Anarchism & Christianity (Part 3): The Question of Taxes

Are Christians Morally Obligated to Pay Taxes?

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake…”(Matthew 10:16-18)

During His ministry, Christ constantly spoke in parables. He said things in a cryptic fashion, so that only those in His inner circle could understand what He was really saying. When He spoke publicly, the government officials would not understand what He was saying, whereas His disciples and those thoroughly versed in Old Testament Scripture would understand what He meant. In this way, Christ could say seditious things without the civil authorities recognizing that He was a rebel and an anarchist. For example, Jesus was the Christ, the incarnation of God. Throughout the Gospels, Christ constantly makes the claim that He is God. Now, He could never come right out and say that. If He had, then the Roman civil authorities would have had Him arrested and executed. The only human-god alive, according to the Romans, was Caesar, their king, whom they were required to worship. If the Roman authorities had heard Jesus say that He was the God-Man, they would have interpreted such a claim as treason because that would mean that Jesus was claiming to be another Caesar, another king. So, Christ tells the Jews that He is God and King, but He tells them in an obscure way, so as to elude detection by the Roman authorities.

When Jesus is speaking publicly, He says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”(John 8:58) The Romans didn’t see the significance of this statement, but the Jews did. Jesus was alluding to the following passage:

“So Moses said to God, ‘When I go to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers sent me to you, and they ask me, What is His name? what shall I tell them?’ Then God said to Moses, ‘I AM The Existing One:’ and He said, ‘Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.’”(Exodus 3:13-14)

The Jews knew what this meant; it was Jesus claiming to be God, so “they took up stones to throw at Him.”(John 8:59) The phrase “I AM” (ego eimi, in Greek) is a direct quote from Exodus. In fact, Jesus claimed to be the very God that revealed the Law to Moses! The Jews got the message; the Roman authorities did not. Christ was indeed “as wise as a serpent.” The Pharisees hated Jesus, and they knew that He was an anarchist. So they were constantly trying to get Him in trouble with the civil authorities.

Look at the following passage:

“Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do you care about anyone, for you do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?’ But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, ‘Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money.’ So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, ‘Whose image and inscription is this?’ They said to Him, ‘Caesar’s’ And He said to them, ‘Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’”(Matthew 22:15-21)

We must pay close attention to what is going on here. Firstly, the Pharisees did not come to question Jesus alone; they brought the Herodians with them (i.e. they brought civil authorities from Herod’s court). They were trying to get Jesus to speak out against taxes, because that would have made him a rebel; then the Herodians would have arrested and executed Him as a traitor. They expected Christ to condemn taxation, as it was common knowledge that Jesus viewed tax-collectors as being among the most wicked men in society. (Cf. Matthew 5:46) Indeed, the Pharisees condemned Christ for eating with tax-collectors, and Christ’s response was, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”(Cf. Luke 5:30-31) The Pharisees are just trying to get Jesus in trouble with the Roman authorities here. They ask Jesus whether or not people actually owe the tax to Caesar, and Jesus says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”(Matthew 22:21) Jesus is being “wise as a serpent” once again. The Roman authorities just heard Him say that people should pay their taxes, but the Jews heard Him say no one is obligated to pay taxes to Caesar. When the Jews heard Jesus say this, the following Scriptures were the first thing that came to mind:

“The earth is the Lord’s, and so is the fullness thereof, and all that dwell therein.”(Psalm 24:1)
“Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.”(Deuteronomy 10:14)

Jesus says, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and unto God that which is God’s,” but that begs the question as to what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. The Jews know that nothing rightfully belongs to man—everything belongs to God. So, in essence, Christ has said, You are not obligated to give anything to human governments, but you are obligated to give everything to God. Those people who claim that Christians are morally obligated to pay taxes are really Roman heathens, and not Christians at all; for they have interpreted this passage the way that the Herodians did, totally missing the inner truth that a true disciple of Christ would have discerned.

The pseudo-Christian statist will object, pointing out that Christ did pay His taxes. True, but they have not understood what was going on. Let’s look at the passage of Scripture where Jesus pays His taxes:

“When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, ‘Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, ‘What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?’ Peter said to Him, ‘From strangers.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.”(Matthew 17:24-27)

Once again, the statist has missed the point! Before Jesus pays the tax, He points out that He has no moral obligation to pay the tax! In fact, He explicitly says that He only pays the tax “so as not to offend” the authorities. Moreover, He trivializes the whole matter. Here’s a paraphrase of what Jesus has just said: I am not morally obligated to pay taxes! Nevertheless, I will pay this damned tax just to keep from offending the civil authorities. Peter, there’s a fish over there that swallowed a coin. Go squeeze the fish until it pukes, then scoop the coin up out of the vomit and hand it to the nice tax-collector! What could be more anarchistic than this!

