Life Is Precious

Exodus 20:13

It was a story of mass murder. In the wake of the killings investigating officials were heard to say things like: This is the most horrific thing I have seen.¨ They suffered in ways you and I can’t imagine.¨ When we find (the killer), he is going to be the kind of person who has no conscience. ¨ This is an offense to our senses. . . . It is like somebody desecrating the flag. ¨ Whose deaths prompted this outpouring of shock and anger? Tourists? School children? No. The victims were 33 range horses. They were gunned down on the evening of Dec. 27 in a canyon just 10 miles outside Reno, Nevada. The killings have since been attributed to some Marines home on holiday leave who used their training and skills to murder the innocent.

Interesting isn’t it, how in our modern times we get so worked up about killing and cruelty to animals, yet atrocities against human beings often leave us apathetic and unmoved. We’re on a slippery slope. Unless there is a dramatic change in the American mindset the value of life will depreciate with each passing decade.

There is also an individual, personal cost when we disrespect human life. Vital connections with other people are severed, a proper value of our self suffers and an intimate relationship with God ceases. Human life is important to God. So much so that the sixth commandment directly addresses how we handle it. “Do not murder. ¨ Exodus 20:13

Through this commandment God explicitly tells us to respect life. Some older translations say “thou shalt not kill.” That’s kind of misleading and some wrongly conclude that all life is included here. The literal Hebrew word used denotes the deliberate murder of human beings. There is no prohibition against the killing of plants, bugs, or animals, no matter how groups may try to rip this verse out of context. What’s the basis for this command? Why are we so valuable? What separates humanity from the animal world?

Genesis 1:26, 27 “Then God said, ‘Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves.’ So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.” (NLT)

Each of us are inherently valuable because we were created in God’s image. As C.S. Lewis observed, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.¨

God calls us to respect all human life, from the least to the greatest, because all were uniquely fashioned in his likeness. Image is everything when it is God’s.

Where does murder come from? What is it that causes us to lash out at these beings created in the image of God? Murder has two sources:

1. Unrighteous anger. This one is a given. There are times when we should be angry. When other people are abused or exploited we should be indignant. That is righteous anger. Unrighteous anger comes when we perceive that our needs aren’t being met. We fume because our rights are being violated. Unrighteous anger is self-focused. It is inappropriate for the follower of Jesus Christ.

James 1:19-20 says, “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man is anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” (NIV) The second source of murder may not be as apparent to you as the first. Murder can arise from:

2. False ideas. All you have to do is refer back to 9/11 to see this one in action. The Islamic terrorists who brought down the World Trade Towers and killed thousands of people did so out of false ideas. The Qu’ran puts forth the false idea that killing an infidel and dying for the cause of Allah virtually guarantees you a spot in paradise.

You have to be careful when it comes to ideology. As one author has said, “Ideas have consequences.¨ The result, as we know all too well, can be murder. Most of think that we’ve got this commandment licked. We congratulate ourselves that though we may have violated all the others, at least we‘ve never murdered anyone. Or have we? Let is look at the different degrees of murder.

What Is First Degree Murder?

1. Homicide. This is deliberate, willful killing of another human being. We can picture it in the senseless shootings in the Washington DC area this past week. Homicide does not include self defense, participation in the military or capital punishment. The implication of homicide is that an innocent victim died at the hands of another person.

Closely related to homicide is:

2. Suicide. Suicide is simply self-murder. This kind of murder says to God, “Not thy will, but my will be done. ¨ It is also a disregard for the image of God within one is self.

