Cheating On My Taxes

You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Leviticus 19:35-36

I don’t generally think of greed as one of my big life struggles. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about money and I don’t have the wheeler-dealer gene, like those who’re always seeking the next big deal. Still, I can think of a couple of occasions when I was tempted to cheat on my taxes. Both times, it would have meant making a slight adjustment – fabricating a lie – to my tax reporting, which would have saved me a ton of money. It’s such a small detail that the IRS will never know. I pay too much in taxes anyway. I deserve this. I even told myself I’d give some of that money to the church. God never asks me to lie, cheat, and steal for him though, so in the end, I didn’t do it. Still, I was tempted by deliberate dishonesty simply because it involved money.

In today’s passage, God demanded honesty from his people when it came to their finances. As his followers, they weren’t to be known for corruption. God didn’t prohibit making a profit, but he insisted that they always be fair and just in their financial transactions. Your integrity shouldn’t be sold for any price (my paraphrase).

We all have those areas in life that we’d rather not surrender to God. We may live 98% of our lives within his boundaries, but there are some things we’d rather keep to ourselves. For some of us, this involves our finances. We’re tempted to view a thing as right if it benefits us financially. Some of us are tempted to cheat on our taxes. The government takes too much anyway. Some of us find pleasure in crafting a one-sided transaction that cheats someone else. What a sucker. Whatever it involves, we’re tempted to allow our morality to be determined by financial gain. It’s OK to be dishonest if I make a profit. The bigger the profit, the more corruption we can justify.

In our greed, we put money above God, not following him, but rather, ourselves. When we pursue money above all, we sell our integrity, turning us from God and the life that he desires for us. We may find immediate gratification in cheating our way into a bigger payday, but authentic life, joy, and peace aren’t found in our bank account. If we truly desire the life God wants for us, we must follow his will in all things – even our financial transactions.