Do Not Murder

HBI - Life is precious to God and is to be treated with value therefore we are told murder and sinful anger are wrong. Not only is life precious, but the eternal life of those around us and it is our duty to think first not of our own harm but about others good.

The next four commandments are simple enough and quite short. Let’s see if we can get a sermon out of 3 words.

Murder=bad, don’t do it. the end.

well not quite. What if you I told you Jesus challenged our understanding of the meaning of this. What if I told you anger has a role to play in this as well. God values human life, that is clear to see. But also he has eternal life in mind as well. The heart of the law is what we get to here. What if I told you murder and sinful anger are related. Anger i something we all have troubles dealing with at points in our life.

I have had troubles dealing with anger in the past, I just often keep it to myself most of the time and then rant to Criston when I see her. Driving 45-65” buses in the city you get to deal with your anger alot. I am sure Dave could attest to this as well. So many bad drivers out there, and also weird people to deal with. I have many stories of my time with transit some I have forgotten others I may never forget. I remember once I was trying to merge onto the sid bukwold bridge from 1 ave going south. It is where the south end of Idylwyld hits the river. I mention the place because it was a bottleneck of construction and busy traffic. No one wanted to let the big bus in, no surprise there. I started to get a little angry, i was starting to run behind. We had little clocks on our GPS that told you how far behind or ahead of schedule you where, Handy, but I grew to hate those little clocks sometimes. The clock was reminding me I was running late, so i started to do what big vehicles are good at, force my way in. Well I got in, made someone brake and stop to let me in and got an angry complaint filed against me by a motorist who had to stop.

I learned that anger when transporting people through crazy traffic gets you no where but in trouble. I had to learn to deal with people with patience and love instead. After all, I was getting paid by the hour anyways.

Many of us never even considered murder. It happens unfortunately, but what we learn from How Jesus interpreted this commandment is that anger has a role to play in this as well. Anger towards others also makes us guilty. Which means that we are all guilty of breaking the law. But Jesus showed us love instead of the anger we deserved in that He died for us.

We will learn that God values life, His goal for us is to lead people to eternal life in loving them with His love. our duty to think first not of our own harm but about others good.

God’s Character

we start out with the commandment and what we can learn from that first, which is fairly straight forward.

Exodus 20:13 CSB

13 Do not murder.

I mean, do not murder, it does not get much simpler then that. Leviticus expands on it a little more.

Leviticus 19:18 CSB

18 Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

We go from murder is a sin to even bearing a grudge and revenge

But the change is that it is all summed up in the action of loving our neighbor instead of killing Him.

First what exactly is meant by the word usage here. There is more to the word then just killing if read in context anyways.

The word used here for murder contains the Factors of intentionality and premeditation are set into the verb. The theology behind this is one that all men are created in the image of God though distorted by sin.

I have been asked by a certain someone in the community about hunting. He tells me that “I thought a Christian wasnt supposed to kill?”

Life is a gift from God and only He has the authority to take it. The reason partly why we get the meaning of the word murder here is because of the context of scripture. do animals count? in Genesis after the fall of man in chapter 9 he gave us animals as food, as well as all the plants of the land. Animals do not have living souls like we do. Though we are t be wise with creation, The animals do not count for murder.

Genesis 9:3 “3 Every creature that lives and moves will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything.”

In the OT this also did not apply to you defending your house from thieves that break in or accidental killings.

He gave the authority to the israelites for His judgement on the nations through war in the OT. I do not begin to understand this one, but He did it none the less. He gave a escape for defending your home against thieves and accidental deaths in the OT.

Rather what we are called to is to love our neighbor as yourself.

Hosea 6:9 CSB

9 Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone, a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem. They commit atrocities.

This is another example of where it is used in an intentional context. The idea of murder with intentional violence. God cares for life Most of us can safely say that we haven't intentionally gone out and murdered someone. But even if you have, you can still receive forgiveness from our heavenly father. But what we are going to learn is that Jesus took this command and delved into it. What He said about this command makes it hard to obey all the time.

The New Testament

As we know Jesus is the fulfillment of the law, it all hangs on Him. With that being the case we need to look into what Jesus said about this command. Which echoes what we read in Leviticus. So with that in mind we turn to the book of Matthew.

Matthew 5:21 CSB

21 “You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.

