we look for answers to our questions,
are we concerned about what is right…or about what we want?
In the encounter
Jesus has with these representatives from the Pharisees, a question is asked of
Him that really has nothing to do with their desire to know what is right
regarding their taxation by the Romans.
It was not about what is right at all!
They simply used the question as a means to get at what they really
wanted—a way to trap Jesus into saying something they could used against Him to
get rid of Him.
As we look at
this passage this morning, we want to be honest as we hear the question and the
answer. Do we really want to know what
is right, or do we just want to find a way to justify what we are doing, or
want to do?
THESIS: Following Jesus Christ means that we are willing to
find out what is right from Him and then do nothing less.
I. THE
MOTIVE BEHIND THE QUESTION
--People ask questions for a reason—and sometimes
for reasons that may not appear in the question itself.
--When the disciples of the
Pharisees and the Herodians approached Jesus to ask about poll-taxes, their
motive for asking the question had nothing to do with taxation—they were
motivated by a desire to trap Jesus by His own words by getting Him to say
something that could be used against Him.
--If we examine the motives behind this question,
and recognize that people today still are asking the same question, we soon
realize that the question may not be motivated by a desire to discover what is
right.
--In fact, the primary
motivation behind the question seldom rests in a hunger for good information
and an interest in knowing what to do, what is right.
A. A PLOT TO
ENTANGLE JESUS
--As with many other occasions, the Pharisees were
determined to find a way to destroy Jesus—what better way than to use His own
words against Him?
Matt. 22:15-16
Then the Pharisees went and counseled together how they might trap Him in what
He said. 16 And they sent
their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians…
In this event, they chose to use intermediaries and sent their
disciples instead of going themselves.
By having someone else go, they tried to hide their own ambitions and
evil intent. That was an important
consideration since they did not want to incur the wrath of those who saw Jesus
as a true prophet.
--Their method was to flatter Jesus with insincere words,
speaking as if they respected Him, framing their question in terms of
complimentary language…when in fact, they had no respect for Jesus at all and
no intention of giving positive consideration to His answer.
Matthew 22:16-17 “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and
teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to
any. 17 “Tell us therefore,
what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?”
B. A MALICE
AGAINST JESUS
--Without question, the question was prompted by a plot of
the Pharisees and born out of a hatred for Jesus, a malice toward Him that was
totally out of control with no effort to hold it back in any way.
Matthew 22:18 But Jesus perceived their malice, and said,
“Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?
--Jesus knew their motives were shaped by their malicious
desire to have Him killed and was not deceived to think that they actually
wanted an honest answer that would in any way influence how they handled the
issue of taxation.
C. AN EXCUSE
TO AVOID RESPONSIBILITY
--Today people are still asking questions like the one in
this passage, but like those in the passage, the motivation is seldom pure and
the reason for asking seldom represents an interest in doing what is right.
--Often the reason for asking the question is to look for
loopholes, for any excuse we can find to allow us to turn a blind eye to our
responsibility toward the governing authorities.
--Evidence of that can be found among those who begin with a
presupposition and then a hunt to find justification for that starting premise.
In our nation with its rule of
law, there are many who resent taxation as an unacceptable violation of their
right to personal property.
Consequently, they try to find ways around what Jesus says is our
responsibility to pay our taxes and what Peter and Paul say is our
responsibility to submit to the governing authorities. The presupposition about rights to control
all personal property is not one grounded in the eternal principles of God’s
Word but built upon ideals outlined by the founding fathers of our nation.
Founding fathers demonstrated great wisdom in shaping those initial ideals, but
they are not inviolable and do not carry greater weight than God’s Word.
Twice in the past year I have
been accused of failing my responsibilities as a pastor because I will not lead
the congregation to revolt against the tax laws of the land. In the opinion of this individual, the laws
are illegal and should not be obeyed…regardless of the findings of the courts
and the legislation of the Congress and the acts of presidents…in other words
by the legislative, executive and judicial branches of our government.
The presupposition that certain
taxes are illegal has led this person and others to look elsewhere instead of
the Scriptures for support for their position.
They ask of the Scriptures only to find support for what they already
believe and to justify the actions they already are taking or intend to take.
D. A
REBELLION AGAINST AUTHORITY
--Underlying the search for excuses to pay no taxes and to
disregard the authority of the government is a basic rebellion against
authority at every level.
--Recognizing no authority other than their own, demanding
absolute autonomy, many ask questions about whether they have to pay taxes and
whether they have to obey the laws of the land as an effort to find ways to
condone their unwillingness to submit to anyone at all, not just the governing
authorities.
--The same folks who ask this question usually also express
reservations about the whole idea of tithes and offering—they just do not
respond well to the idea that any outside authority has any claim on what they
perceive to be theirs.
E. A
DISTRUST FOR GOD’S DESIGN
--At the root of these questions is an underlying distrust
of God’s design that makes people skeptical about the results of their
submission to His will.
