On April 20 of last year, Columbine High School students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold committed the worst act of school violence in American history. When the smoke had cleared and the last gunshot echoed, 14 people were dead, and 23 others were wounded.
People have scrambled to explain what could lead two high school students to such horrible violence. People blamed the availability of guns, video game violence, a lack of parental oversight, and the prohibition of school prayer. But the reality is that we live in a violent culture, and it’s becoming increasingly violent.
In December of 1997, 43 year old Arturo Torres walked into a maintenance yard in the city of Orange with an AK-47, killing his boss and three other bystanders before the police killed him. On October 3 of last year, as church members gathered in the fellowship hall of the First Southern Baptist Church in Fresno, church member Steven Knee walked in and shot to death fellow church member Virgil Turner. In September of last year, we all remember Larry Ashbrook walking into the youth rally at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and spraying the church sanctuary with 45 rounds from a handgun.
We live in a violent culture. Although the violent crime rate has dropped slightly the last two years, since 1960 we’ve experienced a 280% rise in violent crime in America (Bennett 15). In 1997 there were 18,209 murders in the US, and nearly half of all murder victims know their assailants (17). In the 20th century more people were killed by their own governments than in any war this century (Willimon and Hauerwas 70). The escalation of violent video games, movies getting more and more gory, and music that glorifies violence is merely goads our violent culture on. Psychologist and retired Lt. Col. Dave Grossman says that the data linking violence in media and violence is society is stronger than the data linking cancer to tobacco (Grossman 35). The American Medical Association is on record as claiming that violence in media is causally related to about 10,000 homicides annually (Grossman 35). This is the culture live in, a culture where popular musicians who sing about rape and brutality make millions, a culture that bombards us with violent images on our TV screens.
It seems that a discussion of God’s commandment against murder would be particularly appropriate for us today. We’ve been in a series through the 10 Commandments called LANDMARKS FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM. So far we’ve looked at the first five of the 10 commandments, as we’ve been seeking to treat these moral absolutes as fixed reference points in an every changing culture. Today we’re going to look at the sixth commandment, the commandment against murder. Today we’re going to try to answer four questions: What is murder? Why is murder so bad? What causes people to murder? And finally, how can we follow Jesus in a murderous culture?
1. What is Murder?
Let’s begin by looking at the sixth commandment together: "You shall not murder" (Deuteronomy 5:17 NIV). Now the traditional translation of this commandment is, "Thou shalt not kill" (KJV), but the rendering of the New International Version here is more accurate. The Hebrew word used here means to "kill someone unjustly" (NIDOTTE 3:1189). So it’s a certain kind of killing that’s in view here.
But what constitutes "murder" here? The activist organization PETA--the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals--claims that this commandment includes not killing animals for food. Some have taken this to mean that this commandment requires that Christians be pacifists and oppose all wars. So exactly what is this commandment addressing?
One way to narrow the field is to look within the book of Deuteronomy itself, because the rest of the book of Deuteronomy is really an exposition of the 10 commandments. We find in Deuteronomy that God permits Israel to kill and eat animals (Deu 14:3-20). We also find in Deuteronomy that God requires Israel to enforce the death penalty against certain crimes (e.g., Deu 17:6). Finally, we find specific guidelines given for when Israel goes to war in Deuteronomy 20. So at least in its original context, eating meat, the death penalty and fighting in a war aren’t automatically ruled out by the sixth commandment.
So let’s define it. What is murder? Murder is the unlawful or illegitimate ending of another person’s life.This commandment only applies to human beings. It not only applies to unlawful killing—-killing that’s against society’s laws—-but it also applies to illegitimate killing as well. There are times when killing a person may be legal, but it is still illegitimate. For instance, killing Jewish people in concentration camps was legal in Nazi Germany, but it was illegitimate, so it was still a violation of the sixth commandment.
Now let me give you some very specific examples of unlawful or illegitimate killing in our culture today. The most obvious example is homicide. This is probably what most of us think of when we hear the sixth commandment. The Bible distinguishes between different kinds of homicide, just as our own legal code does.
Another example of this is suicide. Every year some 30,000 people in America take their own lives, and suicide is the third leading cause of death for people between 10 and 24 years of age (Bennett 17). There are six examples of people who commit suicide in the Bible itself. I certainly don’t think suicide is an unforgivable sin, but it’s clearly a violation of the sixth commandment. If murder is the unlawful or illegitimate ending of someone’s life, it certainly applies to self-murder.
