I have never really thought of taxes and revenue separately. But there is a difference. A difference so marked that we are clearly told to avoid that debt trap. Let’s examine it more intentionally. Consider Today’s Holy Nougat.
Romans 13:7 NIV
[7] 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.
Avoid the Revenue Debt Trap
We’ve gotten a sense of what taxes are and were. But what is revenue? It is actually quite different. For, in my layperson’s mind, it is salary or income received for goods and services provided. Let’s see whether I’m correct.
Close, but not quite.
Revenue is ‘income, especially when of an organisation, and of a substantial nature’ (see online Oxford Languages); or, ‘the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operation of a business’ (see Wikipedia).
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance distinguishes taxes from revenue in this way: phero figuratively a tax on persons or property; whereas telos (the Greek word for revenue) is usually a general toll on goods or travel … tribute’.
Given the theological and the modern definitions, I’m presuming that we are called to owe no one for the goods and services we derive from them. Oy! So we must ensure that we are in good fiscal standing with the government, with businesses or service providers, and with people who meet our needs.
Self-Check
Have we been guilty of trying to underpay service workers, just because … or neglected to pay a bill because it wasn’t a priority? (Again, this is about when we’re fiscally solvent.)
Application
Our Self-Check has presented two possible scenarios for our individual consideration, and there are others. I wish to note too, that it also applies to us being party to local, regional, or global organisations that profit from abusing the poor. In one sense, we justify by saying they are providing an income for needy families. That is ‘noble’.
However, is it noble when said persons are below the poverty line while their bosses or the companies with which they are affiliated are taking in profits by the bucketful? Or when said workers demand humane working conditions, the companies pull out of that space, leaving workers without income? Isn’t it still a fancy way to exploit another? To deny their humanity and dignity?
Put another way (in my estimation at least), ‘the worker is worthy of his/ her wages (see 1 Timothy 5:18). It ought to be as straightforward as that. But when we consider this business of enslavement, modern or ancient, we realize it isn’t par for the course. They ought not have done it then; it most definitely is not acceptable now.
Not exploitation.
Not sweat shops.
Not trafficking.
We have to say No.
From a Human Right perspective, there are laws and policies about such, we must, uphold them. Further, as believers, we have a spiritual obligation to uphold the dignity of the other, and to ensure that they are fairly compensated. It’s the least God expects from us (see Matthew 25, where Y’shua tells the end time parable of sheep and goats).
Point to Ponder
Where do we see such practices persisting? Do we need to revise our spending habits regarding fast foods, fast fashion, or other goods and services?
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May all we seek be found in Christ
