In my work with juvenile delinquents, I’m learning a lot about the criminal justice system among other things. This weekend I was waiting to pick up one of my little ones from a class required by his parole officer at Juvenile Hall, when I got a strange message from the Universe.

An middle aged man came up to me and started telling me the story of his sons, how he made many mistakes as a father and how his youngest had ended up on probation. He told me that the devil is at work in people’s hearts and minds and that sometimes they can’t break free. Then he referred me to Timothy:

We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. (1 Timothy 1:8-11)

I found this so interesting. Righteous people don’t need the law because they are already doing right. The law is for the unholy, to keep them in line, to give them guidance and structure. This is so applicable to my work. I constantly argue with the kids about the rules. It’s hard for them to understand that the rules are there to help herd them towards a better life. As a libertarian, I’m no fan of laws, but I have no intention of breaking any but the most minor. I have no urge to steal or kill, but some people genuinely do. The concept of sin or the threat of jail may seem cruel to those who are not tempted, but they are often effective deterrents for people who need help staying on the straight and narrow.

Similarly, I have a friend who moved back home with her mom in recent months. She said that although it can be a pain to live with your parents, sometimes their rules keep you from doing things you probably shouldn’t, namely bringing a stranger home from a bar. As I relayed this story to another friend, she grew uncomfortable at its implications: that traditional familial oppression might be for a girl’s own good. Perhaps not surprisingly, this friend is not prone to such behavior in the first place. Here again, we see the rules benefiting the sinner and not the saint.

Maybe I’m just on a traditional values kick lately, but I think that these Bible verses are very important. They bring a new perspective on law, that instead of protecting the innocent from criminals, they may protect would-be criminals from themselves. I don’t mean give my stamp of approval to our current criminal justice system or backwards patriarchy, but the encounter at Juvenile Hall was just so strange and the Bible verse so relevant to my work, I had to share it with you. Rules can certainly help keep us out of trouble; the trick is finding a balance between authoritarianism and anarchy.

(I think I would do very well in anarchy, but I am beginning to see that not everyone is as self-regulating as I am. Some people need structure imposed on them to stay out of trouble.)