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Give to Everyone What You Owe Them

                 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (Roman 13:6-7)

                Pay taxes? Pay revenue? Pay respect? Pay HONOR? Didn’t Paul read the Declaration of Independence?  We must fight for our freedom! We might fight for the freedom and dignity of others! He didn’t understand what we face and have faced! Well, except the Jews were conquered by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Greeks, and Romans before Paul’s time and Rome still controlled Israel at the time Paul wrote, and what’s more, the Christians (not called that yet) were being persecuted and martyred.

                It was to people who were under Rome’s authority and who could lose their lives just for living according to their beliefs that Paul wrote the passage above. He would eventually be martyred. Some of those authorities about whom Paul wrote were undoubtedly monsters.  Others did the job required of them. But several things come to mind from Paul’s warning.

                For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

                 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:43-45)

                God can and does put evil people into power and allows them to do evil things. We may not agree with what they do. We may need to stand against the evil that they do (like Daniel and his friends). But God does use these people, ultimately, for good even if we don’t understand it. If we are not careful, we may find ourselves fighting against God.

                We should not speak or act in a way that provokes official violence toward ourselves or others. We may not be able to avoid official violence, but we have no excuse for instigating or intensifying it through our own poor behavior and bad attitudes.

                And, as I noted recently, God didn’t commit violence against Satan in the account in Job, and Jesus treated Satan politely during His temptation in the wilderness. If we would be like God, we should follow His examples.

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