Are you playing by the rules?

"There is one other thing about rules that should not be overlooked: they usually do not happen on their own. Rules usually come into existence after someone has done something wrong. They exist to remind us that the paths we walk on can be dangerous. Willful disregard can be an indicator of serious problems. We all complain about the IRS and the Tax Code it enforces. But they only exist because people sometimes have difficulty doing the right thing." - Pg. 86, Weeds in the Garden by Verne Hargrave

There is a familiar story in the book of Luke where the Jewish leaders tried to trick Jesus that could be reported to the Roman governor and arrested.

"'Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?' He saw through their trickery and said, 'Show me a Roman coin.t Whose picture and title are stamped on it?' 'Caesar’s, they replied. 'Well then,' he said, 'give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.'" ‭‭Luke‬ ‭20:22-25‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I grew up as a preacher's kid. My dad had his own paraphrase of that last verse. "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but ONLY what belongs to Caesar!" In other words, good financial planning, and knowledge of IRS rules can 1) keep you out of trouble for not paying enough to "Caesar" and 2) keep more in your pocket by not paying too much, either. This is important for churches and non-profits as well as for the pastor.

That being said, if there are obvious signs of non-compliance, such as a stack of penalty notices from the IRS, that may be an indication of something much more nefarious than incompetence or apathy. Just as Paul wrote to the church in Rome, the law (even tax laws!) is there to show us our "sin."

"Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”" (Romans 7:7 NLT)

In some contexts (particularly for preacher's kids!), rules were made to be broken. But rules were also made to point out shortcomings, directly and indirectly. The rules exist anyway...we may as well use them to help us in our prevention efforts!

How do you feel about rules? Are you a rule-breaker or a rule-follower? Have you seen situations where a rule had an unexpected effect?

Join the conversation by commenting below. Or ask your own questions, and we'll try to address them in a future post.