For on this account ye pay tribute also; for they are God's officers, attending continually on this very thing.
Paul has just said that submission to authority is a matter of conscience, not only of fear. Now he points to something his readers already do: they pay their taxes. That ordinary act, he says, rests on an extraordinary fact about who tax officials really are.
The verse opens with "for because of this," tying the tax bill back to what came before. One writer traces the whole chain. He starts with who the ruler really is, moves to conscience, and ends with what the two tax words meant:
It is a completely inadequate view to see the ruler only from the human side. Man may choose him in all sorts of ways, but he is God's servant, as this passage says again and again... To see God in the ruler brings in conscience. So one must be subject not only because of wrath (this would be merely a question of consequences from man), but also because of conscience... The payment of phoros was for the administration of government. It was a tribute or tax on persons or property or both. Telos was on merchandise, and so it is rightly translated "custom."
The verse calls these officials "ministers of God." A dictionary of Bible terms shows who else Scripture describes with that word:
leitourgos, "a public servant," someone holding an official position. Scripture uses it of the Lord, of angels, of Paul, and of rulers. Rom. 13:6; Rom. 15:16; Heb. 1:7; Heb. 8:2.
So the tax collector shares a title with angels and with Paul. One writer sets out the two words behind the description, and what each one says about the job:
"For the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing." They are called God's diakonoi and also His leitourgoi — the first as doing the work given them, keeping the order of the world in obedience to the laws; the second as public officials appointed to it.
If the officials answer to God, then the use of the money is their account to settle, not ours. One writer puts it as a relief rather than a rule:
We are to pay all that is due in the way of rates and custom, as well as income tax. What the authorities may do with our money, when they get it, is their matter, not ours. In the mercy of God we are relieved of that heavy responsibility.
Another writer answers a common objection with an example from the life of Christ:
Some have refused to pay taxes, arguing that the government uses the money to carry out morally bad programs. This does not excuse our refusal to pay taxes... The government must answer to God for its use of the money. The Lord Jesus told Peter to pay the temple tax for Peter and for Himself. He was not really required to pay it. He paid because others thought He should (Matt. 17:24-27). This surely tells us that money is not as important a matter as submission to the authority ordained by God.
Paul did not write this under a kind government. One writer points to the ruler of the day, and to the one thing that overrides obedience:
We must remember that Nero had only just come to the imperial throne in Rome when these words were written. The man who wrote them would soon suffer terrible things at the hands of the religious authorities in Jerusalem... Only one thing frees us from the subjection demanded here. That is when submitting to the authorities would make us disobey God. Then we must be obedient to the highest Authority. As Peter said, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
There is a difference between paying and paying well. One writer links cheerful submission to giving up personal rights:
The demands that a human government's law lays on its subject, sometimes very heavy ones, must be regarded as owed. The Spirit of God recognises them as such. A Christian stands on the ground of grace alone. So he has no personal rights that he can rightly say such laws have violated... The clear path for the Christian here is submission — not grudging, not unwilling, but cheerful, as to the Lord and not to man. His obedience to the ordinance of man is itself a result of his perfect freedom from man.
- Conscience — See God behind the ruler, and paying tax stops being about fear of penalties. It becomes a matter of conscience.
- Commission — The word for these officials means a public servant in an official post. Scripture uses it of the Lord, of angels and of Paul.
- Custom — Paul names two payments: a tax on persons and property, and a duty on goods. We pay all that is due.
- Closure — Once you have paid, your responsibility ends. How the government spends the money is its own account with God, and in His mercy we are free of it.
- Cheerfulness — Paul wrote while Nero reigned. He asks not for grudging payment but for glad submission. The one exception is when obeying men would mean disobeying God.
Render to all their dues to whom tribute [is due], tribute; to whom custom, custom; to whom fear, fear; to whom honour, honour.
Paul sums up the Christian's duty to the state in one word: dues. That word settles arguments about taxes, respect for officials, and how far our obligations to government run.
The verse does not ask what we think of the government. It asks what is owed.
We should give each one cheerfully — tribute, custom, fear, honour — where and when it is due. We are to pay taxes and customs duties, and to fear, or respect, and honour those in authority. What is due is the guiding principle, and the righteous rule. How it simplifies matters! Pay what is lawfully due. There the Christian's responsibility ends.
The same writer connects the payment to conscience:
In paying what was due he was obeying God. This puts conscience really in the right place, and sheds a true light on the duty of a servant of the Most High. A rightly ordered conscience will not refuse the payment of what is due.
The verse names two payments, not one said twice. Older translations call them tribute and custom, and one writer traces the Greek behind each.
The payment of phoros was for the running of government — a tribute or tax on persons or property or both. Telos was on merchandise, and so it is rightly translated "custom."
Does a bad government lose its claim on us? One writer answers by fixing what our task in the world is, and what it is not.
We are not put in the world to make governments or to change them. We are here to seek the interests of our Lord, while giving all proper honour and subjection to governments, whatever they may be. The instructions apply to such matters as tribute and custom, as verse 7 shows. We are to pay all that is due in the way of rates and customs, as well as income tax. What the authorities may do with our money, when they get it, is their matter, not ours. In His mercy, God relieves us of that heavy responsibility.
