Profound thoughts...or not?

As part of an LTG (Life Transformation Group), I'm required to do a lot of Scripture reading.  Although right now the group is doing a couple of smaller books, there will be times where I must read 25-30 chapters in a week.  No, it's not too late, there's not something in your eyes, and yes you did read that correctly.

Personally, I am glad that the challenge is so great.  Immersion in the Bible is something that I have never done in my three decades of existence, so getting my head forcefully plunged into the ice bucket (figuratively now; don't get any crazy ideas) has been a very good thing.  Why?

I was listening to a conversation in the factory canteen one night about a mechanic who was violating state regulations for inspecting vehicles.  Apparently the man had been caught and lost his business for six months.  Another story which cropped up was about a butcher's business which had been quite successful and known through a few counties for the high quality of their products.  That is, until the state government shut down the business and confiscated the property because the owners had not paid taxes for three years.

After listening to these stories, I was reading through Romans and found a section in chapter 12 or 13 (?) charging the Christians in Rome to heed and obey the authority of the Roman state/empire because God had given the rulers authority to take things away from citizens.  This is a rough paraphrase, but Paul asked the Christians to pay taxes and revenues and respect to the current authority because the authority could take things away from them.

The heart of my thoughts today are: how much must we give to temporal, that is, earthly, authority?  Going by the letter to the Romans, Christians in Rome needed to fulfill their fiscal obligations at the very least or run the risk of being stripped of all earthly possessions.  Looking at some examples from my own experiences and past, a professor of mine withheld a certain percentage of his taxes every year.  I also understood that this professor would have his house taken immediately upon retirement from the university by the IRS, even though he was still technically paying his taxes.  Is the IRS unfair?  Sure.  But so are all other tax collection branches of all other governments in our world, now and in the past.  I believe that many Christians in all denominations interpret Paul's message to mean whole-hearted devotion to our government.  Not so.  Rather, we give what the government is due.

I wonder if my co-workers have considered the world in this way.  I believe that I am not the first person to listen to real-life examples and then go back to the Bible and read what wisdom is there concerning that real life situation.  As Solomon said so sagaciously in the book of Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun.  That statement is just as true today as it was when the Teacher wrote his reflections on life down.