Exodus 20:13 - Sixth Commandment
Thomas S. Myers
The sixth Commandment
Exodus 20:13
"You shall not murder. "(NIV)
Out of all the commandments, you may say, "This one does not apply to me. I think you'll change your mind as you allow the Spirit of God to speak to you.
There are several reasons why murder is such a serious crime. First, is because of the source of life. God is the giver of life. It is God alone who brings life into existence. Second, because of the seriousness of the crime. Once someone is murdered, it cannot be undone. If you steal, you can make restitution. But if you take a human life it is impossible for you to give that life back again. Murder can never be undone.
FIRST -- WHAT IS NOT FORBIDDEN BY THE 6TH COMMANDMENT?
A. THE SLAYING OF ANIMALS IS NOT FORBIDDEN BY THE 6TH COMMANDMENT.
Just look down at verse 24 and notice that God gave a command to slay animals.
Exodus 20:24
24 "`Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. (NIV)
There is nothing wrong with slaying of animals fir food. We are not to treat animals unhumanely.
Proverbs 12:10
10 A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal. (NIV)
Some people are vegetarians because they believe that when the Bible says in the KJV, "Thou shalt not kill," it is forbidding the killing of animals. Actually the Hebrew word for "kill" should be translated by the word "murder." The 6th commandment is directed towards the taking of human life. Also I do not see how one can come up with that idea that God forbids the killing and eating of animals since Jesus ate fish in Luke 24:42-43. The Bible does not forbid the killing of animals.
B. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IS NOT FORBIDDEN BY THE 6TH COMMANDMENT.
Contrary to what some believe, the Bible does not forbid capital punishment. Look at Exodus 21:12 and notice that capital punishment was exercised when someone committed murder.
Exodus 21:12
12 "Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. (NIV)
Someone may say, "Pastor, capital punishment was permitted under the law of Moses, but we're not under law today, we're under grace." Then look at Genesis 9:5-6 which was given by God before the Old Testament law was given.
Genesis 9:5-6
5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. 6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. (NIV)
God instituted capital punishment long before the Old Testament law was given. The 6th commandment does not forbid capital punishment.
C. THE BIBLE DOES NOT PROHIBIT A PERSON FROM KILLING IN ORDER TO PROTECT ONE'S LOVED ONE'S OR ONE'S LIFE.
Exodus 22:2-3
2 "If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; 3 but if it happens {Or if he strikes him} after sunrise, he is guilty of bloodshed. "A thief must certainly make restitution, but if he has nothing, he must be sold to pay for his theft. (NIV)
What does that mean? It means that if in the middle of the night, you wake up and there is someone breaking in your house, and you can't see who it is, the sun is not up and you don't know what they have in mind, and your afraid for your life, you may proceed to protect yourself and your family, and if that man's life is taken, God says you are not to be held accountable.
SECOND -- WHAT IS FORBIDDEN BY THE 6TH COMMANDMENT?
A. INTENTIONAL MURDER IS FORBIDDEN.
There Are At Least 3 Kinds of Intentional Murder
1ST - HOMICIDE IS FORBIDDEN.
Homicide is taking another man's life without warrant.
2ND -SUICIDE IS FORBIDDEN.
There are 30,000 suicides every year in the United States. It is estimated that as many as 400,000 attempted suicides every year. Not only is it wrong to take someone else's life, it is wrong to take your own life. No one has the right to take his own life, because in the truest sense, your life is not your own life. It comes from God. And there is no excuse or reason to take your own life, for that takes out of the hands of God matters that should only be left in God's hands. Only God is wise enough to handle these problems wisely.
Some may ask, "Could a Christian commit suicide?" Some may, but it is never God's will and God's plan. There is always a way out of trouble, suicide is not the answer.
1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (NIV)
Psalm 103:14
14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. (NIV)
Right now there may be someone who is listening to me who is thinking, "I don't know where to turn. I would just rather end it all!" Folks, suicide doesn't end it all. Three is no way to bring more shame upon yourself or family. Think of the grief that it will bring to your loved ones. And how ashamed you would be when you face your Savior. You will have to tell Him, you couldn't trust him with your life. You will have to tell Jesus that you could not trust Him to see you're through your troubles and to bear your burdens and to carry your griffs.
3RD - FANACIED IS FORBIDDEN.
Fanacied is the killing of little infants, or the taking of life of preborn babies. Some call it abortion. In United States alone over 30,000,000 babies were killed by abortion. We live in a nation where it is safer to be a spotted owl than a baby in a womb. I know it may well be possible that someone here has had an abortion. I'm not trying to head guild upon you, because the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. But it important that the church speak out and stand up and oppose abortion. Some may say, "It all depends on when life begins." I want you to listen to Jeremiah 1:5.
