Word of Salvation – Vol. 48 No.16 – April 2003

 

You Shall Not Murder

 

Sermon by Rev M P Geluk

on Lord’s Day 40 (Q/A 105-107 Heid.Cat.)

Scripture Readings:  Genesis 9:1-6; Matthew 5:21-26; 1 John 3:11-18

Suggested Hymns:  BoW 118:1,2,3; 427; 378:5,6,7; 150

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When the Bible says we must not murder, then some people think it is saying that you must not kill. But the sixth commandment does not say, “You shall not kill”. It says, “You shall not murder.” When God’s law in the Old Testament demanded the death penalty for certain crimes, then it uses other words than ‘murder’. And when God killed all those evil people with the Flood, then the word for ‘murder’ is not used. And when God commanded the Israelites to take possession of the promised land and wipe out all the Canaanites living there because the wickedness of these people had increased to more than God could bear, then again the word for ‘murder’ is not used.

Therefore, people cannot look to this commandment that forbids murder in order to support their arguments against all kinds of war, or their view that capital punishment is wrong, not unless they want to accuse God of being a murderer. In the Bible murder is the wilful and premeditated taking of someone else’s life out of hate and contempt. That is what the sixth commandment forbids. Lawful or authorised killing is, according to the Bible, a different thing.

1. Murder is a terrible fact

It’s terrible because life is from God. He created life and He loves life. According to the Bible, all life is sacred. Also animal life, because it, too, is part of God’s creation. Before the Flood, God allowed man to take the life of animals for the purpose of a sacrifice. For that’s what Abel did and God approved of his sacrifice (Gen 4:4). After the Flood, God also added animals as food for people (Gen 9:3). But simply taking the life of animals for sport, or out of cruelty, is unnecessarily destroying life, and it is a sin against God who created life.

Some animals are a pest or harmful to man, and then culling becomes necessary in order to control numbers. But destroying wildlife that poses no harm to crops or people, thus killing animals just for the fun of it, is a sin against the Creator.

But to regard the life of animals as being of equal value to the lives of people is not biblical. It’s evolutionary thinking that has given some the idea that an animal is as precious as a human being. To God the life of man is of greater value because man was made in the image of God. The crown of God’s creation is man – male and female. Everything else that God created, like plants and animals, were made subject to man. God’s plan of salvation in Christ is aimed at man first of all and then the rest of the creation is redeemed for the sake of man. The saved will live on a new earth.

Therefore, the murder of another human being is a blow struck against God’s most precious possession. Murder is the wilful destruction of life that most resembles God Himself. The sixth commandment is very necessary in a world broken by sin. With this commandment God is protecting sinful human beings from each other’s wickedness.

When this commandment is obeyed, then people can live in peace and without fear of each other. God meant life in our imperfect world to be more than just trying to stay alive by avoiding human predators. He wants everyone to respect the lives of others.

We know the terribleness of murder when there has been another vindictive shooting at a school, terrorists murdering hostages, suicide bombers targeting civilians including women and children, the murder of witnesses who know too much, retribution murders in bikie gang wars, and the murder of police in the course of duty. Every day the news will report a vicious murder somewhere in our nation.

Sadly, the terribleness of all this is nothing new. The Bible itself gives us graphic accounts of murder. Cain murdered his brother Abel because he could not stand it that his brother’s actions were more righteous. Pharaoh murdered Hebrew baby boys in order to prevent Israel from becoming too numerous. King Saul ordered a brutal killer by the name of Doeg to slaughter the Lord’s priests, their wives and children, and the whole town of Nob, for no other reason than that they gave shelter to David and his men. Even King David resorted to murder in order to cover up his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. Queen Jezebel had Naboth murdered because he refused to sell his vineyard to her husband. King Herod murdered all the male children of Bethlehem and surrounding areas hoping the Christ-child would be amongst them.

Why is all that terrible and violent stuff in the Bible? Even if you never saw movies and television, nor read the papers, but had only a Bible, then from the Bible you would learn about the terribleness of murder. It will tell you that right through history people have been stabbed, bashed, strangled, shot, tortured, poisoned and shoved to their death by their fellow human beings. Why did God in His Word include all that awful stuff? Because it teaches us about the power of sin in the human heart so that we can see our need for God’s salvation in Christ. And it also shows us that God is just when He punishes sinners.

When God brings the punishment of death on evildoers, is He then guilty of breaking His own commandment about protecting life? Some people think so and decide that this is a good enough reason to no longer believe in God. But God the Lawgiver does not do things that He forbids His creatures from doing. God has always said, right from the beginning, that sin brings death. He cannot tolerate sin. He must and will punish sin. God is that holy. But God is also patient and forbearing so that repentance of sin might take place. God also gave us His Son to die for our sin, and when we believe in Jesus, then God saves us from His judgment. So there is God’s grace and mercy as well.

