Wednesday, January 21

Romans 13:1-7

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 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. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 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." (ESV)

3 comments:

Shelldell said...

We just received our tax check list. It's important to keep good records and because we have a business we have a certified accountant take care of our tax preparation.
We have been audited for the last two years because of our giving. Thank goodness for good records and receipts of proof.
Give to Caesar what is Caesar
Be generous to the Lord

Karis said...

I was thinking on these same verses yesterday as our guard came to work jubilant over a black man with close African ties being president and beyond that how Christian the whole event was and how Christian the U.S. is. Obama had two people pray long prayers for him and his family and the U.S. and Obama used Scripture in his speech and Obama included the Bible again when he put his hand on it for the oath (I'm guessing our guard didn't know this was tradition) and Obama was so kind to George Bush. Our guard was gushing about how such a large number of people were glorifying God/enjoying this Christian event. Instead of saying what I was thinking, I kept quiet and focused my thinking on, "those (authorities) that exist have been instituted by God." I smiled and tried to say (very difficult for me in French) that the American people had voted and we are so thankful for the peaceful transfers of power in our country and that most of all, God instituted this.

ruth said...

AMEN