The Sixth Commandment

Scripture reading: Exodus 20:13

Exodus 20:13 ESV

13 “You shall not murder.

This evening, we turn our attention to number six of the Ten Commandments, and in it God says, “You shall not murder”. The word is ratsah, meaning ‘kill’, and it has the original meaning of breaking something into pieces. But it’s a word only used for the killing of human beings. Never animals. It refers to both intentional and unintentional human killing. It does not, however, describe killing in the context of war.

And according to Jesus, the first murderer is the devil himself.

John 8:44 ESV

44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

And this really tells us the true nature of murder, that is, it is a spiritual act before it is a physical one. It is first and foremost a sin of the heart before it is a sin of the hand. Satan led the first human beings into sinning against God. That was his intention.

And through his passivity, by not stopping his wife and rather joining her in sin, Adam introduced death to the whole human race. And in that sense, Adam also broke this commandment. He didn’t stop her from running headfirst into sin. That too is murder. It’s spiritual suicide.

You see, the sixth commandment encompasses both the physical and the spiritual. There’s always the spiritual aspect, and as we’ll see with Jesus, that is God’s focus. Because sin causes us to devalue human life. Cain brought his offering to the Lord, and the Lord has no regard for his offering. But the Lord regarded the offering of his brother Abel, and so Cain was very angry and his face fell. Anger filled his heart, no doubt fueled by feelings of jealousy and envy. And he rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

Six generations later, Cain’s great great grandson Lamech is walking down the street and a boy strikes him. And he murders the boy out of nowhere. And he even writes a song about it.

And we’re not even past Genesis 4. In 2022, there was reported in United States about 21,000 murders. You see it on the news, on social media. Human life is constantly being devalued and destroyed because of sin, and it all began in the garden with Satan. He was the first murderer.

Foundation of the Sixth Commandment

But God says to His people, “You shall not murder.”

And the foundation of this commandment is the ownership and craftsmanship of God.

First, the ownership of God.

God is the Creator of all things and the foundation of life. And so all life belongs to God.

1 Timothy 6:13 ESV

13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,

So what this means is no human being belongs to human beings. All people belong to God and are rightfully His because He created us. Do you believe that? You belong to God.

Psalm 100:3 ESV

3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

What does it mean that we belong to God? It means that God alone has the right to decide who lives and for how long.

Deuteronomy 32:39 ESV

39 “ ‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

1 Samuel 2:6 ESV

6 The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

Matt. 10:29 says that even a sparrow doesn’t die unless God approves it’s death.

So the first basis for this commandment is that all life and all people belong to God. He is the rightful owner.

Second, the craftsmanship of God.

When God created man, He made him in His own image, and breathed into his nostrils His very own breath.

Genesis 1:27 ESV

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:7 ESV

7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

What this means is that human life is sacred. God’s image is stamped onto each person as part of His craftsmanship. And so any assault on a human being is an assasult on God.

When you tear a newspaper, out of instinct you try not to tear through someone’s face, because it feels disrespectful. But every person bears the image of God, so when someone commits murder, he is tearing up the image of God.

Genesis 9:6 ESV

6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

The murderer, in his heart, holds no regard for the ownership and craftsmanship of God. Rather, he thinks in his heart, “That person is worth less than me. I’m going to do whatever I want to that person.”

God says, “I made that person, and that person belongs to Me. So watch your words. Watch your actions. Watch even your heart.”

Matthew 15:19 ESV

19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

What this means is when we commit sin, or even intend to sin, it’s because we decide to sin. Sin is an act of the will. And God desires our inward being to be filled with light rather than darkness.

Psalm 51:6 ESV

6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

The Fulfillment of the Sixth Commandment in Christ

Let’s look at what Jesus had to say about the sixth commandment.

Matthew 5:21–24 ESV

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

There are three things that Jesus does in this passage.

First, he says that if you are angry at your brother, you will be judged.

The word for anger here is orgizo, which means ‘to be furious, enraged, or continually filled with malice.’ It’s a brooding, simmering anger that is willingly nurtured. It’s a selfish anger, anger boiling within and boiling over because somebody has done something against you or to irritate you. And the heart cherishes the resentment and hates the thought of reconciliation.

The point here is that God judges the heart.

1 John 3:15 ESV

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

You may hate more than a murderer hates, but you just don’t have the opportunity or the courage to kill or perhaps the foolishness to act on it. God judges the heart.

