Increasing your love for life
Text – Exodus 20:13, p. 56
Series – God’s Top Ten: 10 Timeless Truths for Life
Each week, we’re considering some overall Truths about the Ten. Over the last several weeks, we’ve learned that…
1. The Ten do not restrict our freedom; they restore our freedom.
2. The Ten are not to be isolated from one another; they are to be integrated with one another.
3. The Ten are not as much about rules as they are about relationships.
4. The Ten are not a ladder; they are a mirror. A 5th truth for us to consider today is…
5. The Ten are not merely negative, they are also positive.
We are beginning a consecutive list of 5 “You shall not” commands. Think with me! Every “You shall not” command implies a “You shall” command. “Don’t do this, instead, do that!”
This 6th command is needed in our world today. You may think, “At least I don’t break this commandment. This is an off week for me.” But don’t be too quick to think you have this one mastered.
To increase my love for life…
I. I will do no harm…
“First, do no harm…”
Yet a quick look at the world around us (and even at what comes into our own homes through our TVs) will reveal that the “do no harm” value is at risk.
We need to think through reasons why life seems to be so cheap these days – why we are living in culture of death. The reason is so very simple that we can miss it.
We are living in a world that devalues human life because it does not recognize God as the personal Creator God. Secularism, humanism, pragmatism, materialism, post-modernism – all the “isms” that dominate the worldviews of most Westerners – all have one thing in common. They deny the Creator God. Our society at large has bought into the whole idea of evolution. We are here as a result of chance plus time. Once a person buys that theory, then your worldview is shaped.
You say, “What’s a worldview?” I was listening to Alistair Begg speak on this commandment. What he said about a worldview might be helpful. Your worldview answers these questions:
· Who am I?
· Where did I come from?
· Why am I here?
· Where am I going?
· Does it all matter?
Now a person who believes in evolution has a hard time answering these questions in a way that provides meaning and purpose.
· Who am I? I’m not sure!
· Where did I come from? Time and chance!
· Why am I here? I don’t know!
· Where am I going? Nowhere!
· Does it matter? Not really! Have a nice day!
This is why life is cheap and we live a culture of death.
Remember the prelude to all the commands – the preamble to the Decalogue, as the Ten are sometimes called? God says, “I am the LORD your God.”
We have to start with the existence of a personal Creator God. “I am the LORD your God. You shall do this and not do that…” God is Creator and LORD of life.
We must love life and hate murder because life is God’s gift.
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being... The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
Genesis 2:7, 22
We must love life and hate murder because life is God’s gift and we are created in God’s image.
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:27
There is a difference between mankind and all other life on earth. We are distinct from all creation. We have personality, morality, and dignity. We create. We verbalize. We think abstractly. We have a soul that will never die. The infinite Creator God made us and distinguished us from the rest of the creation. God established morality, dignity, personality, and value. I will do no harm…
… with my hands…
Before we go further, we need to understand this word “murder” in verse 13. The KJV says, “Thou shalt not kill” – an unfortunate translation. The Hebrew word refers to any unauthorized killing – often intentional, premeditated, and violent. Murder is the best translation. Not all killing is murder.
God wants what remains of His image - what still shines forth in men – to continue. Every murder is a murder of the image of God stamped inside some human being.
But what about…
… killing in self-defense?
A thief breaks into your home at night and attacks you with a knife or a gun. You wonder, “Is he going to hurt or kill someone in my family?” “Turn the other cheek” isn’t the verse I’d recommend you apply in that situation. Exodus 22:2 says, “If the thief is caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no bloodguiltiness on his account.” The question is not, “Is it right or wrong to kill in self-defense?” but “Is right or wrong to let my family die while a thief lives?” Killing in self-defense is not forbidden by this command.
But what about capital punishment?
I know that many spiritual leaders say that capital punishment is contrary to the whole spirit of Christ. That civil government has no right to take a life. And that we ought to be busy seeking the salvation of murderers rather than their execution.
