Watch Out For Catholic Drivers!!!

I'm serious. The vatican has apparently issued a 'ten commandments' for drivers.

Taken from the article linked above, they are as follows:

The "Drivers' Ten Commandments," as listed by the document, are:

1. You shall not kill.

2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.

3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.

4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.

5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.

7. Support the families of accident victims.

8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.

9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.

10. Feel responsible toward others.

Let's just leave the whole issue of who has authority to put law on God's people alone...well, for now anyway...

Are you expecting 60 million or so Catholics to make a dent in the problem of road rage all over the world? Well, I'm sure many of them don't drive but still there must be a significant number of drivers. Yes, they will make a difference. Mostly, they will become worse drivers than ever. That's what the law is for, to increase sin! (Romans 5:20, see below)

Don't tell me you haven't experienced this principle at work. Make a rule for yourself and you will immediately break it and then some. Or maybe you are of the rare 'strong willed' group. Maybe you're more like Paul, and can spout of your own version of "... circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless..."
(Phil. 3:5-6) You are living a lie if you think you can handle obeying the law well enough. 'Well enough' means absolutely perfect obedience just as Christ achieved. If you can pull that off, then you're right, you don't need Jesus. Paul goes on to say in Philippians 3:

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith..."

That word 'rubbish' is more accurately translated 'dung' in the KJV. Or as Rob Rufus says, 'poo'. All your precious works are no more than one big pile of , well , you know. Don't get upset with me, take it up with the Spirit of Christ. He's trying to get through to us! What Jesus did here on earth behalf of sinners was not a pleasant walk in the park. It involved incredible sacrifice and immeasurable suffering, yet we don't think it was really enough. We prove that every time we come up with a new rule or plan to please God our Father.


I've listed below some passages from Romans that talk about what the law is for. I hope to study this more in depth throughout the whole Bible myself over the next few months.

"For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:20)

"For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression." (Romans 4:13-15)

"Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
(Romans 5:20-21

"For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."
(Romans 6:14)

"Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit."
(Romans 7:4-6)

"But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 1The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me." (Romans 7:8-10)

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:1-4)

If you still don't believe that law makes us sin more, I challenge you to give it a try. Make a rule for yourself, or just pick one out of the original ten commandments (applying Jesus' interpretation involving your heart). Try to keep it perfectly for one week. I was going to suggest some but God stopped me. I don't want to be responsible for provoking anyone to sin!