Second, Jesus says that whoever insults his brother will be judged. The word for insult is ‘raka’, which a kind of swear word they used back then. It’s what you would call somebody if they cut into your lane.

And then Jesus says that if you say to someone, ‘You fool!’, you will be judged. The word is moros, from where we get the word moron. It means brainless, stupid. But some say it takes its root from the Hebrew word ‘mara’, which means to rebel.

In the Bible, a fool was someone who rebelled against God. And so what it really means to call someone a fool is “You are condemned by God” or “Go to hell. You’re sitting in the place of God.

And so what Jesus is saying is that if you insult or slander someone in the image of God, you are slandering the God who made that person.

Third, Jesus says, if you come to worship with such anger in your heart, if you’re not reconciled to your brother, then go out, get reconciled, and then come back. And what this shows us is the positive fulfillment of the sixth commandment. The opposite of “You shall not murder” is “You shall be reconciled to your fellow man.” Rather than satisfying your anger by verbal or physical assault, seek out the person you’ve got a problem with and seek for reconciliation. That’s what a true worshiper does, because that’s what Jesus did.

Cain decided that Abel should die to satisfy his anger. Lamech decided that the teenager should die to satisfy his pride. Jezebel decided that Naboth should die to satisfy her greed for his vineyard. Athaliah decided all the children of the royal line of David should die to satisfy her ambition. The religious leaders decided that Jesus should die to satisfy their jealousy. Pilate decided that Jesus should die to satsify his desire to appease the Jews.

Jesus decided that He should die for the forgiveness of all these sins in our hearts. Our anger, our pride, our greed, our ambition, our jealousy, our weakness. He died that we may be forgiven and reconciled to God.

So if we have faith in Jesus, let that faith quench our anger and soften our hearts toward one another.

But if you allow anger to simmer on the inside, then you are a murderer at heart and your worship is in vain. God won’t even listen to what you have to say. Look at what the Bible says.

Psalm 66:18 ESV

18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

So the heart of the sixth commandment is to see beyond every human individual to their Creator and Owner. Sin makes us see human beings as less than what they really are. Faith sees people the way God sees them.

1 John 5:1 ESV

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

Applying the Sixth Commandment

Now, having said all that, how can we apply the sixth commandment to ourselves?

First, we are to be slow to anger.

Anger gives the devil a foothold in our hearts. It was in anger that Cain killed Abel. Simeon and Levi murdered the entire town of Shechem out of their anger for what happened to their sister Dinah. Moses couldn’t enter the promised land because his anger controlled him for a moment. Anger came into Saul’s heart when he heard the people singing, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands (1 Sam. 18:7). This led him to throw a spear at David, and eventually to persecute him for ten years.

We need to be slow to anger by constantly looking to the cross and seeing what grievous sins God has forgiven of us. Let the cross cool your anger and temper it into godly determination.

Second, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.

This means that we need to be peacemakers who actively pursue reconciliation in the event of disputes and arguments. Don’t just wait for the other guy to come and apologize first.

Leviticus 19:17–18 ESV

17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

We need to treat other people as precious, because they are precious in the sight of God. So the sixth commandment is really a command to seek the good of others, and to be considerate, thoughtful, and careful in our interactions with other people

1 Corinthians 10:24 ESV

24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

So there is an element of corporate responsibility. We are all accountable to God for how we protected the lives of their neighbors, whether it’s physical, emotional, or even spiritual.

So how should we live if we are responsible for our fellow neighbors?

First, it means we need to remove any dangers from our neighbor’s way.

We need to be considerate toward the safety of others.

One way the Israelites did this was to set up a parapet or a simple guardrail on the top of their roofs so people wouldn’t fall off by accident.

Deuteronomy 22:8 ESV

8 “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

In today’s terms, don’t drink and drive. Take the proper precautions if you own a Pit Bull or a Rottweiler. If you work in a hospital, sanitize your surgical equipment properly. If you work with dangerous machinery, ensure that there are proper safety procedures. So on and so forth.

Second, we should actively seek out the good of our neighbors.

God commanded in the Old Testament that if you found your neighbor’s animal wandering around somewhere, you have a responsibility to keep it safe and bring it back to the owner.

If we have carried out our responsibility to provide for our family, then we can and should help those outside the family.

Reverend Abraham Park said this. “If we neglect our neighbors’ troubles or losses, or fail to carry out love toward them, we will be judged in righteousness, since such behavior is also an act of murder.”

