“THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE”
(Exodus 20:13)
The commandment against murder is a statute of liberty, especially in light of Jesus’ interpretation. In the Sermon on the Mount He said, “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). God offers release from the destructive anger that so restricts us in this age of rage.
The news is filled with murder, freeway snipers, gang killings and “drive by” shootings. This violence is usually motivated by anger. Bank robbers near here recently killed a teller in cold blood. What anger or passion could motivate such senselessness?
The violence of war is aroused by anger. World War I left Germany in shambles and its people were bitter toward the entire world. That anger eventually led to World War II. After the second war, the people of Germany erected a statue on the Polish border. It depicts a brooding a woman facing Poland. Beneath the woman is a list of the Polish towns that formerly belonged to Germany. With the list are these words: “Never forget, Germans, of what blind hatred has robbed you.”
I. WHAT THE COMMAND SAYS
The Hebrew word translated, “murder” refers to premeditated and deliberate killing. It points to specific acts of violence, rather than all forms of killing. The NIV translation, “You shall not murder,” is more accurate than the King James’ “Thou shalt not kill.”
Animals were killed as sacrifices to God, and to feed families. God never permitted human sacrifices, but subjected those guilty of heinous crimes to a death penalty. Even preceding the Ten Commandments Scripture required the termination of life. In Genesis 9 God said, “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. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man” (vv. 5-6). A ban on all killing is not the purpose of the sixth commandment; it prohibits cold-blooded murder.
Exodus 21 offers clear instructions concerning a murderer and his punishment. “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate. But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death” (vv. 12-14). Any killer could flee to a city of refuge for safety until it was determined whether he had killed by mishap or by premeditated murder. If he was innocent he could stay in the city of refuge until emotions cooled and it was safe to come back into society. If he was guilty of intentional murder, he was put to death.
Some today would deny the state its duty to bear the sword against murderers. The penalty of capital punishment for murder has been largely abolished under humanist pressure. The Bible teaches that capital punishment for murder is proper.
John Calvin taught that persons bear the image of the Almighty, and that God’s own Person is violated when human blood is shed. Therefore, “God so threatens vengeance against the murderer that he even arms the magistrate with the sword for avenging of slaughter.” The old commentator, Matthew Henry said, “Willful murder must always be punished with death. It is a sin which the Lord would not pardon in a prince …and which a prince therefore should not pardon in a subject. Such remains of God’s image are still upon fallen man as that he who unjustly kills a man, defaces the image of God and does dishonor to him.”
Capital punishment, properly administered, is not murder. It is a refusal to allow lawless people to take the lives of others into their own hands. It sets a high premium on life.
The human heart “is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). However good we may be, the danger of anger is the tendency of our hearts toward murder. The sixth commandment certifies the value God places on human life, while our culture gradually adopts the viewpoint that those who do not contribute are expendable.
II. WHAT THE COMMAND MEANS
Christ sharpens the commandments. If we say, “I have not committed adultery,” He asks, “Have you looked with lust?” We say, “I haven’t stolen,” but He questions, “Have you been generous?” With the sixth commandment we protest, “I am no murderer.” Again Jesus probes, “Have you been angry with a brother or sister?” Anger, and intemperate outbursts make you subject to judgment.
John was the Apostle of Love. In his first epistle he wrote, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him (1 John 3:14-15).
Some would never aim a weapon at another person but are guilty of psychological murder. We can destroy relationships through our attitudes and bitterness. You may be guilty of dehumanizing a husband, a wife, a child you love, or anyone who displeases you.
It is also a form a murder, displeasing to God, when we fail to care for ourselves. We should be careful in our programs of diet, adequate rest and relaxation, and exercise. Had I died when I had my heart attack I would have been guilty because I had abused by body with overwork, lack of rest and improper diet.
We don’t like to hear this. Chuck Swindoll said, “Diets are for people who are thick and tired of it.” Some anonymous writer, with apologies to David, paraphrased the twenty-third Psalm:
Strict is my diet, I must not want.
It maketh me to lie down at night in hunger.
It leadeth me past the confectioners.
It trieth my will power.
It leadeth me in the paths of starvation, for my figure’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the aisles of the pastry departments
I will buy no sweet rolls for they are fattening.
The cakes and the pies, they tempteth me.
Before me is a table set with green beans and lettuce.
I filleth my stomach with liquids.
My day’s quota runneth over.
Surely calories and weight charts will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the fear of scales forever.
III. MURDER IN A TECHNOLOGICAL AGE
Technology is wonderful, but the technological twentieth century has witnessed the maiming and killing of more people in all previous history. Constantly bombarded by statistics, we are easily hardened, and human life loses its value. The United States engaged in an unpopular war in Southeast Asia from 1966-1972. Forty-four thousand Americans were killed in Vietnam. Many rioted in protest. During the same period little note was taken of the fact that fifty-two thousand of our fellow citizens were killed at home by hand guns. [Wallace E. Fisher, Stand Fast in Faith (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978), 76-77].
What practical relevance does the Sixth Commandment have for us today? Evolutionists claim that humans evolved from monkeys, and thus defame the monkeys. An anonymous poet tried to express their feelings:
Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree,
Discussing things as they’re said to be.
Said one to the other, “Now listen you two;
There’s a certain rumor that can’t be true
That man descends from our noble race!
The very idea’s a disgrace.
No monk ever deserted his wife,
Starved her babies and ruined her life.
And you’ve never known the mother monk
To leave her babies with others to bunk.
And another thing you’ll never see,
A monk build a fence around a coconut tree,
And let the coconuts go to waste
Forbidding all other monks a taste.
Here’s another thing a monk won’t do;
Go out at night and get in a stew,
Or use a gun or club or knife
To take another monkey’s life.