But let’s be Bible people. What does God say?
He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death… If a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as the kill him craftily, you are to take him, even from My alter, that he may die.
Exodus 21:12
Some would say, “Well, that’s laws given to the Jews to govern their society. That law doesn’t apply to us.” OK. Look at God’s standard given to all people even before the Jewish nation was born.
Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of GodHe made man.
Genesis 9:6
God is the One who attached the death penalty to murder. For the civil authorities to put a murderer to death is not itself a crime, but justice. One pastor, Thomas Watson, said: A judge who lets a convicted murderer go free and he kills again is guilty himself because he didn’t fulfill his responsibility to protect society. Any government that shrinks from the punishment of criminals is the lamb defending the lion’s right to eat it.”
Capital punishment is not forbidden by this command.
But what about war?
My son, Alan, is a junior at Malone College. It’s a school for the Friends denomination, a Church with roots from the Quakers. They are pacifists. They do not believe that followers of Christ ought to participate in war. Yesterday, I read a paper on pacifism produced by one of the professors at Malone.
But read the stories about Abraham, Joshua, David, and others and you’ll find that in the Bible war was sometimes the will of God. Throughout the history of the church, followers of Christ may fight in wars because evil cannot be avoided in a fallen world, God has instituted government to crush evil (by force if necessary), believers in the OT and NT served in the military and used its force to crush evil and secure justice. Peace is the goal.
Ware should be avoided if at all possible. But sometimes, a war must be fought to win peace.
If you saw a man raping or threatening to kill another person, wouldn’t it right to try to stop it – with force, if necessary? That same principle applies to nations, as well.
Some human beings must sometimes die to save other human beings or to save a way of living which will dignify and beautify other lives, some of them as yet unborn. But we dare not let ourselves get used to it and, therefore, take it lightly.
Elton Trueblood
Regarding the impending war with Iraq, almost all the religious voices heard in the public square are coming from the anti-war corner. But I wonder, do these spiritual leaders believe that evil really exists in the nature of human beings?
This past week, I was in the North Royalton library and me eyes fell on the magazine, National Review. The cover article was “God and Soldiers,” a look at the Iraq crisis through the eyes of military chaplains. Military clergy have seen a side of humanity that pastors sitting in suburban middle-class comfort pondering therapeutic approaches to the mystery of iniquity never see.
One chaplain said, “I’ve stared in the face of evil. I’ve see oppression, devastation, hopelessness, absolutely inexplicable, irrational hatred a person can have against another human being. Evil exits and what we are dealing with in this situation is evil. There’s only one way to deal with that kind of evil, and that’s to confront it, with force if necessary.”
One person killing another over personal issues is murder. A soldier, in uniform, as a designated representative of his government, acting on behalf of a nation’s peace and security – that is war. If the enemy is a threat to the to peace, then killing may be necessary in order to protect other lives.
Are President Bush and Colin Powel right about Iraq and Saddam Hussein? I don’t really know. How could any of us really know? We cannot be and should not be privy to all the inside information our national leaders have. God has placed them in authority over us. It’s our responsibility to pray for peace and to pray for our President to make wise decisions about resisting evil and helping the oppressed. Some Christian leaders are encouraging us to pray that Saddam leave the country and go into exile.
In a fallen and imperfect world, was should be a last resort, but it should be a resort. “If we’re not going to war with a tear in our eyes and our hearts broken, we aren’t coming at it from the right place, “one chaplain said.
Killing in self-defense, capital punishment, and a just or defensive war are not forbidden by this command. So, what is forbidden?
What the 6th command forbids:
· homicide
This includes premeditated murder or manslaughter. Unfortunately, some people commit homicide and get away with it. They may escape the justice of man, but they won’t escape the justice of God.
Man of bloodshed will not live out half the days.
Psalm 55:23
But for murderers… their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
Revelation 21:8
This command also forbids negligent homicide. Deuteronomy 22:8 says that if you are trying to reduce building costs by not installing a railing around the perimeter of the roof terrace, the homeowner could be held liable for the death of anyone who fell from the roof.
