The speed limit on the highway between our small town and the next major town is 65. It’s the law to go 65, however, most people go 70 to 75. I do it too. I justify this in all kinds of ways.
“It’s only 5 miles over the speed limit. They expect you to go at least 5 miles over”
“If I don’t go 70, I could actually get hit for going too slow”
There are all kinds of justifications for my breaking this law. In fact, most of us think of the speed limit as more of a guideline. The bottom line is if the law says 65 and you go even one mile over that, you break the law.
However, we all realize there is nothing magical about the number 65 in keeping us safe. Safety is the intent of this law. You can’t change an attitude with a law. You change attitudes by affecting people’s lives. Case in point, if you have ever lost a loved one in a collision due to excessive speeds, you are more likely to drive the speed limit.
God knew we would not be able to adhere to the law, that our stubborn attitudes would not change just because we were given the “do’s and don’ts.” Our attitudes are changed, when our lives are changed and we understand the intent of the law makers’ commands. When someone we know and love dies because we broke the law, then our attitudes change.
Philippians 2: 5-8
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
