The Alice tax

Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.     — 1 Timothy 6:8

Author Calvin Trillin’s wife, Alice, held a unique view of income tax. She believed that “after a certain level of income, the government would simply take everything.” She thought there should be a limit on how much money people were allowed to keep for themselves. Writing in The New Yorker, Trillin said of his wife, “She believed in the principle of enoughness.”

In Mark 12, Jesus avoided a carefully laid trap by telling His questioners to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (v. 17). When Jesus watched people making their offerings to the temple treasury, He commended a woman who would have been considered foolish for her extravagance. “This poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood” (vv. 43-44).

Jesus placed more importance on wholehearted love for God than on wholesale concern over material needs. His tranquil attitude toward money and possessions was based on trusting His Father to supply each day’s needs. “Your Father knows the things you have needs of” (Matt. 6:8).

Enoughness. What a concept!      — David McCasland

He clothes the lilies, feeds the birds;

Would He to you, then, pay less heed?

Look up to Him with prayerful heart,

He will supply your every need.      — Renfrow

READ: Mark 12:12-17, 41-44

Contentment is not getting what we want.

The Bible in one year:

• Deuteronomy 28-30

• Proverbs 30:1-9