Law Without Order

Maybe some of you are familiar with the ten commandments that make up society. Well, some societies have taken them as the basis for the moral code that has become their law. Notice I said some and not all. These are round about ten in sum, some maybe a little more, others maybe a little less. The thing is though, that each society has decided to sit down and figure out what is acceptable or not. These make up the hard-core moral code that is known as law. Law can be administered at the hands of an authority figure, as we will find out later. Here the authority figure, also known as the lawgiver, is God. Without a lawgiver and an authority figure, enforcing these is meaningless. Without these, men like Cain roamed free and hunted men for sport and also for fun. Perhaps not having any law might not be so loving after all.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

13 Thou shalt not kill.

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Exodus 20:3-17

Then again, consider the law given without order. It's just that, simply law. Law in and of itself isn't a bad thing, but what happens when you follow each and every command given to a T. Look, I've broken several grammar rules just now, it seems. What might happen to me then. In a strictly law-abiding society the payment will demand a lot from me no matter what I did or why regardless of what result was achieved. By adding order then, it's the reason or the sense behind the law. You can finally call off the so-called grammar police. It's just a mark on a piece of paper, not a life. Yet these marks, if used lightly, can also kill just as surely as any bullet ever could. That's why there's order needed to make sense of it all that goes hand in hand with the law.