As a pastor, I am often asked whether suicide prevents a person from going to heaven. To that I answer, “Not necessarily.” No where in the Bible is suicide listed as an unpardonable sin. Suicide points to a lack of hope and possibly a loss of mental faculties. Over 90% of all suicides are drug or alcohol related. There is really no all encompassing principle here. In the final analysis, only God knows the state of the person’s heart who commits suicide. That is why I’ll refrain from setting absolutes and let God be the judge. Another category of first degree murder is:

3. Euthanasia. This has nothing to do with kids on the continent of Asia. Euthanasia is also known as mercy killing ¨ or doctor-assisted suicide. ¨ It literally means, good death.¨

Euthanasia can rightly be considered murder because it sees no value in life if there is not quality of life (by whatever arbitrary means you determine that). When I speak of euthanasia I’m not talking about situations where you let nature take its course. There is a huge difference between removing a ventilator from a brain dead patient and actively administering a lethal dose of sedatives to a cancer patient.

Unfortunately we don’t have time to discuss all the ins and outs of this subject. Suffice it to say that euthanasia disrespects life. Accepting the practice leads to a slippery slope that America will soon be sliding down. Listen to this chilling description reported by Dr. James Dobson. “This downward slide [of euthanasia] was explained dramatically by Dr. Leo Alexander in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. He had extraordinary access to Nazi war criminals in the medical community. Writing from that unique perspective, Dr. Alexander argued that so-called “compassionate killing ¨ of the terminally ill inevitably set the stage for the Holocaust. He wrote: “Whatever proportions these crimes finally assumed, it became evident to all who investigated them that they had started from small beginnings. The beginnings started with the acceptance of the attitude that there is such a thing as life not worthy to be lived. This attitude in its early stages concerned itself merely with the severely and chronically sick. Gradually the sphere of those to be included in this category was enlarged to encompass the socially unproductive, the ideologically unwanted, the racially unwanted and finally all non-Germans. ¨ Before his death, Dr. Alexander told a friend that trends in our country were much like Germany in the ‘20s and ‘30s. The barriers against killing are coming down. ¨

The most widely accepted and practiced form of first degree murder in our land is:

A. Abortion. Abortion is the murder of an unborn human being who was also created in the image of God. That little person may not be physically fully formed yet, but he or she does have value in the eyes of God.

The pro-Abortion groups argue that the unborn child is merely a piece of tissue an thus a part of the mother’s body and she has the right to do what she will with her body. That is a difficult argument to sustain logically when you consider that at conception, the unborn child is a genetically unique individual. Even if we push the beginning of life further down the road of development there are other issues to grapple with.

Abortion is disrespect for human life, the most vulnerable kind of human life. What are the consequences of this false idea?

Back in 1994 the featured speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., was a small, fragile woman with no political credentials. Yet she spoke confidently at the podium, surrounded by President Bill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton and various other government officials. With a steady voice of certainty, Mother Teresa declared: “I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion. It is direct war against the child, a direct killing of an innocent child. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. By abortion the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So, abortion just leads to more abortion. ¨

It is that slippery slope again. Lest you think I’m exaggerating about where this lack of respect for life is leading us, let me site a few examples.

A recent poll of couples in New England revealed that, if they were able to know these things in advance, 1 percent of them would abort a child on the basis of sex, 6 percent would abort a child likely to get Alzheimer’s disease, and an incredible 11 percent would abort a child predisposed to obesity.

Today in our nation we have the grisly practice known as partial birth abortions. It is legal into the third trimester, literally up to birth, for physicians to deliver babies feet first leaving the head in the birth canal. Before the head is delivered a hole is cut in the base of the skull and the brains of the child are sucked out. It is murder and it is legal.
Some want the practice to go even further into:

B. Infanticide. Peter Singer, an Australian bioethicist maintains, “When the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects of a happy life, the total amount of happiness will be greater if the disabled infant is killed. ¨

But, listen to the eloquent words of the psalmist: “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother is womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” Psalm 139:13-16 (NASB)

If you’ve had an abortion or paid for someone else to have one there is forgiveness. But let’s not let compassion cause us to back off from calling abortion what it really is. Let is move on to the lesser known forms of murder.