Homicide is forbidden by this command. There’s more…
· suicide
Suicide has surpassed traffic accidents as the chief cause of death among teenagers and the twenty-something crowd.
Suicide is self-murder. Your life belongs to God (I Corinthians 6:19-20). God says, “All souls are Mine.” Suicide is self-murder. It disregards the image of God in man and destroys the sacred package that He’s given us to bring glory to His name.
Someone said that suicide is the violent manifestation of an internal anger and rage. Eventually, this repressed hostility is turned against the self in suicide. It is unnatural. It is a crime against family and friends. It is running away from life. It usurps God’s authority. We defiantly say I am master of my own fate.
Our souls are in this package called the body. Only God has the right to break into this package to release the soul.
Give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently.
Deuteronomy 4:9
No matter how tough life gets, it’s never God’s will and plan for anyone to end it all. Family and friends would carry the grief and pain of a suicide to their graves. Think of how shameful it would be to stand before God saying, ”I couldn’t trust You to share my load, to bear my burden.”
Remember Job? He lost his wealth and his health and his kids. His wife invited him to commit suicide. “Curse God and die” (Job 2:10).
I remember once when a man sat in my office and said, “What’s so bad about suicide? If you are a Christian, you die, you get chewed out by God for a little while and then God wipes the tears away.” Here’s my answer: One of the marks of a true follower of Christ is perseverance. A person who does not persevere and commits suicide has no assurance he’s a true Christian. If you are considering suicide, please call our office and talk to an elder or a staff member. There’s help and hope.
This command also forbids doctor assisted suicide. Some all it mercy killing. Others call it euthanasia. It’s a Greek word. “Eu” means “good.” “Thanatos” means “death.” It literally means “good death.” It seems to be a way out for some terminally ill patients in great pain. Our aging population and recent medical advances that prolong life have made this a very relevant issue.
The doctor who gained so much public attention for euthanasia is Dr. Kevorkian. Life is sacred. Mercy killing with a lethal injection is wrong. Modern-day prophets tell us that widely practiced euthanasia will open the way for extermination of larger groups of unwanted people – the aged, people with disabilities, the mentally challenged.
Sooner or later, death is God’s will. Hebrews 9:27 says that it appointed to man to die. But be very cautious about using and the disconnecting life support. There is no moral obligation to prolong the process of dying through the use of artificial means if it only prolongs the suffering. Our moral duty is to prolong life. It’s not to prolong the process of death. It is morally wrong for anyone to take an innocent life, whether the innocent person grants permission or not. It is not morally wrong to allow that person to die.
The doctor has a duty to revere human life and to seek to bring a cure. Doctor assisted suicide is hostile to the mission of a physician.
We must turn the person who is ill over to God’s providence, leaving life and death in His hands.
Suicide is forbidden by this command. There’s more…
· infanticide
This is the killing of babies. It still happens in some parts of the world. We don’t want this child. That’s wrong.
We talk a lot about human rights. It’s something we very highly value. We hear a lot about the woman’s right to choose. But I’m concerned about the unborn. They are the ones with no rights in the postmodern society. And they can’t speak up for themselves.
Just a couple of thought about a woman’s right to choose – that a woman can whatever she wants to do with her body.
Fact # 1: Let’s face the fact that most of us – even abortion advocates - already support the position that women cannot do whatever they want to do with their bodies. Laws virtually universally supported already limit a woman’s right to choose. Prostitution is illegal. Taking drugs is illegal. Going 100 mph is illegal. Shooting someone you are angry with is illegal. Woman (and men, for that matter) don’t have the right to do whatever they want to do with their bodies.
Fact #2: An unborn fetus carried in the body of a woman is not just a part of the woman’s body. The DNA of an unborn child is different from the DNA of the mother. The gender, the blood-type, the genetic code are unique to that little person growing in the womb. To say that the fetus is part of the mother is to say that the mother has four legs, two heads, two noses. A woman has rights to control her own body, but not the right to end the life of an entirely new person developing in her body.