Another writer gives a reason to pay gladly, and names the selfishness behind the excuse:
We share in many advantages of government: why should we not be thankful to pay for them? If authorities abuse their power, by wrong use of money and so on, they will have to answer to God for it. But that gives us no liberty to withhold what is due from us. If we would excuse ourselves this way, it is only the subtle working of selfishness taking advantage of wrong to justify wrong.
"Honour to whom honour" would be impossible if it depended on the ruler deserving it. It doesn't.
Since honour is not at all based on their personal character, we have nothing to do with their origin, how they got their power, or how they use their power. All we have to do, as believers, is to own God and the magistrate. Perhaps the magistrate, or the king, does not own God himself. That is a serious thing for him, but it does not change our relation.
The last two items in the verse — fear and honour — are the same currency God asks for in other relationships too.
Scripture requires reverence everywhere. It commands children to honour their parents (Eph. 6:1-3). It charges wives to respect their husbands (Eph. 5:33). About old age it commands, "You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD" (Lev. 19:32). It requires reverence to rulers too.
These words were not written in a safe time, and the duty has one limit.
But we must remember when these words were written. Nero had only just come to the imperial throne in Rome. The man who wrote them was soon to suffer terrible things at the hands of the religious authorities in Jerusalem. Read Acts 23:5 and 26:25, and notice how well Paul practised there what he teaches us here. Only one thing exempts us from the subjection demanded here: when submitting to the authorities would involve us in disobedience to God. Then we must obey the highest Authority. As Peter said, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
- Due — the whole verse turns on one test: not what the ruler deserves, but what is lawfully owed. Pay it, and your responsibility ends there.
- Due in money — tribute is the tax on persons and property; custom is the duty on goods. Different names, both owed.
- Due in respect — fear and honour are owed as truly as money. Scripture asks the same reverence for parents, husbands and the aged.
- Due to the office — honour rests on the office, not on the character of the person holding it or on how he uses his power.
- Due to God first — one thing alone releases you: when obeying men would mean disobeying God. Then you obey the higher Authority.
Owe no one anything, unless to love one another for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.
Paul has just told believers to give everyone what is due to them. Verse 8 turns that round: close every account you can, and keep one open for life.
Paul gathers every kind of debt under one rule, then sets one debt apart from the rest.
Paul sums up every possible kind of obligation and states the principle the believer should act on. He goes on, "Owe no one anything, except to love each other." This takes in every form of debt. Love, then, if we may use the word, is an obligation you never pay off. More than that, it is the "fulness" of the law.
At first glance the words sound like a ban on ever taking a loan. Commentators point instead to the moment a payment falls due.
The first sentence does not mean that it is wrong to borrow money. The question is about paying. If a debt is due, you should pay it exactly on time. Borrowing money in a reckless way, with no prospect of paying it back, is sinful. It has often brought great dishonour on the name of our Lord.
It shapes giving too. What you owe comes before what you give.
We are to owe no one anything except to love one another. As the saying goes, "we must be just before we are generous." This matters greatly. We cannot give while we have not settled the just claims others have on us.
You can settle every other account and be done with it. This debt stands in a class of its own.
The debt of love is the only one that is legitimate and honourable. It is good among men and acceptable to the Lord. It is the debt we should always be paying, but can never pay off. Grace alone gives the power, and only that power fulfils the law. Law had constantly claimed love but never found it.
Commentators differ on the reach of "one another" here. Some read it of fellow believers and see the Lord standing behind the claim.
There is one load of debt the Christian has neither the power nor the wish to be free from. A firm bond holds him to a never-ending love for fellow believers, for the Lord's sake. His real creditor is the Lord Himself. His sheep are the ones appointed to receive what is due to Him.
Others take it as wide as "all men", believers and unbelievers alike.
These verses urge us to the right conduct of the believer towards all men, whether believers or unbelievers. Because this is our conduct towards all, the law comes in here, rather than the high standard of Christianity. We are to owe no one anything except to love.
So does love put the Christian back under the law? One writer answers by pointing to who supplies the love.
They should regard themselves as under the obligation of showing love to all. In doing this they are fulfilling what the law required. It demanded love, but man in the flesh has no power to meet the demand. The Spirit dwells in the Christian. With Him there is power to produce what the law required. So the Spirit's power carries out the law's requirement in the Christian. And it does this without putting him under law, either for righteousness or as a rule of life.
So which comes first — the law's demand, or the obedience?
As another has put it in few words, "By the conduct which flows from love, the law is already fulfilled before its requirement is applied."
Love shows up in what we refuse to say about someone.
Apart from love we may rake up something against a brother that we know has been judged, owned, and finished with, and so destroy his reputation by an idle word. In the Christian circle everyone's reputation should be safe from slander.
- Pay — the verse is about paying what is due, on time. It does not forbid borrowing. It forbids leaving just claims unmet.
- Owe — one account stays open for life. Love is the debt you always pay and never clear.
- Reach — commentators differ. Some read "one another" of fellow believers, others of all men.
- Power — the law demanded love and never got it; the Spirit produces it in a believer who is not placed under law.
- Proof — the test is ordinary: bills paid on time, and a brother's reputation safe when you speak.