Jesus gives a fearful picture of what this looks like on the day of judgement.

Matthew 25:43–46 ESV

43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The Sixth Commandment and Wider Ethical Issues

The Sixth Commandment and the Death Penalty

In the Old Testament, God commanded for the governing authority to put murderers to death (Num. 35). In Romans 13:4, Paul describes the death penalty as a sword through which God avenges the innocent.

Romans 13:4 ESV

4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

However, because human life is precious in God’s sight, God commands that there must be strong evidence of guilt.

Deuteronomy 17:6 ESV

6 On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

But wait a minute. Didn’t Jesus say in Matt. 5:39 that Christians are supposed to turn the other cheek?

Yes, but that refers to not taking personal revenge for a personal injury.

However, it is an entirely different context when it comes to running a country. The government is responsible for the lives and welfare of its citizens. And it would be gross negligence to release a known murderer into society. It is an act of collective self-defense.

The death penalty functions not only to uphold justice, but to deter those who are considering murder. It is like a government putting safety guardrails around the nation for the safety of its people.

So as a private individual, you may turn the other cheek when unjustly attacked. But if someone puts your family in danger, don’t tell them to turn the other cheek. You go and defend them. The Christian’s love is a love that protects the vulnerable and the helpless.

The Sixth Commandment and Suicide

By definition, suicide is the murder of oneself.

People commit suicide for different reasons. Mental health issues, financial problems, health problems, relationship problems.

Saul refused to die at the hands of the Philistines, so he fell on his own sword (1 Sam. 31:1-4). Ahithophel hanged himself in shame after David’s son Absalom refused to heed his advice (2 Sam. 17:23). Judas Iscariot hanged himself after discovering that Jesus was to be put to death (Matt. 26:15-16).

Some people say that suicide is okay, since the person being killed has given their consent. But all people belong to God and not to themselves. And you never have God’s consent to kill yourself.

The same principle applies to assisted-suicide.

However, there is an exception when it comes to choosing not to receive further medical treatment when it is clear that a patient will die. That is not suicide, but the acceptance of death.

The Sixth Commandment and Abortion

According to the Bible, abortion is murder. By the way, we’re talking about this not to condemn anyone. Christ has paid the cost of our transgressions and He has reconciled us to God.

In the Old Testament, God demands a heavy punishment for causing death to a foetus in the womb.

Exodus 21:22–23 ESV

22 “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life,

Why? Because according to the Bible, a foetus is a human being created by God in the womb. Some people say the foetus is not a human being, but God’s Word shows that each child in the womb possesses human personhood.

When Job and David speak of God making them in their mother’s wombs, they use the words “I” and “me” (Job 10:11; Ps. 139:13-15).

Job 10:11 ESV

11 You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.

Psalm 139:13–15 ESV

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, the foetus John the Baptist leaped for joy.

Luke 1:41 ESV

41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,

I asked ChatGPT to describe the different ways an abortion procedure happens. It gave me four paragraphs, but not a single mention of baby, child, foetus, human. Completely dehumanizing. All it says is “they use suction and medical instruments to empty the uterus.” Empty the uterus. Empty the uterus. If you look at how an abortion is carried out, there’s no way to say it is not murder.

The Bible says that God hated the practice of sacrificing one’s children to idols (Ezek. 23:39). But in most cases, that is what abortion really is. It is the slaying of a child upon the altar of selfishness and convenience. We’re talking about pregnancies in which there is no significant health risk to the mother.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the sixth commandment is a command to treasure yourself and your fellow human beings as people who belong to God, and are made in God’s image. Ownership and craftsmanship.

And I want to leave you with a final thought. There are no ordinary people in this world, there are only immortals. Every person you meet will one day either be a creature more glorious than the angels in heaven, or more hideously corrupt than your worst nightmares. Whatever it is, all people are immortals.

Therefore, we need to take seriously our responsibility toward ourselves and our neighbors. No human life belongs to human beings. It all belongs to God. It’s like driving a beautiful expensive car that your friend lent you. You’re in the driver’s seat, you’re exercising control, but you’re also responsible to return it in one piece.

Finally, by faith, let us temper our emotions upon the anvil of God’s Word, and let us pursue reconciliation with all people. And as we do so, may we keep this sixth commandment and offer to God a worship that is holy and acceptable in His sight. Amen?