--The problem as they see it is that if they followed God’s
design, things would not work out as well as if they followed their own plans
and did what they thought was best.
For example, if we follow God’s plan and render to Caesar what belongs
to him and to God what belongs to God, we fear that we will not have enough
left to spend on ourselves—or even to meet our basic needs, as we define
them. So people tend to cut corners
when they can and do not report all their earnings and overestimate their
deductions in an effort to pay less and have more to spend on themselves.
They then have more but then do not
obey God and give the basic minimum of a tithe but rationalize their actions by
telling themselves that they cannot afford to obey. They do what they can to avoid paying their taxes and giving
their tithes and offerings because they do not trust God to provide for their
needs with what remains.
F. A DESIRE
TO CONTROL POSSESSIONS
--Our distrust of God’s plan usually arises from our own
desire to control what we perceive to be our own possessions because we really
do think that we own them.
--What right does God or the government have to dip their
hands into my pockets, take what I have earned and force me to take the
leftovers?
--The problem is an old one, rooted in the self-centered
human heart which demands to be its own master, subject to no one and unwilling
to yield a penny without protest.
II. THE
PRINCIPLES BEHIND THE SOLUTION
--Although this question speaks only to the issue of
responsibility for taxation, it also addresses the broader question of
submission to governing authorities.
I have heard the principle behind this answer used to speak to
everything from breaking the speed limit to meeting building codes, from paying
taxes to supporting abortion and homosexuality. Obviously, Jesus had the specific question before Him but was keenly
aware that His interrogators had no genuine interest in finding out what was
right.
--From Jesus’ answer, we can see that several
underlying principles support His simple response.
A. DIVINE
OWNERSHIP
--Foundational to our understanding of our responsibilities
with all that we manage to do in our lives is the absolute certainty that we
own nothing at all—never have and never will!
GOD OWNS EVERYTHING AND ALWAYS
WILL!
--Think about that for a moment and you will have to agree
that if He owns it all, then we have an obligation to do what He wants and what
He says with what belongs to Him.
1Chr. 29:11-13
“Thine, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory
and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Thine
is the dominion, O LORD, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all. 12 “Both riches and honor come from
Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it
lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone. 13 “Now therefore, our God, we
thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name.
--Ingratitude and selfishness arise from a failure to
acknowledge that God does have dominion over all things because all things
belong to Him.
Therefore, if He owns it, He can do with it what He
wants. What we do know, and know
without a doubt, is that He expects us to “render unto Caesar what is
Caesar’s,” or pay our taxes to the government in the land where we live; and
“render…to God the things that are God’s,” which He expects us to do in our
tithes and offerings on the one hand and in our godly management of the rest on
the other (some think that once we have given Him His portion we can do what we
want with the rest. God is not just interested
in how much we give, but in what we try to keep for ourselves.
B. OBEDIENT
SUBMISSION
--Once we understand who owns it all, then it is easier to
figure out why we should have no problem giving control to the One who is in
charge.
--Yet figuring it out does nothing more than give mental
assent to what should be obvious—the key is to submit to the Lord and actually
yield to His instruction…even when we think we know better!
1 Pet. 2:13-14 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s
sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the
punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.
--If we are committed to follow Christ, then submission to
His will on this point is no different than any other—but somehow we try to
make it more difficult because we struggle with submission in areas where we
feel we have rights.
C. PERSONAL
OBLIGATIONS
--If we actually have an interest in what is
right, then God makes it abundantly clear that what is right falls into two
very specific categories of personal obligation regarding financial
responsibility:
1. You Must
Pay Your Taxes
--What does Caesar require of you? That you pay taxes according to the laws put
in place by those who govern your nation.
--Can you do so with a
willing heart and without grumbling and complaining if you know that Christ has
said that you should fulfill this obligation?
2. You Must
Give Your Tithes
--What does God expect of you? That you give at least one tenth of what you
earn as a tithe that acknowledges in that symbolic gift of ten percent that
everything belongs to Him.
--The average gift toward
charitable causes in general has dropped from just about 3% to just below 3%
from the days of the Depression until now.
--As a nation, we have become less generous as
we have become more prosperous.
--Church giving has seldom
reached much more than 3.5-4.0% of income.
Barna Research Group—In
total, one out of every twenty households (5%) tithed their pre-tax income to
non-profit organizations. A large majority of those individuals actually gave
ten percent or more of their income to churches – a group that represents 4% of
the national population of households.
When the
survey examined the behavior of born again adults – those who have made a
significant personal commitment to Jesus Christ and who believe they will
experience eternal life because of their confession of sins and acceptance of
Jesus Christ as their savior – the outcome showed just 7% had tithed to their
church. That figure was consistent with the 2002 data among born again adults,
which showed just 6% had tithed to their church. The current percentage is just
half as many as had tithed in 2002 (14%). Interestingly, more than twice as
many born again adults gave no money to a church last year (18%) as tithed to a
church (7%).