The Bible is clear that life begins in the womb.
For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I ma 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
I love the story about Mother Theresa’s
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. Mother Theresa
Almost 2,000,000 a year – the silent holocaust. If a cross represented 50,000 casualties. Korea and Vietnam – one cross each. WWI – 2 ½. WWII – 11. The War on the Unborn? 900 crosses!
Maurice Baring used to tell the story of one doctor who ask another: “About the termination of a pregnancy, I want your opinion. The father had syphilis. The mother had tuberculosis. Of the four children born, the first was blind, the second dead, the third was deaf and dumb, and the fourth had tuberculosis. What would you have done with the fifth pregnancy? “I would have ended the pregnancy.” Then you would have murdered Beethoven.
I will do no harm with my hands…
… from my heart.
Some of us have been applying this commandment to every else but ourselves. But this command forbids not just murderous acts, but a murderous attitude. We won’t be convicted in a human court for this, but don’t forget – there is a heavenly court.
We’ve talked about he letter of the law. Now, let’s look at the spirit of it. We may feel smug and innocent because we haven’t broken the law outwardly, but how about our inner attitudes? Let’s look at what Jesus says. He is concerned with a deeper, spiritual meaning of this 6th commandment. Murder is not limited to the overt act.
You have heard that the ancients were told, “You shall not commit murder” and “Whoever commits murder shall be liable before the court.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, “You good-for-nothing,” shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, “You fool,” shall be guilty enough to go into the firey hell.
Matthew 5:21-22
Jesus forbids the inner attitude of anger. The anger that He’s talking about in Matthew 5 is an anger that is long-lived. It’s an anger that is nursed, kept warm, and not allowed to die. Jesus is talking about an anger that can arise gradually and is allowed to settle.
That kind of anger, according to the Lord Jesus, makes a person guilty of murder. He forbids the inner attitude of anger.
Did you notice the word “Raca”? It means worthless fellow, brainless idiot, good-for-nothing blockhead. This is a word that expresses contempt for an man’s head.
Watch people on a highway when they’re cut off. The blood rushes to the face: “You idiot!” God writes it down: “Guilty.”
The notice the phrase “you fool.” This isn’t contempt for a man’s head – criticizing his mental ability – it’s contempt for a man’s heart – casting doubt on his moral character. “Fool” here means moral fool. It’s talking the goof name and reputation from a person and branding him as loose-living and immoral. Taking a stab at someone’s character is murder in God’s sight.
Jesus is saying that an inner attitude of contempt that finds expression in words like “raca” and “you fool” is something deserving of punishment, even hell.
You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart…
Leviticus 19:17
Although we may have no outward signs of hatred, the internal feelings are seen as murder in God’s eyes.
Jesus wants out hearts, our inner attitudes to be right! He tracks murder to its real source – anger. Anger can be rightly directed toward sin but never the sinner – never a person. It’s not enough to stop short of outward, overt, actual murder.
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
I John 3:15
If a heart is headquarters for hate, from God’s point of view, it’s a murderous heart.
Just because I haven’t pulled a trigger doesn’t mean that I’m not guilty of breaking this command. When I gossip, I’m guilty of murder. When I’m put down someone else so I can elevate myself, I’m guilty of murder.
In God’s economy, no one will go to a deeper hell for murder with the hands than murder from the heart. Sin is sin. When we slander and criticize and desecrate the reputations of others, we are guilty before God.
I will do not harm with my hands or from my heart.
II. I will seek to help…
When God says “you shall not” there is a corresponding “you shall” that is being communicated. “You shall no other gods before me” means “you shall put me first.” The flip side of this command to not murder is that we show interest and concern for the spiritual health and the physical/emotional well-being of others.
