Of course, you should do what's right because it is the right thing to do, whether you could get away with doing the wrong thing or not. It's easier for us as parents to do that than it is to make our kids do that. My girls, who are 6 and 4 often do what they are supposed to because they will get a time-out if they don't. Time-outs will used with our one-year-old when she turns two. Nevertheless, it's important for parents to instill what's right in our children, using punishment when necessary, because the rewards that come from doing good usually gets them doing the right thing for the right reasons as they get older.
It seems like God treated earlier generations like children, relying on punishments much worse than time-outs because that's what they could understand. As civilization got supposedly more sophisticated, he gave us Jesus to encourage us to do what's right out of love for him. Today's reading from the old testament reflects that truth.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__P9L.HTM
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