When I was in college a fellow classmate did a survey and asked people, “What is freedom”? It wasn’t a surprise when 99% of them said that freedom = no rules/laws. But that could not be further from the truth!
Rules/Laws protect the innocent. That is their purpose. Laws are relational boundaries that say if you harm another person, here are the consequences. If you harm someone by theft, there are consequences. If you harm them by murder, there are consequences. If you harm them by violating them, there are consequences. Without laws there is no protection.
Laws are an external, common agreement of those right and wrongs and what consequences there should be. In the book of Judges “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25) and it was horrific, the very worst state to be in. The reason? Because if everyone does what they themselves think this is right, everyone will have their own opinion of what is right, and inevitable everyone will harm others believers their right is the better way of being right.
It’s like if we are a group of people lost in the jungle and it is very dangerous. There is a map of how to get out but everyone is disoriented. If everyone has a compass that points to True North, there is a pathway out by following the map and the compass.
But what if everyone’s compass pointed to themselves and not to true north? Every person would be lost and die in the jungle as there is no objective reality that gives direction. It’s a horrible state when our compass points to ourselves, because we at our core are selfish.
What if leaders selectively enforce the law on some but not on others? Then we enter into dangerous times called world without rule of Law (WROL). The law must be consistently and fairly applied to all. When we lose consistent, fair application, chaos and societal destruction are inevitable.
What if we disagree with the laws decided by a community? Then we have discussion and as a community decide on what laws need to be changed. Peacefully.
Typically laws are disputed because what is lost is common agreement as to the source of morality and law. When the Bible is the center of that decision, it isn’t so hard.
But when it becomes what we ourselves decide, then it is chaos because everyone has an opinion and fallen, sinful man is trying to determine their own reality. It’s the no true north syndrome. It’s actually what the fall of man was all about – each person determining for themselves good and evil.
Who determines what is right/wrong and what constitutes harm to an individual? Is moral and righteous laws rooted in community understanding? The problem is that A) group morality will always go to the lowest level to appease selfishness and greed; and B) this ALWAYS cause great internal conflict/civil dispute because we are back to everyone doing right in their own eyes with no external source for truth and morality.
It’s why God’s righteousness as spelled out in the Bible has always brought about the most stability and security. Laws are about reflecting the righteous and holy character of God. Therefore instead of wrestling among ourselves as to what should be right and what should be wrong, our wrestling should be with what do the Scriptures say. This has proven throughout history to bring about the most peace.
At this point Bible haters and jump in and point out numerous Scriptures like ‘eye for eye and tooth for tooth’, killing sorcerers and other Old Testament laws. Almost all of these are typically taken out of context, the historical context of Israel itself and the Biblical context. Israel was a holy nation, an entire nation in covenant with God. The Gentile nations do not share that special relationship.
But what we do take from the Scripture is that the punishment a nation decides should be equal to the crime. This is what ‘eye for eye and tooth for tooth’ means. For example rape in Scripture was the death penalty. So was kidnapping. For us it is a crime barely punished. And there are other sins in there as well. We need to take seriously what Scripture takes seriously. Because again laws are about protecting the innocent.
