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| Q: | I have been experiencing a period of spiritual growth, for which I thank God! As my faith grows, I am taking a close look at my life, and seeing what is pleasing to God. I'll get to my question. Is speeding a sin? Is it displeasing to God? What about when late to work? What about when late to the airport to catch a flight to serve Christ, or when your wife is minutes away from giving birth? This kind of gets into the realm where we may be tempted to suggest that because of a sinful situation we find ourselves in, it may appear that the way to serve the Lord would be to sin again to make the more important things turn out right. This applies to many other situations: let's say someone who finds themselves in a marriage which is not being blessed by the Lord, etc. But let's stick to speeding for the sake of a simplified discussion about "sin again" that everyone can relate to. How are we to view speeding? Certainly sometimes speeding is justified--so does that mean that sometimes two wrongs makes a right? If so--how do we know when? That is a lot to talk about. | ||||||
| A: | Is speeding a sin? If the law of the land says it’s a sin, it’s a sin. It does not matter what the end result is. The end does not justify the means. I think that is what you mean by, “This kind of gets in the realm where we may be tempted to suggest that because of a sinful situation we find ourselves in, it may appear that the way to serve the Lord would be to sin again to make the more important things turn out right.” Then you hint that this may be the case in a marriage. Don’t jump from one to the other--from speeding to marriage. That kind of logic will lead to the end justifying the means logic. I think that the point about speeding is this--It’s the law! Christian strive to obey the law. If you are tempted to speed, then leave earlier so that you can make it on time or to the hospital or where ever you are going. Get out of the habit of always leaving too late to get to a place on the appointed time. If you have a cell phone, call the police and tell them what road you are on and how you need a police escort to get you to the hospital on time because your wife is having a baby. They’ll probably give you one. Find a God-pleasing way to make things right in your life, not a sinful way. If you get in an accident going to the hospital, you may die, so may your wife and the child. So could someone that you run into. Do your best not to be in situations where you feel you have to sin to get out of them. Plan ahead and plan wisely and plan with prayer and trust in God. Don’t sin to get out of tough situations, if you are in them. Is that what you mean by, “sin again?” You are asking if it is all right to sin to get out of bad situations. If you thought that way, you could excuse all kinds of sins as being the right way to act because you have some kind of selfish justification for them. That could be used to justify divorce and murder and theft and all kinds of things. Get rid of those thoughts! If you were in business for yourself and you bid a job the wrong way and you will lose money on it, you are not justified to put on a cheaper product when you sold the customer a more expensive product. You are not justified to install quality “B” when they paid for quality “A.” They would rightly send you to jail for that. I don’t know what kind of business you are in, but I think you can understand the comparison. The answer to the question “Is speeding a sin?” is, “Yes.” God’s Commandment tells us to “honor our father and mother.” That includes everyone under whose authority God has placed us. That includes the government laws about speeding. Your question has all kind of nuances about other things. I hope I have addressed most of them. | ||||||
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