Yes, man descends
The Ornery cuss -
But, brother, he didn’t descend from us!
Four social issues require attention when we consider the sixth commandment: capital punishment, war, abortion, and euthanasia. I have already addressed the subject of capital punishment. What about the others?
I was asked several years ago “Why is it that the same people who oppose abortion supported the Persian Gulf War?” I answered, “I believe that the support of that war effort, and opposing abortion have one compatible characteristic: both were to protect human life.”
Certainly, a war that is engaged to protect human life is more easily justified than a jingoistic war to promote a nation’s prestige, economy, or military power. An earnest endeavor to safeguard a peoples’ liberty is right.
God led His people into certain wars in the Old Testament. Pacifists claim that the state has no right use the sword. They insist that since Jesus taught his disciples to turn the other cheek, nations should do the same. There is a difference between appropriate governmental and individual responses. We cannot, as individuals, take law into our own hands.
In a discussion of governmental authority in Romans 13, Paul speaks to the individual: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord’” (Romans12:17-19). God established government to establish order.
What does “You shall not murder” have to say on abortion? What’s the nature of the abortion issue? Some who take a strict, literal view of Scripture put abortion in the category of murder. Randy Alcorn says with sensitivity:
Many prefer not to use the term murder for abortion, even if it is acknowledged that a baby is a person. Murder is by definition the deliberate, unjustified taking of a human life. In my experience, due to the pro-choice indoctrination of society, most women don’t fully understand that they’re killing a baby. So while the abortion is deliberate, the killing of a person isn’t. To say to a woman who has had an abortion, “You murdered your baby,” implies a knowledge and understanding that in many cases she did not have.
On the other hand, I am hesitant to abandon the use of the term murder …. Why? Because every semantic advantage has been taken from the unborn children. Murder may not be the best term to ascribe to those doing the killing, but it is one of the few remaining words that tells us the truth about who the unborn are [Randy Alcorn, Is Rescuing Right? (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 239-240].
It is a subject the media ignores. Several years ago, as a World Series game was about to start, a tragic earthquake struck San Francisco killing sixty-six people. That story of death and destruction dominated the media for weeks. However, every hour, every day, 171 babies are killed by legal abortion in the United States. 30% of all babies conceived in this country are killed before they ever see the light of day. Unfortunately, there are no special reports, or outpouring of grief for these silent abortion victims?
We are told that legalized abortion is necessary to protect the mother from injustice. In truth, ninety-five percent of all abortions are for social reasons, not for rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother. Research from pro-abortion Planned Parenthood indicates people choose abortion because seventy-five percent feel a baby would interfere with their lifestyles; sixty-six percent could not afford a child; fifty percent did not want to be single parents or had problems in current relationship. Only four percent had health conditions that would be worsened; only one percent faced fetal abnormalities; and only one percent were victims of rape or incest.
Theologian Carl F. H. Henry, wrote in 1984:
[This] generation’s most horrendous injustice lies in its wanton destruction of prenatal human life, an action by which our society shows brazen disrespect for the dignity and worth of the human fetus. The deliberate medical extinction of a million [now more than two million] human fetuses a year exceeds the appalling evil of infanticide in pre-Christian paganism …. It is supremely ironic that a society that declares human rights in absolute priority should retract the right to life of fetal life it engenders…. The ready sacrifice of fetal life as a means of sexual gratification and of birth control is monstrous [Carl F. H. Henry, The Christian Mindset in a Secular Society (Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1984) 102-103].
Most people choose abortions because a baby would intrude on their personal space, freedom and choice. Randy Alcorn puts this in perspective:
Amniocentesis is opening the door to a society of designer babies. People will keep having abortions till they get just the right one. You want a boy? Throw out the girls. You want an athlete? Throw out the physically handicapped. This practice is quiet, but already common, and it won’t stop with gender or physique. You want a blonde one? Throw out the black-haired ones. You want blue eyes? Get rid of the brown-eyed.
Once you say strong human beings can take the life of weak human beings—which is exactly what legalized abortion has said—then where do you stop? The current euthanasia movement is simply applying to people before life’s end the identical rationale that justifies abortion after life’s beginning [Alcorn, 221-222].
In 1985 the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed that a feeding tube could be removed from an incompetent nursing home resident, allowing her to die of dehydration and starvation. The late Surgeon General C. Everett Koop responded, “Nothing surprises me anymore. I have been saying since 1973 that …the day will come when people will say, ‘Why are you upset about this? We’ve been doing it for years with babies.’ My great concern is that there will be 10,000 Grandma Does for every Baby Doe.”
If we decide it is inhuman to maintain medical treatment, we may then decide, according to Dr. Koop, that it is inhuman to let the patient die the way he is dying. Then we may choose to push the poor old folks off the edge because, we decide, they would be so much happier.
No one wants to have their life prolonged by artificial means. My grandson’s other grandfather died of cancer. He chose not to endure long treatments that would give him more miserable days. He received all the medical help they could give him, accepted medicine to lessen the pain, and died with dignity. He did not commit suicide or ask to have his life ended by mercy killing.
Euthanasia is murder when it rids us of the elderly useless, the genetically maimed, or others who may be a drag on society. The Nazi nightmare, under Hitler, began with the agreement that some lives were not worth preserving. That is exactly where we have arrived in America today!
In the movie, “Judgment at Nuremburg,” the condemned German judge (played by Bert Lancaster) says, “But we didn’t think it would go that far.” The American (Spencer Tracy) answers, “It went that far the very first time you condemned an innocent human being.”
We need a greater sensitivity to the sanctity of human life. We must make our ethical choices by the teachings of Scripture where it is clear, and pray for wisdom in those areas where valid questions can be raised.
Seventh Message in a Series on the Ten Commandments