Matthew 5:22 CSB

22 But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister, will be subject to the court. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire.

I have always liked how the KJV puts this verse, mainly because there is a part that not many people understand and I find it kind of funny.

Matthew 5:22 KJV 1900

22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

The word Raca is a term that means to have an Empty head. But what we need to understand is that Jesus is not criticizing the OT here, but rather the Pharisees understanding of it. What we learn is that we have misunderstood what the law means.

It is a heart issue according to this passage. The root of murder seems to be anger and hate. The condemnation of anger and hate is what we see here. But it would seem to be anger that lead to sin. Anger that led to disobedience and hate.

We see this is the case because for one Jesus was angry in the temple. Mark 3:1-5, Matthew 21:12-19 He was angry at the peoples hard hearts, that they missed the point. He was angry that the people turned the temple of God into a place of commerce and a den of thieves. Righteous anger.

Ephesians 4:26–27 CSB

26 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and don’t give the devil an opportunity.

Ephesians talk about the new life we have in Jesus. to put off the old way of sin and put on our new life in Christ. and in this passage we are told not to never be angry but in our anger do not sin.

Jesus anger was not a personal anger, not at the people themselves but at injustice, sin, unbelief and the exploitation of others. At personal affronts There was no anger. But against sin and injustice there was anger.

Remember flipping tables and cracking whips is not out of the question, is what people say in jest. But can you really say that you can do it in anger for the injustices committed against God, at the sin claiming peoples lives?

But not just anger makes you guilty, but putting people down, insults, lowering of other people. 1 John 3:15 gets to the point well.

1 John 3:15 CSB

15 Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

seems quite extreme doesn't it. If this is the case then we are all guilty of sinful anger.

Romans 13:9 CSB

9 The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Romans echoes what we read about in the rest of the passage in the book of Matthew. Instead what we are to seek out is to love others as God has loved us and seek reconciliation.

We went through this not that long ago. But what we learn is that we are not even to go to worship with the knowledge that we have treated others wrongly. Anger in our hearts becomes a cancer in our lives that will eat away at us. You must go deal with the people you have problems with, that you are angry at. Talk to each other deal with the anger in your heart.

C S Lewis in His sermon titled “the weight of Glory said some things I want to share with you.

It may be possible for us to think too much of our own potential glory in the afterlife. However, it is impossible to think too often or too deeply about the potential glory of our neighbor.

The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

Think of it this way. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal—they are immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

So What?

God truly values the life of others, otherwise He would not have said to not take other peoples lives. In fact the value He places is high enough that he gave a way to save us from our sin. We are all guilty of anger and wrath and the like. I am here to tell you today that I am guilty of it sometimes as well.

And the bible is clear that if we have wronged someone, if there is anger in our hearts then we must deal with it. Reconciliation is always the key. Though it is not always possible, we cant force people to forgive us, to reconcile with us but we must try.

The first thing we must remember from this is

If God values life, so must we.

Not only are we not to take the life of other people, but we are not to anything that demeans other people. That is why I like that CS Lewis quote. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

Our lives and our relationships must reflect God and His glory. If God values the life of others, then so must we. What God said it comes down to is to Love our neighbor as ourselves. We have talked about this love many times. To love our neighbor enough to not leave them where they are at but point them to Jesus.

If God values life this much, then the weight of the glory of our neighbour must weigh heavy on us.

Though the world may anger us, we must not fall to sin.

If even sinful anger makes us guilty then we must strive to live for Jesus. It is possible to be angry and not to sin. We must remember when people wrong us that Justice belongs to the Lord. Ours is to point them to Jesus.

We must be so secure in our Christian identity when we are wronged we do not fall to retribution against those who have wronged us but rather use every opportunity that we have to serve others, both the good and the evil. So that the reality of Jesus in our lives points them to the K of H.

Though the world may anger us, ours is not to be angry at them, maybe to be angry at the state of the world, or the sin of the people we deal with. But if God values life and eternal life, then our job is to not care about what they may do to us but rather point them to Jesus.

Sinful anger must be faced honestly and must be confessed to God as sin. We must go to our brother and get the matter settled, and we must do it quickly. The longer we wait, the worse the bondage becomes! We put ourselves into a terrible prison when we refuse to be reconciled.It has well been said that the person who refuses to forgive his brother destroys the very bridge over which he himself must walk