People often tend to treat rules as being somewhat flexible. You see people coming up to a 4-way stop, they will look to see if anyone is coming and then roll right through the intersection without coming to a complete stop. Most people seem to treat speed limits on the highway as though they are a suggestion rather than the law. The prevailing attitude seems to be “it’s not illegal if you don’t get caught”. Christians should not have this attitude. In Romans 13:1-2 Paul says, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.” If civil law violates God’s law, then we obey God not men. (Acts 5:29). However, if man’s law does not violate God’s law, we are guilty before God if we break the law. As Paul says in Romans 13:5, “Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.” Peter tells us the same thing in 1 Peter 2:13-14, “Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.” Christians cannot live by the “it’s not illegal if you don’t get caught” principle because whether man catches us or not, God sees all. Treating man’s law as optional is bad enough, but people also treat God’s law as something that is optional. We like to think of sins as “little sins” and “big sins”. We try to avoid the big sins, but think that God won’t trouble Himself with the little sins. The man in Numbers 15:32-36 was only picking up sticks on the Sabbath. That sounds like a little sin, but God commanded that he be stoned to death. In Leviticus 10:1-3 Nadab and Abihu got fire for their censers somewhere other than where God had commanded them. Fire went out from the Lord and devoured them. God is not looking for just any little excuse to condemn us, but if we think we can get away with things because they are “little sins”, we are sadly mistaken. In James 2, James is dealing with people who thought they could get away with a “little” sin, showing partiality. James tells them in verse 10, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” Again, God is not looking for excuses to condemn us, but if we think we can get away with something because it is a “little sin”, we will be sadly disappointed come the judgment.