Does the sixth commandment forbid capital punishment? Many believe that the Bible’s teaching on love, forgiveness and restoration rules out the government administering the death penalty. But there is also the Bible’s clear teaching: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man” (Gen 9:6). That command was given shortly after the flood and before the human race began to multiply again. And a similar command is given in the New Testament when it says that the governing authority “…does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Rom 13:4).

Many things can be said about, for, and against capital punishment, but we at least should realise that when God commanded that the murderer’s life be taken, then we cannot speak of it as another murder. A just punishment and murder are two different things. We should also know that God allowed capital punishment, not because the murderer’s life is so cheap but because the victim’s life was so precious.

But deliberate abortion is murder. Medical science now knows beyond dispute that the embryo is new life from the moment of conception. It’s what God’s Word has always said. But somehow many people are fooled into thinking that it is a lesser crime when the child’s life is destroyed in the womb than if it were put to death some time after birth. No one would deny that pregnancies resulting from rape, unborn babies deformed or infected with the HIV virus and likely to develop AIDS, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood and extreme poverty, are all complex problems. But as difficult as all these may be, the deliberate dismembering or poisoning of an unborn child remains a murderous act.

That life has become cheap in modern society is also seen by the fact that the lives of the elderly and the incurably ill are threatened as well. Nowhere in the Bible has God given man the right to actively end the life of the aged and the terminally ill. But we now have the strange situation that in the same hospital where state-of-the-art medical equipment, new drugs and techniques, can save, sustain and support life more than ever before, but across the corridor, abortions and euthanasia are taking place. Yes, we may ask God to take home to heaven those of His saved children in Christ whose earthly life is beyond recovery and full of suffering. And there will be times that an informed decision has to be made whether or not to continue the life-support systems. But active euthanasia remains murder.

Suicide is also a sin because it is committing murder on your own life. For unbelievers it is terribly tragic because it means having cut oneself off forever from God’s grace and mercy in Christ. Even Christians have been known to commit suicide. No child of God in his right mind would end his life. But Christians also can experience severe depression and mental illness. Suicide is a sin for which believers can be forgiven. Of course, the person who has died by his own hand cannot ask for forgiveness any more. But the Christian has all his sins forgiven, past, present and future, when Christ made the believing sinner right with God, and nothing can undo that. No one can pluck those who belong to Christ out of God’s hand, not even the believer in deep despair. That does not mean that suicide is a light matter. The Lord wants His people to always trust Him and place their lives in His hand. Sadly, the believer thinking about suicide has taken his eyes off God.

One more form of murder that we mention is racism. This involves a lot more than people getting killed in murderous riots and wars by other people with different skin colour, different religions, or different cultures. The sin of racism occurs when one group of people consider themselves naturally superior to another group of people. We’re not talking about some people being smarter, or better educated, or handier than others, for that is part of life. We’re referring to people who think they are superior by nature. In the past it was even thought that God made some people superior to others. Attitudes of hate, contempt, and arrogance often cause the death of those considered inferior. It is murder. We’ve all seen it in the conflicts in Northern Ireland, Middle East and Indonesia. It happened in Australia between whites and aborigines.

The various forms of murder that we looked at remind us that our own age is as violent and brutal as those of history past. Many still regard human life as cheap. People still face many life-threatening dangers today from the moment of conception to old age. Parents might decide on abortion. If the infant survives that threat, then it still has to make it through childhood. Some parents in a fit of temper, or for other dark reasons, murder their children. There is the possibility getting murdered at school or in the neighbourhood. In adulthood the person has to survive drunken drivers on the road, thieves or drug addicts who may kill in order to get what they want. You best not walk alone at night in some suburbs. Then there’s always the risk of dying in some war. And if, after all that, you make it to a ripe old age, and society regards you as useless and a tax burden, then euthanasia could be a threat. All these threats to life are not from some primitive society far removed from us. They are part of our modern world. It’s today’s society. The sixth commandment in which God seeks to protect life is still needed as much as ever.

2. The roots of murder are inside the human heart

The real problem is not with murder itself or those other violent ways by which people die. The beginnings of all that are buried deep inside the human heart. We’re now talking about the roots of murder, and these are prejudice, hate, anger, jealousy, selfishness, desire for revenge, greed and things like that. These roots are lethal and vicious and unless they are dealt with, they can grow into the full-grown sin of actual murder. The Lord Jesus says that the sins of the heart can lead to all those various kinds of murder we mentioned before.

The roots of murder are in everybody’s heart. Also in you and me. For example, think of someone you don’t like very much. Maybe it’s someone at school, or work, or someone from your street; or maybe someone from your own family. Don’t be surprised at that. Most murders are domestic ones – one relative murdering another.