Jeremiah 1:5
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." (NIV)
God is speaking to the prophet Jeremiah and declares that life begins at conception. When does life begin? It begins at conception.
B. INDIRECT MURDER IS FORBIDDEN.
Most of us will never by guilty of direct murder, but some of us may be guilty of indirect murder. What is indirect murder? Indirect murder is when you cause people to lose their life, by the things that you say or do. There are at least 3 ways to commit indirect murder.
1ST - BY CRUELTY. Some of you may be giving your parents gray hairs. Some of you husbands may be by the way you are living are killing your wife by degrees. Two drunken sons came home at 2:00 A.M. after a drunken spree. Their father confronted them and handed 2 loaded rifles and put one in each boy's hand. The father then said, "Why don't you boys go upstairs and just shoot your mother. It would be better for you to kill her with a bullet than to kill her by degrees like your doing." The Chinese used to have a torture called the Chinese water torture. They would tie an individual beneath a dripping fountain of water. There would be a constant dripping of water falling on the person forehead. Finally, the nervous system explodes and death results. Not from one server blow, but from the constant drip, drip, drip, drip.
2ND - BY CORRUPTION. The liqueur and drug dealers are guilty of breaking this commandment. Check the records, read the news paper, and look at the crime statistics. There is more crime caused by liquor and drugs than another source. It is made with tears, thickened with blood, and flavored
with death. It has the curse of God upon it. Half of the traffic deaths by accident in this country are a result of DUI. Forty-five thousand people a year are killed on our streets by drunken driving.
Habakkuk 2:12
12 "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime! (NIV)
If the only way we know how to build a city is with the money from liquor, gambling, and topless bars we're in bad shape. Habakkuk says, 12 "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime! " Our highways have become slaughter houses. The same time that the Vietnam war was going on, 6 times as many Americans lost their lives due to beverage alcohol as those lost in the Vietnam conflict. Someone has said, that alcohol and drugs has shed more blood, sold more homes, plundered people into bankruptcy, armed more villains, slain more children, snapped more wedding rings, defied more innocents, blinded more eyes, recked more manhood, dishonored more womanhood, broken more hearts, blasted more lives, driven more to suicide, and dug more graves, than any other scourge that has cursed the word.
And if some people do not kill themselves with alcohol or drugs they will kill themselves with illicite sex. Our bodies are to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are not to take into our bodies that which defiles it.
C. INVISIBLE MURDER IS FORBIDDEN.
This is the murder that no one sees. No real blood is shed in invisible murder. But God writes it down as murder. What is it? Its murder that is in the heart. Jesus put it this way:
Matthew 15:19
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. (NIV)
Read Jesus commentary the 6th commandment.
Matthew 5:21-22
21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, `Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, `Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, `You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. (NIV)
Jesus said, "If you heart burns with anger towards other people, in heaven they write it down as murder. You can kill a reputation by your whispering criticism. I heard of man who became angry at someone in his church. So he started some hurtful rumors about the individual. Soon there were a group of people who believed the rumors. The man who's reputation was ruined suffered a heart attack suffered because of the false rumors. As he laid on his hospital bed, in walked the man who started the rumors. He apologized and asked for forgiveness. He said, "I had no idea that it would hurt so. Please forgive me." The man forgive him and then asked if he would open the widow. He opened the widow and then asked, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" The man said, "Yes, would you get that other pillow over there." The man picked up the pillow and then was asked to hold it out side the window and release all the feathers outside. The wind blew the feathers in several hundred different directions. The man then asked, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" The man who suffered the heart attack said, "Yes, would you go and gather up all the feathers?" The man replied, "I can't do that, it's impossible." The other man replied, "And it is impossible for you to undue the damage that you heaped on me." The apostle John put it this way:
1 John 3:15
15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (NIV)
1 John 4:20
20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (NIV)
Its time we hand in America, a good old fashioned baptism of love. One women went to the doctor, he looked very serious and she said, "What's wrong?" He said, "You have rabies." she got out a pencil and started to write and he said, "What are you doing, making out your will?" She said, "No, I'm making a list of people I'm going to bite." I believe I've met her.
One man was confessing his sins. He had just accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and he said, "I suppose I have broken all the commandment except one." The preacher said, "Which one didn't you break?" The man said, "Murder." the preacher said, "You've broken that one too." the man said, "When?" the preacher said, "2000 years ago when your sins helped crucify Jesus." Listen, we all stand guilty before God. That is why we need a Savior.