23/09/2022
TOPIC: IGNORANCE OF THE LAW IS NOT AN EXCUSE
TEXT: LEVITICUS 5: 14 -18
Many people get into error or commit unintentionally sins and fall short of God’s glory not because they want to, but simply because they are ignorant of God's laws. It is exactly the same way many people have been charged and convicted for crimes and offences against the laws of their lands because they didn't know the laws or where ignorant about the law. But did you know that "Ignorance of the law is not an excuse"? This is a universal legal principle upheld by virtually all governments in the world to maintain law, justice and order in the society. Now, as a trained lawyer, I can tell you for free that most governments of the world simply copied and adopted what God has already entrenched in his book of laws - the Bible, as clearly indicated by what is contained in our scriptural text.
The Latin jurisprudence designation of this principle is, "IGNORANTIA JURIS NON EXCUSAT". And one exemplary application of this principle in contemporary parlance is when a policeman stops a vehicle on the road and comes to the windows of the car and says to the driver, "did you know that you were driving 50 mph in a 30 mph area?" Then the driver answers, "no, officer! I had no idea the speed limit is 30". In this scenario, your guess is as good as mine. That the driver did not know or was ignorant about the speed limit required for the road he was driving on, will not make the police officer to just smile at him and cause the officer to spare the driver to go freely for his error or unintentionally sin or offense of driving above the speed limit; certainly not! rather, the police officer will quickly tell or spell out the driver's offense and charge him accordingly, while assuring him also that the experience will help him remember to obey the law subsequently.
The main reason the law does not excuse our ignorance is because, if people are allowed to escape the consequences of breaking the law each time by claiming ignorance, then it will become the norm amongst many people. So this principle is a fundamental concept that should encourage every one in the world to take the knowledge of God's laws and even our human laws seriously and be warned about them too, so as to avoid situations where we fall short of God’s laws and the laws that are made by human governments to govern our nations. God bless you and wishing you a happy weekend.