A third example of how the sixth commandment is violated in our culture today is abortion on demand. Abortion is ending a human life while it’s still in the womb. We tend to think that abortion is a modern day phenomenon, but the practice of abortion goes back into the ancient world. The Greek philosopher Plato thought every woman over 40 who gets pregnant ought to abort her baby (Stafford 16). The ancient father of medicine Hippocrates, who lived in the fifth century before the birth of Jesus, wrote his famous Hippocratic oath. It’s a little known fact that included in Hippocrates’ oath for doctors are these words: "I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; furthermore, I will not give to a woman an instrument to practice abortion" (cited in Douma 217). By the time Jesus was born, abortion was a common practice throughout the Roman empire (Stafford 16). The early Christians consistently opposed abortion, with one of the earliest Christian documents outside of the New Testament—-a document called the Didache-—teaching, "You shall not murder a child by abortion" (Stafford 17). Even in our own nation’s history, abortion was legal in the 1840s, with somewhere between 1/5 and 1/2 of all pregnancies ending in abortion (Stafford 17). Unfortunately the Christians were silent on the issue in the 1840s, but the American Medical Association spearheaded legislation to outlaw abortion. Finally, through the influence of the AMA, in 1873 the Comstock Act made abortion as a form of birth control illegal (Stafford 18). But of course all that’s changed one hundred years later with the legalization of abortion on demand in 1973 with the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision, and since then there have been 35 million abortions performed in America (Bennett 83). That’s almost 2 million abortions each year, with only 7% of those abortions falling into the category of the mother’s life being threatened, fetal deformity, or the mother being the victim of rape or incest (Bennett 83). Abortion on demand as it’s practiced in our nation today is a clear violation of the sixth commandment.
Finally, a forth example of how the sixth commandment is violated in our culture today is euthanasia. Now by euthanasia I’m not talking about letting nature take it’s course when someone’s suffering from an incurable, terminal illness. I’m talking about lethal injection, physician assisted suicide, and things like that. As we saw in the quote from Hippocrates, even the ancient Greek Hippocratic oath included a doctor refusing to provide a patent with a means to commit suicide or even suggesting suicide as a possibility. In the Netherlands physician assisted suicide has been legal for several years, and in a report by the Dutch government in 1995, the doctors admitted that 1,000 patients had been killed without giving consent (Thomas). The Dutch government has expanded physician assisted suicide to include not only terminally ill patients, but children, severely depressed patients, and elderly people not satisfied with the quality of their lives (Thomas). Now in some ways I can understand how people not living by the Bible and following Jesus might be misled into that kind of thinking, but what really floored me was when in 1994 Dr. Jack Kevorkian-—Dr. Death—-was invited to give the Sunday sermon at a church in Michigan (Bernardi). My thought was, what’s wrong with this picture?
Any unlawful or illegitimate ending of another person’s life is a direct violation of the sixth commandment.
2. Why Is Murder Wrong?
That brings us to our second question: Why is murder so bad? The book of Genesis shows us:
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.Genesis 9:6—"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man" (Genesis 1:27 NIV).
Whatever it means that human beings bear God’s image—-and Bible teachers debate exactly what the image of God is—-it’s clear here that the image of God sets us apart from the animal world. This image of God applies to both men and women, and the rest of the Bible claims that though that image of God is twisted and marred because of sin, it still remains.
Then we see in Genesis 9 that the death penalty is required when someone murders because people bear God’s image. Now I don’t want to get into a debate about the death penalty here simply because there are differences of opinion among Bible believing Christians about the death penalty. Within our own church we don’t have one particular view of the death penalty. Some of our leadership team are opposed to the death penalty from the teaching of the New Testament, and some—-like myself—-feel that the government has the right to use the death penalty. That’s not a test of orthodoxy here. My point in bringing up this passage is to show WHY murderers were put to death in the Old Testament. It’s wasn’t because murder was a crime against society, or because the death penalty was a deterrent against crime. The reason was because humans bear God’s image.
From this we find out why murder is so bad. SINCE WE BEAR GOD’S IMAGE, WRONGFULLY KILLING ANOTHER HUMAN BEING IS AN ATTACK AGAINST GOD HIMSELF.
