I’m often fascinated by the law. I peruse the latest cases that the Supreme Court has on the docket from time to time with great interest and try to understand why certain laws were written to begin with and whether or not we should even follow them. The classic case is a man who comes to a red light at 3AM and discerns that there’s not a soul on the road but him. Does he have the right to travel on through after stopping to be certain that there’s nobody else around?
There’s the old adage, “Laws were meant to be broken.” And I think there’s some truth in that. We are all broken people and we’ll do things we are not supposed to from time to time. But I’m not sure that the author’s intent was based on our obvious human failures.
To make my point, I’d like to offer another adage of my own. “Laws are not meant to be sidelined.” In other words, we can’t just look at a law and say, “Oh that’s just silly.” And blindly not follow it. Rather, this calls for far more introspection. What does the law try to get at? Could we see any way that the law could be doing someone some good somewhere? Have we even read what the law really says, or do we just go on hearsay? What do others say about the law that makes sense to us?
Often though, we don’t look at laws, especially church laws, in this way. We think we know better. We find ourselves just ignoring the ancient laws because we believe we have a better way and that the law just might be outdated, or too cumbersome, or simply dopey.
But laws were indeed made for a reason. They weren’t always made for some restrictive purpose but rather for a wise one. We who have a tendency for failure should take heed of that wisdom and learn the law well. Why? St. Paul tells us…
From Romans 7:
What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.
Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good.
So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.
We often aren’t guided by good intentions but rather by selfish desires. And when we are we all too easily try to figure out how to skirt the law. It’s the law that gets in the way of my own happiness and my desire for one thing or another, isn’t it?
Nonsense. We are people guided by the law, not desire. The law means something, or at least it did. Can we get at that without being slavish to it? Can we understand the law and it’s purpose so well that we can see beyond the letter of the law to see what it is that law desires of us? Law leads us to freedom and restriction. When we are guided by the law’s spirit, we know in our hearts what is right and wrong.
Laws indeed are meant to be broken. And amended. And changed. And even disposed of altogether. But that’s not because we simply desire it. It’s because we are guided by the same wisdom that created that law in the first place. The wisdom that gives us the direction to break the law.
And that wisdom does not come flippantly. Rather it only comes with time and experience and counsel.
We then have the ability to become indifferent to our desires and are guided by a spirit that isn’t lead merely by written restrictions, but rather by wisdom’s discerning heart.
So if you’re at a red light at 3AM and nobody’s around, ask yourself, why the light is there to begin with? Judge carefully and consider the consequences. And then do not what you desire to do…but rather what the law calls you to become.
Do you have the wisdom needed to break the law?