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IGNORANCE AND LAW
Adonis Bailey, Richmond Church of Christ
07-23-2010
When we lived in town, I remember on two different occasions learning that I was in violation of a city ordinance (law). Once I was burning leaves in the backyard and received a visit from some nice (and they really were) police officers who informed me it was against the law to burn within city limits. On another occasion, I received a letter from the city stating that our above-ground pool needed to be secured (either by fence or locked ladder) according to a city ordinance.
With regards to both of these incidents, I had no idea I was breaking the law. In fact, I told one of the officers this but he still insisted I extinguish the burning leaves. My ignorance of the law did not excuse me from my obligation to obey it nor the officer’s duty to enforce it.
It’s likely you’ve had the same kind of experience with laws, rules or regulations you were obligated to obey but were unaware of such until told. Maybe you were fortunate and received a warning or not so fortunate and suffered consequences. Either way, your ignorance of your obligations did not excuse your lack of obedience nor the accompanying consequences.
It is no different when dealing with God and His law. In Hosea 4:6, God states, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
These words were written to the 10 northern tribes of Israel just a few years before they were conquered by the Assyrian nation, carried away into captivity and then disappeared as a people (we refer to them now as “the 10 lost tribes). God said the reason for their destruction, rejection and being forgotten was due to their ignorance, rejection and forgetting of His law. Take note that two of the three reasons deal with ignorance (lack of knowledge and forgotten). Their ignorance of God’s law did not prevent their suffering the consequences for their lack of obedience.
God had stated regarding His commandments that Israel was “to observe them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left” (Deuteronomy 28:13-14) and God would bless them. However, God also warned, “If you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.” (Deuteronomy 28:15). The final curse is stated in Deuteronomy 28:49-52, “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish.” Their ignorance did not prevent them from suffering the curses of disobedience.
It is no different today. Sadly, many are unaware the lives they are living are in violation of God’s Laws. Men and women living together while unmarried (fornication); same-sex couples having sexual relationships with one another (homosexuality); some who are constantly causing trouble (strife), losing their temper (outbursts of wrath), envious of others (jealousy) or drunk (drunkenness). All these sins and others are listed in passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Galatians 5:19-21 in which we are told these individuals “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Only in the kingdom of God will one receive “redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14). Thus, many are living lives which will cause them to be lost and they are ignorant of their impending doom!
“God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:30-31). Whether the world realizes it or not will not change the above passage. A day has been determined when every man will be judged according to the standard of righteousness. Every man! Those who knew it was coming and those who did not; those who forgot and those who remembered; those who rejected and those who accepted. Every man!
Those of us who know a judgment is coming and yet realize that many are unprepared must be about the task of telling and informing those who are ignorant. “We are not doing right” (2 Kings 7:9) when we choose to be silent when so many stand in peril!
On the other hand, those of us who know a judgment is coming must never allow ourselves to be so entangled “in the affairs of everyday life” (2 Timothy 2:4) or to be so “choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14) that we forget to prepare for that day.
“Prepare to meet your God” (Amos 4:12) Must be proclaimed and remembered by all!
