This week, I provide two maxims that build on last week’s.

Maleficia non debent remanere impunita, et impunitas continuum affectum tribuit delinquenti. – Evil deeds ought not to remain unpunished, for impunity affords continual excitement to the delinquent.

Qui parcit nocentibus, innocentibus ounit. – He who spares the guilty punishes the innocent. 

Freedom isn’t about doing what we please. It isn’t about letting sin prevail under the banner of rights, freedom or liberty. Jesus said in John 8:32, 36, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free… so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Paul echoes this in a letter to the Galatians, where he wrote, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery… For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Gal. 5:1, 13). True freedom is preserved when we call sin, sin and evil, evil according to God’s standard. The evildoer, when left unpunished, destroys a free society. 

If the guilty is spared because we are clueless of his wrongdoing or gutless into calling it evil then, again, by our inactions, we are punishing the innocent. The innocent become targets. He becomes trapped in a world of uncertainty and fear. He sees his rights slowly vanish and his freedoms eroding. 

A generation will pass and if evil is left unpunished or unchallenged, we’ll make the challenge even tougher for the next generation and they will long for the days gone when men lived in a just and free society. 

– Maximus