Laws Unto Themselves

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet."  Romans 7:7

Paul, the great Pharisee, would not have known not to covet apart from the Law?  He wrote it, not me! Actually, without the Law we would be laws unto ourselves, going about doing what we think is right by our latest feeling or random thought. In any kind of organization, be it family or tribe, we might do more or less according to the Law through training as children or the threat of punishment by our parents or leader. We would be subject to the 'might makes right' form of government for as long as we didn't run away from it. Go a bit further in organizing and forming a kingdom or nation, and we might become part of the 'right makes might' form of a rule of law. The right lasting for only as long as the current organization was not overthrown from without by a larger organization with different laws or from within by rebels wanting to go back to the 'doing whatever we feel like' form. The temptation to go lawless is always there for those rebel-born Sons of Adam. 

Often though, we see the disadvantages of everyone being a law unto themselves. It is rather convenient for me to have a home to return to after the workday. Under anarchy, I might find a group of coveters had taken my home and all of my possessions for themselves just before a blizzard was due to fire up on a January day. And I would have no law enforcement to return my home to me under a rule of no law. Shivering in my booties outside my former home, I might lament the lack of law. I will admit that it is harder to picture a blizzard in July, but it is easier to picture lawlessness in these past couple of months than it was...

Praise God that whatever may appear in the news today He is always and forever sovereign! Amen.

Bucky