Murder is a defiant fist in the face of God. Whenever someone murders another human being, that person is saying, "I want to kill God, but since I can’t kill God, I’ll kill the closest representation of God I can find."
Imagine if our government sent an ambassador to a foreign country. Now imagine that ambassador went officially representing our president and congress, that whatever that ambassador said or did was an official representation of our government. Now imagine that the foreign government had that ambassador arrested, beaten, and then executed. That would not only be a horrible crime against the ambassador, but because the ambassador was an official representative of our country, his murder would be considered a personal act of aggression against our country. Because the ambassador officially represented our country, attacking him was attacking our country.
Since we bear God’s image as humans, we represent God, and to wrongfully take a human life is an act of aggression against the one whose image we bear.
In fact, the ultimate fist in the face of God was when God sent his only Son to the world to provide a way of love, a way of forgiveness. But instead of receiving God’s love, people conspired together to have Jesus wrongfully arrested, condemned and executed. God in his grace was able to take something meant for evil—-a clear violation of the sixth commandment—-and to turn it around for good.Whenever someone violates the sixth commandment, they’re personally attacking God himself.
3. What Causes Murder?
This leads us to our third question: What leads people to murder?
Some people claim that it’s our environment that leads people to acts of violence. There certainly seems to be a clear link between violence in media and violence in our society, but I don’t think it’s correct to say media violence causes people murder. Some of you might remember Dan White, a former San Francisco city manager who shot and killed two men. At White’s subsequent trial, his attorney tried to argue that his client’s obsessive eating of Twinkies caused him to be unable to distinguish between right and wrong. That became known in American culture as "the Twinkie defense." We saw the same thing in the trial of Erik and Lyle Menedez, the brothers who killed their parents with a shotgun, when they claimed that years of child abuse led them to not be responsible for their crime. Although these things might’ve influenced each of these people, it seems that the environment doesn’t directly CAUSE a person to murder.
Others have claimed that it’s our genetic make up that causes people to murder. The British biologist Richard Dawkins has clamed that murder is the result of what he calls "selfish genes" in our DNA. Scientist Steven Pinker wrote an article in the New York Times a few years ago claiming that we really shouldn’t hold teenage mothers who kill their babies responsible because this behavior is built into the "biological design" of people (Colson 80). Once again, although it’s certainly possible genetics can influence people to do certain things, there’s no evidence that someone’s genetic makeup directly causes them to murder. But as you well know, the debate between nature and nurture has raged regarding this issue.
Fortunately, Jesus himself addressed the issue of what causes murder in his famous Sermon the Mount:
"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 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" (Matthew 5:21-22 NIV).
Jesus is addressing people who read the sixth commandment and say, "Hey, I’ve never killed anyone, so I’m okay." He’s trying to show us that as his followers, we need to go beyond what we don’t do, to get to the heart of the issue. He tells us that unless our integrity surpasses the purely external righteousness of the religion leaders of his day, that we’re no better off or different than they were (Matt 5:20).
In that context, Jesus tells us that underneath murder is first anger. Now Jesus isn’t talking so much about the emotion of anger here, but he’s talking about anger that’s nursed against another person, the kind of anger that leads to angry words and angry actions. The word "Raca" is an Aramaic word that means "empty headed," "stupid," or "good for nothing." The word "fool" is the Greek word moron, and it also means "stupid" or "good for nothing."Jesus is telling us that nursing anger in our hearts toward other people that leads us to verbally abuse them is just as serious to God as murder is. The religious leaders of his day might’ve thought they were obeying the sixth commandment just by not murdering, but to follow Jesus, we need to tend to our hearts and our words, as well as our actions.
So what causes murder? THE ACT OF MURDER COMES FROM UNRESOLVED ANGER THAT LEADS US TO DEVALUE HUMAN LIFE.
This is the root, and murder is the fruit that the root produces if left unchecked. Certainly our environment may influence us, and perhaps our genetic make up influences us as well, but devaluing human life is the root cause of murder.
