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Every claim, every accusation, every critique—listen to the unedited recording, the full interview, read the whole book. Talk to the accused in person. Examine at the facts with your own eyes and hands. Perform an experiment yourself. Never agree with an accusation without seeing the proof yourself.

If you are the one accused, don’t panic, but answer the charge publicly. Tell the truth for all to see without even naming your accusers or even the accusation. Present the proof as openly and availably as possible.

Even if an accusation is true, we must evaluate the evidence to verify that the description of the problem is what it needs to be. Maybe the charge is not severe enough, maybe the defendant will lie—in which case questioning him tells us the most important information! You will never know without examining the evidence for yourself.

Basic Bible study, journalism, evaluation—anything about life—demands that we examine evidence for ourselves. There is nothing more credible about an opinion than having asked to see the original evidence for oneself, without taking any pre-position whatsoever. There is nothing more discrediting than believing a report without first seeing some kind of proof—at least to understand more. This is easy to agree with in theory, but in the heat of life’s battles, it is easier to forget. Not prejudging in those times when we feel it is right is one mark of a worthy leader.

Ronald Reagan referred to this with the words, “Trust, but verify.” My own words are, “Trust, thus verify.” Trustworthy people seek to have themselves verified. Never trust someone who acts offended at the idea of asking for evidence—whether to produce evidence or to review it.

At the very least, we lose our ability to think critically about the matter when we reach our conclusions based on someone else’s word. Don’t depend on others to think for you. That makes you a slave to ignorance. Verifying facts, evaluating them for yourselves, and developing a unique opinion even when you agree with other people’s conclusions is a central part of critical thinking. Verifying claimed facts is part of human dignity as the Image of God.

God’s Word is a book, not a cudgel. It’s guiding principles and lines on the highways of life are not a license to boss others. God’s Word’s rules are for your own self-enforcement.

God’s Word doesn’t have all that many rules, it mostly teaches about understanding how God thinks and works. The more we understand God and His ways, the more we will understand whatever happens in our lives—both why God does what He does and what we can do as His Image by responding in this life. The best way to know what God would do as a human on Earth is to study the life of Jesus. As you slowly transform to understand how God operates, hold yourself to the “God standard” of how to think and operate.

There are rules in God’s Word, of course, but they too must be studied and contemplated in order to be understood. A classroom can familiarize one with the words and their locations in God’s Word, but actually understanding God’s Word is a personal, life journey. This takes time, both regular dripping and intense downpours.

God’s Word’s rules are paradoxically simple; remember this every day. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” is an overly simple concept to grasp, but implementing it can never be perfected, even in a thousand lifetimes. You are certainly going to fail and transgress.

Keeping God’s rules does not mean “never breaking” them; it means that we keep pressing toward the destination. God’s Word is an ethics compass, a moral orientation. You know in what direction you must go; go there! When you stumble on the jagged terrain, get up and keep going. Don’t lie down for dead under the misconception that Heaven only accepts those who never fall down.

Heaven accepts everyone who can stand it. Heaven is awesome, partly because everyone loves everyone else as themselves, also because everyone there knows that God loves them. That’s a hard law to lay down. But, if you lay down Heaven’s law in your own life every day—love others equally, worship God only, and keep going—you’ll prepare yourself to enter Heaven, be transformed there, and then usher Heaven throughout the universe.

At times, you will need to lay down the law. It’s never fun, especially when the law has been ignored. It makes people feel constricted and oppressed, no matter how valuable the law may be to people who obey it. Painting lines where we once roamed freely isn’t fun.

Some laws, however, should not be implemented. No man-made law anticipates every scenario, this is one reason for courts. The purpose which a law was written to achieve is the common question asked by every judge and debated by every lawyer. Once enforcement of a law serves against the initial purpose of the law, even a hard line judge will want to throw out the court case.

This is much more normal in legal courts than among friends, family, and corporate hierarchies.

Companies will often enforce their own rules long after they have out-served their purposes. Unbending parents will refuse to give circumstantial flexibility to their own rules, even under comparable circumstances that highway patrol would let someone off on a moving violation. Don’t be so rigid in enforcing rules that you rule yourself a fool.

Sometimes, the hard line law to lay down relates to basic respect to humanity. Those are the rules you should lay down everywhere you go. If a shop keeper insists that an old lady stand in the rain rather than in his store, step in and tell him that the lady will stand out of the rain and he will have to figure out a way to deal with it. If he is “only” a clerk fearing the wrath of his boss, tell him that his boss should fear your wrath if he doesn’t act with humane decency.

Lay down the law, mainly the humane.

Sometimes you must firmly stand for your own rights, even if you’re the old lady needing a dry place to stand. It could be password-only access or policies about giving information over the phone. Beneficial laws need enforcement for everyone’s sake.

You may need to enforce a “shoes off” policy, even in someone else’s house. We step on all kinds of filth and disease. As inconvenient as cleanliness is, somewhere shoes must be taken off.