Render unto Ceasar.....

Hello all!!

I was reading through Romans 13 last night, in particular vs 1 - 7 where it talks about submitting to the governance/authorities of the day etc.

"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...........Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour."

I have an acquaintance who is in his 40s and who has never had a job in his life. He has been the proverbial eternal student for some time now. He's actually not working or studying at the moment and has no intention of ever seeking employment or paying back any of his HECS debt because he believes that the government owes him. This is a man who professes to be a reformed godly man who abides by the teachings of scriptures.

I was just wondering how the rest of you felt in respect to this issue?

mannysee said:

Gee, he must have quite a huge HECS debt racked up.
I think it's rather strange to be his age and not to have been employed. How does he get by?
He sounds like a real slacker to me.

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He lives at home with his mother and gets "Newstart Allowance" (for the non aussies, that's like the dole or unemployment benefit.)

What adds to the irony (in my view) is that this guy has studied theology, latin, greek and hebrew. He's certainly a scholar and seems to have a good knowledge and understanding of the scripture, yet he believes that he should never have to pay taxes or pay back the cost of his education.

For example, probably a few months ago, he met a girl on a christian website, who asked him to go and visit her overseas. He was going to go but then decided that he wouldnt' because it would mean being out of the country for 3 weeks which in turn meant that he would have to reapply for Newstart allowance when he got back - ie he would lose out on his payments from the govt and would have to go through the reapplication process.

However, he still genuinely believes that he is in the right in his thinking.

In terms of the issue of rendering to Caesar what is his etc, how do you think that applies to us when we look at the government of the day in our land esp in relation to how they rule etc relative to our beliefs? (Did that make sense??)