The Most Righteous Law
From the desk of Rev Tay 24 May 2026
Last month, the newspapers reported a ludicrous criminal case in Singapore. An Italian man tried to pass off a fake Rolex GMT Saru watch as the real deal to a local watch retailer. But it turned out that the “fake” watch was actually an original! But the court still ruled that his behaviour was illegal, and he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to seven months in prison. He sold a real watch, and there were no victims. Yet he was sentenced. What is the legal logic behind this?
A lawyer explained, “The key is not whether fraud occurred, but whether he had the intent to commit fraud and took actions to do it.”
In the eyes of the law, a crime is constituted by motive, intent, and action. In this case, the motive was money, the intent was fraud, and the action was deception. The law has a term for this kind of attempted fraud: “impossible attempt,” such as a pickpocket who steals an empty coat pocket or a gunman who shoots a dead man. Or, if you illegally bring drugs into a country, and it turns out to be flour, you still committed a crime. If a person speaks a defamatory word about someone, even if no one believes him, he still commits defamation. Thank God that Singapore’s national law is backed by the spirit of justice.
The Bible tells us that God’s requirements for justice are higher than this. The Lord Jesus said, ” But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”(Matthew 5:28) In other words, as long as there is an unjust intention in the heart, it is already a sin.
Our law says that anyone who kills another man must be tried. But the Lord said, not only those who kill, but also those who curse or become angry with others, will be judged by God(Matthew 5:22). “Anger” here in Greek means anger towards an enemy, anger directed at a person rather than a situation, anger that arises from human flesh rather than righteous indignation. If we hate someone in our hearts, wish for their misfortune, or slander them, even if that person does not suffer as a result, it is still unrighteous, and God will judge.
Therefore, let us not think, “I’m just thinking about it in my heart,” or “It doesn’t matter since he wasn’t harmed.” Remember what the Lord Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) It is not enough for God’s children to merely fulfil the requirements of national laws, because aren’t non-Christians also following the laws of the land?
As children of God, we should strive to be right with God at all times, following the example set by our Lord Jesus: not according to the letter of the law, but according to the spirit of the law, which comes from God’s general revelation. We are grateful that our ultimate judge is both stern yet full of mercy!
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