The rough ground shall become level.
Isaiah 40:4 NIVUK
When I was growing up there was a TV comedy that was incredibly popular. It was called 'Only Fools and Horses'. It was a comedy about a fictional market trader from East London (Derek, known as Del Boy) and his slightly more educated brother (Rodney). Del Boy was always crossing the line, doing things that were illegal and immoral to pay their way through life. Rodney was the voice of his conscience, always trying to hold him back, but still helping him none the less.
It was a massive hit.
The reason why is because the character of Del Boy is one many of us can identify with: the lovable rogue who might break the law, but he's an underdog struggling to survive. And so we excuse his illegalities and foibles and mistakes, honouring him as a trier and a striver.
We even had a relative like this in our family. Like Del Boy, he was a south Londoner. Like Del Boy, he 'ducked and dived' for a living, and frequently broke the law. We would hear about him going to prison or injuring himself and landing up in hospital or going bankrupt. He was a nice guy. A trier. A 'lovable rogue'.
But should a Christian live like this? Should we walk a close line to breaking the law? Should we wilfully commit fraud and excuse it as being our way of surviving?
I would hope we would all say 'No'.
You see, the 'rough ground' here refers to small knolls - baby mountains, you might say. The same expression is used for deceivers, those who are sly and insidious. They are deceitful, sly and insidious because they have set aside the worship of and obedience to God and are following their own paths. They have set aside reliance on God and are dependent on their own connivance to survive.
The Bible stands one hundred percent against this. There simply is no debate.
He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away.
Job 5:12-13 NIVUK
A troublemaker and a villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks maliciously with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, who plots evil with deceit in his heart – he always stirs up conflict. Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed – without remedy.
Proverbs 6:12-15 NIVUK
Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
Proverbs 23:4-5 NIVUK
No Christian should ever find themselves on the crooked road.
But what does this mean?
To me, it means that in all our dealings with God, other people and the government, we should act with honest and integrity.
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.
Proverbs 10:9 NIVUK
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.
Proverbs 11:3 NIVUK
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body.
Ephesians 4:25 NIVUK
There should be no deceit, no con tricks, no swindling, no exploiting. We should never have any fear of audits or spot-checks or inquiries because we are absolutely honest and transparent in our dealings with everyone.
This includes the government, and our payment of taxes.
Give to everyone what you owe them: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour.
Romans 13:7 NIVUK
So what does this mean?
It means that Christian businesses have one set of accounts, not two. We do not avoid taxes. We do not evade taxes. We pay them.
And please don't argue that they are burdensome and unjust. That may be. But how much more burdensome and unjust can you get than being gouged by tax collectors to pay the expenses of the very army that is persecuting you? Yet Paul said even those taxes should be paid!
We don't pay taxes because they are just and fair. No, we pay them because we have been commanded to do so. If we do not pay them, then we are disobeying a clear command in Scripture.
Neither is there any argument about the injustice of how they are spent. The government will answer before God and the electorate for how they spend our taxes. That is their responsibility. Our responsibility is to pay them, and to do so on time. We will answer to God for this.
Tax efficiency, where we follow the advice of the government to pay only the appropriate level of taxes and use possibilities in our tax laws, such as donations to charity, etc., to reduce our payment, is perfectly okay. The government said we can do it. It's perfectly legal. There is no issue.
Tax avoidance, where we use smart accountants to exploit loopholes in the law that the government has not yet noticed and may close, is ethically questionable and should itself be avoided. It's too easy for us to find ourselves on the wrong side of the law.
Tax evasion, where we break the law to not pay taxes, where we operate with two sets of accounts and don't declare some of our income, is wrong. There can be no argument. It's illegal. We are trying to get out of paying what's due. No Christian should be involved in this.
Tax avoidance and evasion and other sharp business practices are a form of theft because we are taking things and possessing things when we have no right to do so. The Bible is absolutely and unequivocally clear about this:
Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
Ephesians 4:28 NIVUK
In other words, the money we earn should be earned by our hard work, not by exploiting others or by retaining or obtaining money from the government to which we have no right.
Maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Paul, that's fine for people who are comfortable and well off, but I can't afford to be honest."
Let me tell you, that is one hundred percent not true. In fact, the opposite is true: you can't afford to be dishonest.
How can I say that?
These men lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush only themselves! Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the life of those who get it.
Proverbs 1:18-19 NIVUK
Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them? The sleep of a labourer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep.
Ecclesiastes 5:10-12 NIVUK
Those who take the crooked road may have a belly that is more full of food and a bank balance that is more full of money, but they do not have one thing that money cannot buy: a heart full of peace
But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’
Isaiah 57:20-21 NIVUK
Those who become wealthy through ill-gotten gains chase peace from their heart and replace it with worry. Worry about getting caught. Worry about needing to repay everything that have taken. Worry about someone else stealing from them. And they can try to protect themselves with bribery and corruption and blackmail and security systems and guards and every man-made system under the sun. But they cannot gain peace. Their conscience will always condemn them. Their brain will constantly be justifying their actions to themselves. Their stress will increase. Their blood pressure will soar. They will simply not know the peace that comes from integrity and an honest job done well.
And the crooked road is no place for a Christian. Imagine, for a second, what people would say if you were ever caught and exposed. "That guy or girl calls themselves a Christian. Yet look: they're as crooked as us, if not worse. That Christianity of theirs doesn't do you any good then, does it?'
People would speak badly of the Gospel and of the Lord because of you!
So if you have any regard and respect for the God you say you follow, you will repent, and right now.
Consider Zacchaeus. That guy was sharp. He was a paragon of sharp business practices, dishonesty and bullying: a small man who hid behind Roman army heavies and made a fortune demanding tax money with menaces, grinding his fellow Jews into the dirt and getting rich off their backs. No wonder he was hated. But all it took was one meeting with Jesus and he repented completely.
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’
Luke 19:8 NIVUK
If you are on the crooked road, so, my friend, must you.
This verse doesn't just talk of the mountain, valley and crooked roads. It concludes with THE RUGGED ROAD
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