Among the
born again population, which represents 38% of all adults, the average giving
to churches was $1411 – much higher than a year earlier ($1220), but below
previous year’s totals. The amount of gross income donated by born again adults
to their church averaged 3.8%.
--Why such a blatant inconsistency in
confessing total allegiance to Christ while refusing to trust Him by obeying
Him in the area of personal giving?
D. WISE
LIFE-MANAGEMENT
--Following Christ may mean more than just
mindlessly drifting along without taking care to explore what legal, ethical
and moral options are available.
--In order to be faithful, we
also need to be wise and practice good management principles when it comes to
our taxes and tithes/offerings.
1.
Principled Stewardship
--As stewards of what belongs to Someone else,
we need to operate with deep convictions about what is right based on both
prescription and principle passed on to us from the Owner.
--Therefore, what He has directly prescribed
and ordered, we cannot disregard without intentionally and willfully disobeying
Him.
--But what He has not directly prescribed, He
has laid out principles to cover so that we are never without instruction about
what would be wise and best from His perspective.
--We may not always know
exactly what we should do but by applying biblical principles we can form a
solid case to make a wise decision about what is best.
In principle, we should make sure
that we give where Christ is exalted, His Word honored, His ways followed and
the resources accounted for.
2. Informed
Planning
--God has made it possible for us to be
informed in our financial planning so that can maximize what He entrusts to us,
both for His glory and our good.
--It may seem inconsistent with what we have
just said about rendering unto Caesar and to God what is due and right, but by
proper planning we can do that and make sure that we maintain our biblical
priorities in where our money goes.
§
Follow the laws of
taxation but also take note of the provisions in the tax codes and laws that
give you advantages in doing what is right AND directing your income toward
what honors God most.
§
Plan for your assets
to be available to support your priorities and convictions by finding out how
to structure your estate so that you can maximize the power to give to the
Lord’s work and benefit your heirs and reduce the amount that will be taxed
(all in accordance with provisions that ‘Caesar’ has included in the tax
regulations).
§
Take the deductions
offered to you when possible by maximizing your tithes and offerings so that
what you give away goes where you want it, toward the Lord’s work, instead of
having no other plan and allowing that to go by default into taxes that
‘Caesar’ allows you to direct elsewhere.
--In other words, be smart in managing your
Master’s assets by making sure that you have a plan that honors your
responsibilities both to Caesar and to God.
3. Careful
Management
--Since we manage what belongs to Someone else,
we must pay careful attention to what we do.
--Few of us plan to cheat on our taxes or
embezzle on our tithes, but by careless and thoughtless management of our
income, we find that our character and our integrity come into question because
we were irresponsible.
--When we have addressed the
issues at all, we have approached the matter in reverse order by asking…
“How much do I
have to give to the Lord?”
…Instead of asking…
“How much would
the Lord want me to keep?”
E. HOLY
CONTENTMENT
--Can we be satisfied with what remains when
we have followed the direction of the Lord, or will we chafe and complain and
murmur against any design that leaves us less?
“Trust and
obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus…”
For
all the debate and discussion on our responsibility, for all the effort to trip
up Jesus and get Him out of the way, the question asked by these disciples of
the Pharisees had no basis in curiosity and interest in knowing what was right.
III. THE
WISDOM BEHIND THE ANSWER
--When Jesus answered the question posed to Him, He
demonstrated His eternal wisdom in a couple of ways.
A. HE
RECOGNIZED THEIR HYPOCRISY
--They did not want to know the answer, just
as many today do not really want to know what God has to say on this subject.
§
They
wanted to trap Jesus and entangle Him with their clever trap intending to make
Him take sides against either Caesar or the Law of God.
§
We
want to find loopholes that will allow us to keep as much as we can to spend
all we have on ourselves.
--Like many today who want to debate instead
of obey, theoretical discussions that do not impact our actions are far more
popular than finding out what is right and then doing what is right.
B. HE
EXPLAINED OUR RESPONSIBILITY
--Therefore, Jesus chose to take the high road
by making a simple declaration about the matter and in so doing gave a profound
answer to what really is right for anyone willing to follow Him and do His
will.
--His answer to them and to us consists of
these two points:
1. Governing Authorities Have a Lawful Right to
Make Requirements of Us—We Must Pay Our Taxes.
2. Biblical Authority Has a Right to Call for
Responsibility from Us—We Must Give Out Tithes.
If you are interested in following and obeying Christ, your way is clear. He does not go into all the specifics of all the possible issues in godly giving and in paying our taxes, but He leaves no doubt that both are right and therefore the responsibility of every one who accepts His invitation to follow Him.
Now that you know, you can choose to
debate the matter, argue for all the exceptions you can think of, offer your
reasons for choosing not to do what He says is right—or you can tell Him that
you will trust and obey Him…even if it hurts!
Doing what is right, doing what Christ commands, may not always be easy,
but it does always bring a joyful peace because we know that He is well-pleased
by our obedience and desire to honor Him!
April
25, 2004
© David Horner
2004
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