Law is a snapshot of what we value. We have so many laws, over 30,000 of them from the US Congress alone since we began as a Constitutional Republic. Big documents full of laws to be clear. That means we have codified a lot of things that we value. I’ve always found Biblical Law interesting. It too, is a collection of underlying values expressed as law or codes.
There are not as many laws in the Bible, but still quite a few. But they get down to a set of basic laws, or Core laws, that reflect Core Values, called the Ten Commandments. You break those laws and you seem to be really tanking in your core values.
The thing about values though, not everybody shares them at the same time in the same way, and may never feel that their core values match up with others core values. And then I may have a core value that is higher up on my list than yours.
Here are the last 6,
Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet.
Now are these equal or similar or as consequential to each other? In other words, should the penalties for each of these laws be the same weight?
Should you be put to death if you murder someone? Perhaps, maybe, probably, maybe not? And then should you be put to death if you lie about your neighbor? Not so much probably, right?
Core values are those values that dare I say it, you are willing to fight over, die on that hill for, or consider the most important. They rise higher in importance than your other values. In some ways, they are like the difference between felonies and misdemeanors. One is more serious than the other, reflecting the underlying values. Murdering someone is worse than lying about them. At least in our society.
But I have this nagging suspicion that the Ten Commandments don’t quite shake out that neatly. If you look deeper at these 10 values or laws, the consequences of ignoring them or breaking them can be very damaging, in all ten cases. Should you be put to death for dishonoring your father or mother, I don’t think so. But that doesn’t mean that this kind of dishonor is any less than if you actually murdered them. At least not in Biblical times. One was physical murder, actually very bad, and the other was a different kind of murder, with words and character attacks and disrespect.
Generally laws are not codified to show how bad the punishment will be, judges and juries seem to make those end stage decisions. Laws are codified to get you to rethink and reshape your value system.
And even this is so arbitrary with California having nearly 400,000 laws or regulations and Idaho having about 41,000. Now what’s going on there? Are they a bunch of lawless types up there in the Gem State? I don’t think so. I think they are just trying to show what their core values are. Who knows, they may get under 40,000 some day. California on the other hand, not likely. They are more likely to head toward 500k.
No, we are lawbreakers by nature. In the Bible, we call it Sin. It still baffles me that God could get the core laws down to 10. Why is that? What does God know that our state legislators don’t seem to understand?
And the New Testament authors seemed to even get it down to two, Love God and Love Your Neighbor, as you love Yourself I might add. They went back to the Core Values that matter most of Love.
They got it clearly, that love of the law is a reminder to live in love toward all around you. That’s why I like law so much. It’s about love more than anything else.