Now at what point exactly does our attitude towards someone else change from Christian toleration and love to “I don’t want to be near you anymore”? Was it perhaps when we started to think that the other was annoying, or stupid, or stuck up. Was it something they said? Maybe it was their strange beliefs? Maybe the way they looked, or their mannerisms? Whatever it was, it was not appreciated, and feelings of dislike and resentment came over us.

But unless held in check, such feelings don’t merely stay in the heart. They begin to come through in the way you deal with that other person. The annoyance is there in your voice, it’s begins to show on your face. You start to avoid that person. And if that’s not always possible, then you’re not very talkative to, or supportive of, or cooperative with the other person. If you have to talk to him or her, then you might be insulting and indifferent. You may even belittle the other person, or openly show that you just don’t like him or her.

What’s happening is that you no longer love your neighbour as yourself. It’s at that point, when we begin to hate our Christian brother or sister, that the Bible says we are murderers (1 John 3:15). Satan is having his way with us. The Bible tells of Cain’s dislike of his brother Abel. It grew into hate. Not wanting to fight those roots of murder, he eventually killed him. The Bible asks, “And why did he murder him?” It gives this answer, “Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous” (1 John 3:12).

There is no doubt that our dislike and hate of another is sometimes caused by nothing more than the realisation that the other person is more righteous. Seeing the other person doing the right thing makes us more aware of our own unrighteousness. We should then humble ourselves and repent. But we can also harden our hearts and think that we can’t stand that person.

What did the Lord Jesus have to say about all this? 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’.” The rabbis taught the people the law of God and told them that anyone who commits murder will face the judgment of the court. And that’s the way it should be. Our courts of law do the same. But Jesus went much further and said, “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.” And the Lord was referring to God’s judgment. Our law courts cannot see inside our hearts, but God can, and He will judge us for the sins of hateful anger we have in our hearts.

The rabbis also taught that if anyone calls another by the contemptuous name, ‘Raca’, then he is answerable to the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish court of law. Apparently to call someone ‘Raca’ was such an insult that it was regarded as an offence. By comparison, calling someone a fool was trivial. However, Jesus said, “But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Mt 5:21,22). Again, it shows that God warns us about the earliest begin-nings of sin in our hearts. It may seem harmless to call another a fool, but God sees it as a little seed that, if not checked, can easily grow into full-blown hate.

Don’t misunderstand this now. In Psalm 14 God says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’.” The word ‘fool’ in this Psalm is used very differently. A person is foolish if he denies the existence of God, and all Christians know why that is foolish. We can say someone is a fool when their actions cause hurt and grief. Some of these foolish ones are people we love. But it’s a different matter when, in moments of deep dislike, we call our brother or sister in a hateful way, “You fool!” Unless we are sorry about that and become reconciled, then God warns us that we are getting uncomfortably close to the fires of hell.

What we have heard, then, and what we have all known already, is that inside of us there is a killer and it’s us. What do we do about that?

3. The way to stop yourself from being a murderer is to love your neighbour

We all know this for we hear it so often, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” But how can we bring ourselves to love that person whom we can’t stand, who has acted wrongly, and who is the cause of strife and trouble? Well, we can’t wait for that person to change so that we can start liking him or her. They may not change. And if they were to change, then we have done nothing to bring about a change in our own heart.

It’s matter of obedience to God who commands us to love the neighbour. The Lord does not say that we are to love our neighbour when we feel like it. He says to us right now, while we are not inclined to be very nice and kind to that other person, ‘Love him, love her’.

Isn’t that the way God loved us? “While we were sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8), says the Scripture. While we were sinners! God did not begin to love us because we became kind and loving. No, whilst we were without love to Him and to our neighbour, He loved us. And how did God love us? He told us about Christ, He offered salvation, He showed the way to be at peace with Him through forgiveness and reconciliation.

And now God commands us to love the people we like to hate, those we sometimes wish deep in our hearts that they were gone. But how can anyone love that kind of neighbour? Is it easy to love the neighbour who is nice and friendly. It’s difficult to love those whom we murder with our nasty name-calling and bad attitudes.

Well, we need the Spirit of Christ in us. And God will give us His Spirit when we humbly ask Him. When we allow Christ to work His wonderful ways in us, then we begin to see the people we don’t like in a different way. They, too, are sinners, and how are they going to experience the love of God for them unless we show it to them?

God has given us a new life in Christ and we have received it by faith. God commands us that we pass on this new life by loving our neighbour. To obey this command is not difficult when we keep looking at what God has done for us in Christ. It’s when we only see the other person, without Christ in them, that we start hating again.

Amen.