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“Why do we have a Code, Master? Are we not supposed to just let the Force guide us?”
“What do you think, Padawan?” the older Jedi replied, as the padawan really should have expected.
“Well,” the padawan said, considering it, “I suppose because the Force isn’t always clear, or our own minds are clouded by what we want or fear, and we could end up going wrong when we’re convinced we’re right.”
“That sounds like a good reason to me,” his master said. “Though there are others. The Code does not exist for us alone.”
“Why would someone who isn’t a Jedi follow our Code?”
“I didn’t say that they follow it, though some might. No, I only meant that the Jedi Code is public knowledge, so that any who meet us might know what we have sworn to uphold. Our Code gives the people we serve a measure to hold us to, to know that they will be treated with fairness and impartiality while we act on behalf of the Republic. And should any Jedi fail to uphold our Code, that there exists recourse.”
“So the Code is part of existing in harmony with everyone else.”
“Exactly, padawan mine.”