Unresolved anger is like a pot of boiling water with a lid on it; the pressure keeps building and building until it eventually blows. Look at the many ways human life is devalued in our culture today. The horrible tragedies of abortion, domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, racism, hate crimes, and poverty all evidence how much human life has been devalued in our culture. As we look around the world at examples of genocide, mass killings by governments, unjust wars motivated by greed, we see that our entire world devalues human life. Consider Dr. Peter Singer, who was appointed professor of Bioethics at Princeton University last summer. Dr. Singer claims that there’s no difference between humans and animals, and that the dominance of humans over animals is as bad as the dominance of white people over black people during slavery. Dr. Singer claims that since dogs and pigs are more intelligent than newborn babies, dogs and pigs have more value. He advocates allowing parents to kill their newborn babies within the first three months of life if they feel the baby will never function as a "full" human being (Thomas).
Everywhere we look human beings are viewed as objects rather than creatures made in God’s image. The moment we define a person by anything other than God’s image, we’re on the slippery slope to devaluing people. When we define a person’s worth by what they own, how much money they make, their productivity, their looks, their education, their usefulness, or even their quality of life, we’re in danger of devaluing human life.
4. Following Jesus in a Murderous Culture
This leads us to our final question: How can we follower Jesus in a murderous culture?
"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift...You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:23-24, 43-44 NIV).
This section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount deals with our relationship with fellow Christians and our relationship with enemies. In regard to fellow Christians, Jesus is telling us to do everything within our power to maintain a positive, healthy relationship. Our worship, our gifts, our offerings, and our praise mean nothing if we’re living alienated from other followers of Jesus Christ. Before we seek forgiveness from God, God wants us to seek forgiveness from each other (Davies and Allison 517).
Several years ago I remember one of the musicians on our worship team had a fight with his wife before coming to church on Sunday morning. I remember Pastor Gary talking to him, and instructing him, "I want you to go home and work things out with your wife before you get on that platform and offer your service to God." That’s what this musician did, and Pastor Gary told him that because of this teaching. God takes our relationships with fellow Christians with the utmost seriousness.
In regard to our enemies, Jesus tells us to love them and to pray for them. The people of Jesus’ generation had taken God’s command to love their neighbor as only applying to other Jewish people. They didn’t view the Romans as their neighbors. Loving our enemies means seeking their best, it means genuinely caring for their needs, it means demonstrating our love in specific, tangible ways. When we fail to love our enemies, we demonstrate that we’re no different than any other social group who only loves their own. This means loving the murderer, loving the abortion doctor, loving the militant homosexual, loving people who want to see the church destroyed. This is how the early Christians penetrated to the heart of the Roman Empire, not with hatred, not with mere activism, but with love.
How can we follow Jesus in a murderous culture? AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST, GOD CALLS US TO A LIFESTYLE OF RADICAL RECONCILIATION.
Following Jesus means being different in how we treat people, both the people we love and the people we’re tempted to hate. If there’s no difference in our relationships with others, then the church has ceased being the countercultural community Jesus designed it to be. The Christian community is designed to be the kind of place where people who might hate each other in society can learn to love and forgive each other.
When the German Christian Detrich Bonhoeffer thought about this teaching as it related to his own generation and the rise of Adolf Hitler, he struggled. In his book The Cost of Discipleship Bonhoeffer wrote, "To the natural man, the very notion of loving his enemies is an intolerable offense and quite beyond his capacity" (163). Bonhoeffer was right, that we can’t love our enemies by just gritting our teeth and trying. God needs to transform us into the kind of men and women who love, that by changing our hearts and renewing our minds, God shapes and molds us into people who can love our enemies.
Conclusion
The bottom line is this: Both physical and spiritual life are precious gifts from God, to be received joyfully, protected lawfully, and shared generously. The sixth commandment forbids any unlawful or illegitimate ending of another person’s life, and it does this because wrongfully killing an image bearer of God is a personal attack against God himself. But for followers of Jesus Christ, it’s not enough to merely refrain from murder, because God calls us to live lifestyles of radical reconciliation.a) This lifestyle will lead you down some strange roads, roads your unchurched friends and families might not understand or agree with, but friends, this is what it means to follow Jesus.
Sources
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Davies, W. D. and Dale Allison. 1988. The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary. T. & T. Clark.
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Hughes, R. Kent. 1993. Disciplines of Grace: God’s Ten Words for a Vital Spiritual Life. Wheaton: Crossway Books.
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NIDOTTE = VanGemeren, Willem A. (editor). 1997. The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Stafford, Tim. "The Abortion Wars: What Most Christians Don’t Know" Christianity Today (10/6/89).
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