“There are… two parts in the Commandment, - first, that we should not vex, or oppress, or be at enmity with any; and secondly, that we should not only live at peace with men, without exciting quarrels, but also should aid, as far as we can, the miserable who are unjustly oppressed, and should endeavor to resist the wicked, lest they should injure men as they please.” John Calvin
Every negative command has a corresponding positive implication.
I will seek to help…
“You shall not murder” means “you shall give life, you shall build up, not destroy; you shall encourage; you shall love.” I will seek to give help…
… from my heart…
You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart… but you shall love you neighbor as yourself.
Leviticus 19:17a-18b
God wants us to respect life, to reverence life, to restore life, to revive life, to release life.
God not only restrains the hands, but requires that the heart be pure from all hatred. Instead the heart is to be filled with love.
I was meeting with Geri Hejl yesterday and she told me something that Sue Blair taught her. Sue says, “I’ve heard people say, ‘Live everyday as if it were your last.’ That doesn’t really motivate me. If it was my last day, I wouldn’t go to work, I wouldn’t wash my clothes. A better, more motivating thought for me is: ‘When you are with others, treat them as if it were their last day.’”
I like that! What if it was your spouse’s last day or your kid’s last day or your friend’s last day? Don’t you think you would seek to help from your heart just a little more?
I will seek to help from my heart and …
… with my hands.
Everyone should seek faithfully to defend and support the lives of the people around him. We must make sure that we work together to show people that their lives are dear to us.
But whoever has the world’s good, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
I John 3:17-18
Rachel Sanson is opening an orphanage in El Salvador. Kelly DeGeronimo is starting an adoption agency in Independence called Isaiah’s Promise. Betsy Stretar is working with young unwed mothers in a ministry called YoungLives. We have people working in the Cleveland Pregnancy Center, in Hunger Centers in the area, with International Students.
Find something to do with your hands to make a difference in the world! We are called to resist the culture of death by standing up for life. Start right in your own home.
Last week, in El Salvador, I met a little boy in the orphanage that Rachel Sanson and Mauricio are starting. His mom is on the streets and doesn’t want him. She tried to kill him twice when he was a baby. He’s been asked to leave another orphanage because he’s caused some problems there. His grandmother doesn’t want him. He opened up with Rachel and said, “Why does no one want me?”
Over the years, I’ve had many conversations with people who struggle with feelings of worthlessness. I’ve heard people say, “I do not feel important to God or anyone else.” I hurt with those people. Someone, somewhere, sometime failed to give life to these people. Instead, their sense of worth and value was destroyed, killed, murdered. Someone treated them so badly, that they lost a sense of worth and value. We are all surrounded by people like that.
One pastor wrote: “All that’s necessary for killings to spread is for nice people to ignore persons who are hungry for attention, recognition, and respect. So what do we do when we reject… neglect… or fail to respect people? Or miss opportunities to inspire of encourage them? What are we doing to people when we insult, embarrass, humiliate, taint, or simply snub them? The silent killers today are seemingly decent folks: teachers, pastors, parents, managers, friends who fail to motivate, inspire, and enthuse.”
I want to give life to people – to tell them how great they can really become! We can either take life away or awaken life. We must give love, build hope, share life!
I will seek to help from my heart and with my hands.
Some of us are trying so hard to be good by keeping the Ten Commands. But we can see that it’s impossible. “I’m not even going to try to make myself acceptable to God.” It’s about time we give up on the idea of making it to heaven this way.
We are all guilty here today. Some of you may have had an abortion. God is just as merciful toward that sin as He is toward any other sin. Don’t allow the devil to allow you to go back to something that’s already been forgiven. Surely all of us know that we are guilty of murder from the heart.
Years ago, a man came to see R.G. Lee, a pastor in Memphis. The man was broken, repentant, confessing his sin. He said, “I suppose I’ve broken all the commandments except one.” “Which one?” “I haven’t killed anyone.” R G Lee said, “No, you’ve broken that one, too.” “What do you mean?” “You broke it 2000 year ago when Jesus Christ was crucified for your sins.”
