It is better to follow a principle, even in specific situations where the rule seems to yield a better result

Rules are never as important as the principles they come from. The most beneficial time to keep the principle rather than the rule is precisely when keeping the rule seems to yield the greater outcome. In fact, this is the correct version of the mistaken idea that it is righteous to keep a rule even when it causes obvious net-negatives.

Reality is designed with laws of cause and effect that are intentionally obfuscated in order to provide an opportunity to exercise faith. This means that you will definitely find specific situations where better short-term outcomes are obtained through following a rule that violates applicable principles. However, you will never find a situation where better long-term outcomes are obtained through following a rule rather than a principle. This isn’t just because long-term outcomes of good decisions tend to far outweigh their short-term costs, but also because living by principle will spare you a lot more pain than it costs.

Understanding and living by principles can increase your ability to see the shortcomings of a given rule. You can leverage the fact that principles describe ideal behavior across all situations by abstracting the rule to a principle, applying it to other situations, and analyzing the results. The consequences of the rule in other applications may be more obvious or more extreme to you than in the original situation, suggesting that the rule isn’t as good as you thought. For example, it might seem like a good idea to criminalize certain statements because they can be so offensive, but the benefits of the principle of free speech across all circumstances far outweigh the costs in any particular.¹

The closer you become to how God operates, the better off you will be long-term. God’s laws of cause and effect are most fully described by character. Principles are a lower fidelity representation of those laws, and rules are a still lower fidelity. If you ever have the choice between keeping a principle or a rule, always keep the principle.