Ethics 4: Laws (1)

Note: For new readers, welcome! I greatly recommend you start back at the beginning of this series so that this makes sense. Just go to the search bar and type in "ethics" and all the ethics articles will pop up.

Hm. Laws.

So many of us know what they are. In fact, laws are the written statements that keep you safe and maintain your freedom here in America. There are all sorts of laws, but that's besides the point. I'm going to be talking about how having laws in the government is something that God would do.

In fact, there are two types of laws I will discuss: the laws that we as citizens abide by and the laws of nature.

God is orderly. There's even a hierarchy in the spiritual realm as well as here on earth! Here is the definition of "law"

Law is a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior.

And here is the way I will define "law"

Law is a system of rules designed to protect and grow the society and also punish those who break the rules.

People made laws, but many times those laws were unjust: they didn't serve their purpose. According to the dictionary, man-made laws are laws. But according to my definition, those immoral man-made laws aren't. Why? Because if they are unjust, then they are not designed to protect and grow the society.

I'm no major in politics, nor do I have much knowledge about government and such, but I don't need all that when I have the Bible.

In Exodus (second book of the Bible that tells about the Israelites fleeing Egypt), it tells us how God wrote the Ten Commandments to the Israelites. These could be considered laws, but most importantly, they reflect our "gut feeling" about certain situations and how God is the one who placed it inside of us. I've listed the Ten Commandments down below:

1	“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2	“You shall not make idols*; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3	“You shall not use the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4	“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5	“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6	“You shall not murder.
7	“You shall not commit adultery.
8	“You shall not steal.
9	“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
	“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.” I'll end this article right here. The next two articles will be a little shorter than usual, but I will be going through all ten of these commandments. Not in any rigorous detail, but to give you an idea of the importance of each of these laws in a society. Thanks for reading, ~Caleb