I expect that our statist opponents are now crying, “What about St. Paul? Doesn’t he clearly say that we have to pay taxes?” Well, let’s look at what the Apostle says:

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”(Romans 13:1-8)

Paul says that all legitimate authority comes from God, but he does not say that all who claim “authority” have legitimate God-given authority. Paul, like Jesus, is being “as wise as a serpent.” He’s writing a letter to the Christians in the city of Rome, the heart of the Roman Empire. He knows that his letter will be widely read, copied and distributed throughout the city. He knows that whatever he says will be read by friends and enemies alike; the Roman civil authorities as well as the Roman Christians are going to read his letter. He must tread softly. St. Paul wants the Roman authorities to think that he is telling the Christian community to submit to the Roman rulers, but his own disciples will pick up on certain subtleties in his language. Moreover, this passage must be understood in the context of the Bible as a whole. The Bible says that there are illegitimate kings and illegitimate authorities: “They made kings for themselves, but not by Me. They have ruled, but they did not make it known to Me.”(Hosea 8:4) Paul expresses that we must be subject to legitimate authorities (like the spiritual authority of elders in the Church). He did not mean that we must always obey the civil government. Elsewhere, Paul says that the Christian must “struggle…against the rulers [archas], against the authorities, and against the world-powers [kosmokratoras].”(Ephesians 6:12) In this passage, Paul says that the Christian must stand up against the “archists” (statists) and “cosmocrats” (earthly governing authorities). Moreover, he expresses the opinion that these human authorities are somehow under “the spiritual forces of evil.” St. Paul holds that the civil authorities are under the influence of demons. Civil disobedience, then, is not just opposition to human authority but a battle against demonic powers. (Cf. Ephesians 6:12)

Paul and the other Apostles were always disobeying the civil government. There are even accounts of them escaping from prison illegally! (Cf. Acts 12 & 16) Paul and the other Apostles were “criminals,” according to the civil government. They were constantly breaking “laws.” In defense of their “criminal” activities, the Apostles replied: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”(Act 5:29) Paul did not think that the Roman government was “God’s minister.” He knew damn well that the Roman government was under Satan’s control. It was the Roman government that murdered Jesus Christ. The New Testament repeatedly says that all earthly governments are Satanic in nature. (Cf. Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13; Revelation 13:7) Paul was simply following in the tradition of Christ, saying things in a way that the Christians would understand but the Roman authorities would not. This comes out clearest in the last two verses cited above, where Paul slyly says the following: “Render therefore to all their due [opheilas]: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe [opheilete] no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”(Romans 13:7-8) Paul is being just as seditious as Christ. In essence, he says: Pay taxes to whom you owe taxes to. But know this, that you do not owe taxes to anyone, because your only Christian obligation is to show love for the persons who happen to be in charge of the civil government; there is no moral obligation to pay taxes to them! The Romans would have interpreted Paul as saying "obey the civil government and pay your taxes,” but the Christians would rightly understand him to mean obey the legitimate authority of the spiritual leaders in the Church, you are not obligated to obey the civil government and you are not morally obligated to pay taxes. Truly, Paul was “as wise as a serpent.”

The entire Bible, from beginning to end, is an anarchist book. There were times, especially while the New Testament was being written, that openly advocating anarchy would get you killed, so Christ and the Apostles always said things cryptically. They were anarchists, but they were secretly anarchists. Yet there are some times where they are openly anarchistic, like when Jesus says:

“You know that those who are considered to be rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whosoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.”(Mark 10:42-44)

The Greek word for ruler is where we get the archy in an-archy. In this verse, Jesus is explicitly saying that Christians are to be anarchists. Therefore, Nikolai Berdyaev rightly summarizes Christ’s teaching thus: “The Kingdom of God is anarchy.”(Nikolai Berdyaev, Slavery and Freedom, Part 3, § 1.A) Having said that, I will leave you with the following passage of Scripture:

“These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: ‘Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’… Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles…. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another…. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master 'of the house Beelzebub,' how much more will they call those of his household! Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”(Matthew 10:5-7, 16-18, 22-28)