Second Degree Murder

1. Negligent homicide. The death of another human being by the negligence of another is also considered murder by the Bible. Here is an example:

“Every new house you build must have a barrier around the edge of its flat rooftop. That way you will not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your household if someone falls from the roof.” Deuteronomy 22:8 (NLT)

Not only are we to refrain from actively killing we’re also called to be careful not to inadvertently cause the death of another. I think we could lump into negligent homicide drunk driving, reckless driving, contractors who use substandard material, employers who allow an unsafe work environment, and even illegal drug use. I suspect by products from third-world countries where work conditions are horrible and demean the value of human life fits here to. God calls us to do everything in our power to protect human life because it is sacred. Next, under second degree murder is

B. Wrath. Anger that is allowed to simmer and then boil is wrath. If you don’t believe it is a violation of the sixth commandment, look what Jesus said, “You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Do not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ ‘ But I say to you, if you are angry with someone, you are subject to judgment!” ¨ Matthew 5:21 (NLT)

Here is where the unrighteous anger comes in again. When we hold onto anger and hold out on forgiveness we’re denying the image of God in the other person. We’re in essence saying that we’re God and they’re not worthy of our forgiveness. That is why Jesus says you’d better watch out for wrath. Finally, we come to:

C. Malicious words (cursing, slander, gossip). Again, I’ll let Jesus speak to this. Matthew 5:22, “If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the high council. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.¨ (NLT)

Cursing is a verbal attack on another person. Name-calling is an attempt to kill the reputation of someone created in the image of God. Slander is evil said about someone typically behind their back. It is character assassination. If you do it, you’d better understand that you’re speaking of one created in the image of God. I think that what God himself says, “Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy” Psalm 101:5

Then there’s the more subtle form of slander known as gossip. Why do people gossip? Dr. Laura says there are 3 reasons: 1) to feel or seem more important; 2) to raise their status by lowering someone else is; and 3) just for entertainment value. If you gossip you’d better remember you’re talking about a person of infinite value because they were created in the image of God. Take the advice of the following poem from Dr. Laura’s book: “My name is Gossip. I have no respect for justice. I maim without killing. I break hearts and ruin lives. I am cunning and malicious and gather strength with age. The more I am quoted, the more I am believed. I flourish at every level of society. My victims are helpless. They cannot protect themselves against me because I have no face. To track me down is impossible. The harder you try, the more elusive I become. I am nobody is friend. Once I tarnish a reputation, it is never the same. I topple governments, wreck marriages, and ruin careers -- cause sleepless nights, heartaches, and indigestion. I spawn suspicion and generate grief. I make innocent people cry in their pillows. Even my name hisses to make headlines and headaches. Before you repeat a story, ask yourself, Is it true? Is it fair? Is it necessary? If not, shut up!”

When you’re tempted to bash or vent or about someone else remember whose image they’re create in. Image is everything when it is God’s.

Let’s not leave this subject until we talk about the antidote to murder. This is the positive application of the sixth commandment.

3. Love is the antidote to murder.

Leviticus 19:18 says, “Never seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.¨ (NLT)

Respecting life leads us to this inevitable conclusion: This not romantic love, but active love, the kind that protects and builds up and seeks the best for the other person. Living this way can make an eternal difference.

Richard Wurmbrand, who spent 14 years suffering in a Communist prison, reminds all believers that if the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ, and “if the heart loves Him, you can resist all tortures. ¨ He says, “God will not judge us according to how much we endured, but how much we could love. ¨ He said, “A Christian was sentenced to death. Before being executed, he was allowed to see his wife. His last words to his wife were, ‘You must know that I die loving those who kill me. They don’t know what they do and my last request of you is to love them, too. Don’t have bitterness in your heart because they kill your beloved one. We will meet in heaven.’ These words impressed Wumbrand, the officer of the secret police who heard the discussion between the two. “He told this story in prison, where he had been put for becoming a Christian. ¨

Image is everything when it is God’s. That is why he calls us to respect the life all people.