The Sixth Commandment

Exodus 20:13
Ara Stephanian | Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Copyright © 2018, Ara Stephanian

There’s a great deal of confusion about this commandment in our day: a district attorney recently commented on a dog that was killed: “the defendant…is responsible for the death of a little, defenseless animal…this verdict sends a clear message that in [this city] there are consequences for harming our beloved pets.” At the same time, how many “little, defenseless” human beings are aborted in that city, and officials will not say a word against it. This is not a surprising outcome when people abandon the central truth that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, resulting in great moral confusion.

Thankfully we have God’s Word, and throughout it we see that God is the Lord of life and offers life to His people. We saw in the fifth commandment that He offers life and prosperity to those who honor their parents and authorities. Jesus himself is called the “Author of life” in Acts 3:15. Consider every human being exists because God breathed life into man (Gen 1:30). Consider His meticulous care in forming a child in his mother’s womb (Ps 139). Throughout Scripture we also see that God delights in life. It’s a measure of the seriousness of sin that death pervades it. It’s a measure of the greatness of salvation that—in Christ—death is swallowed up by life (2 Cor 5:4).

The underlying basis for this command is that people are made in the image of God. That image is the grounds for the first prohibition of bloodshed in Genesis 9:6, demonstrating the sanctity of life because the one who made it is holy. This is why murder is such an evil thing in God’s sight: it’s contempt toward God in the unauthorized destruction of a human life which bears his image. The sixth commandment basically says is that life and death are God’s business, and we have no right to take life without his authorization. Rather, we must respect life as an aspect of our reverence for God.

We’ll examine three points this evening: the scope of the sixth commandment, the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment, and the duties required in the sixth commandment.

The Scope of the Sixth Commandment

The sixth commandment addresses the state of the heart because all sinful behavior proceeds from the heart. Mark 7:20 – “from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,” and so on. John Frame: “If we want…to obey the commandments, we will seek God’s help, not only to avoid explicit, external sins, but also to avoid the attitudes of the heart that give rise to those sins.” Matthew 5:21-22 – “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement.” Jesus is concerned here with the root of the problem, the heart attitude; attitudes give rise to actions: For example, carrying a gun leads to murder only if the heart of the carrier is so disposed. A regenerate person will have a heart made right by God that will necessarily lead him to form habits that make sin difficult and encourage righteousness. In examining ourselves in view of this commandment, we have to address our heart-motives rather than reducing it to a manageable set of external rules.

We also have to consider the comprehensiveness of the commandment. Like a coin having two sides, we are to consider the positives and the negatives to appreciate the fullness of this command. The Pharisees treated God’s law narrowly by ignoring the positive imperatives that naturally follow from the negatives. Implicit in the command, “do not murder” is the mandate to do good to our neighbor—which, incidentally, is explicit in other passages of Scripture. The Pharisees didn’t just ignore the positive admonitions, they also minimized the negative prohibitions. For example, the apostle Paul, in reflecting on his life as a Pharisee, when he was arguing against putting confidence in the flesh, said that as for legalistic righteousness, he was faultless (Php 3:6). But Acts 9:1 tells us that he was breathing out “murderous threats” against the Lord’s disciples…while he was a Pharisee. So while in the Pharisaical view he would have considered himself faultless because he himself didn’t commit cold-blooded murder, according to the comprehensiveness of this command, as Christ brought to light, he was most certainly not faultless (and, of course, he later understood that).

Sins Forbidden in the Sixth Commandment

To summarize the Westminster Larger Catechism, the sixth commandment prohibits: all unjust taking away the life of ourselves or others, and whatever tends to the unjust taking of the life of ourselves or others. You can imagine how much more expansive such a list can become than just the literal crime of committing murder. Let’s break these up into progressive categories of thought, word, and deed.

Thoughts

As we saw, sin starts in our hearts and minds…and progresses toward evil speech and evil acts. Consider the following destructive thoughts.

Hatred, jealousy, or envy toward someone who hasn’t sinned against you. It didn’t take long before this sin reared its ugly head in Scripture.  We’re explicitly told of this only 1 generation from Adam. Cain hated his brother Abel because Abel’s actions were righteous while his own actions were evil. And there arose intense jealousy and hatred in his heart, which fueled his anger and drove him to eventually murder his brother. 1 John 3:15 says that “anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” Apply this to yourself: Do you get jealous at other people’s successes? If you harbor jealousy or hatred toward someone in your unexposed thoughts, and you conceal it rather than confess and forsake it, John says you are a murderer and do not have eternal life.

Another form of destructive thought is bitterness, or an unforgiving spirit toward someone who has sinned against you. Bitterness and an unforgiving spirit are at the root of destroying relationships. Recall Jacob and Esau in Genesis 27: even though Jacob acted deceitfully against his brother, Esau should not have held a grudge and let it fester to the point of being determined to kill Jacob. You may not be looking to shed blood, but are you nursing a grudge toward someone who wronged you? Because if you don’t forgive others, you yourself will not be forgiven by God. If we’re not right with one another, God will not accept any pretentious form of worship we think we’re offering.

If left unchecked, this bitterness can escalate to desire for revenge, as we saw in the case of Esau. But we are not to “take revenge, my friends,” as Paul tells us in Romans 12:19, “but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Notice there’s no qualifier there; it’s regardless of whether you think you have good reason to take revenge. God appoints the family, church, and state to execute punishment on his behalf, but he forbids individuals to carry out vengeance based on their own sinful desires.

Also within the “thought” category are destructive thoughts towards ourselves, such as a self-loathing/self-pitying attitude is in violation of the sixth commandment. God has called us to the contrary in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Before we move on to destructive words and deeds, stop for a moment and consider: it’s easiest for us to break this commandment in a latent manner at the thought level, in a way that’s not easy for others to detect. Pastor Mathew wrote in The Wisdom of Jesus: “No human court can convict us of murder if we are guilty of evil attitudes, thoughts, or words—but God will.” We can guard against this by being transparent with each other, and especially with those delegated authorities that God has specifically put over you, such as your parents, your teachers, your leaders, and your pastor. Hebrews 4:13 says: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” It’s far better to resolve our problems now and bear the miniscule shame that goes along with it, than to hear Christ the Judge say on that day, “away from me you evildoer, I never knew you.”

Words

Destructive words toward others this includes slander, gossip, quarreling…anything not spoken in love, and anything not spoken in sincerity and truth for the building up of a neighbor. Matthew 5:22 says, “Anyone who says ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” When we engage in contemptuous speech, we bring harm to our neighbor’s reputation, and Christ equates that to a form of murder punishable by God most severely. Proverbs 12:18 says: “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

There’s another particular kind of destructive word that’s common, especially among siblings: you verbally aggravate your sibling to anger, and just when you get them to the tipping point, you walk away with your hands in the air as if you’re innocent, and they receive the blame. You should resist the temptation to do that in accordance with this command.

In Scripture we also see examples of people who use self-destructive words. One example is Jonah, who complained about God’s compassion on the Ninevites and declared “it is better for me to die than to live.” Later God provided a vine to shade him in the heat, and when he took it away Jonah said: “I am angry enough to die!” But he had no right to be angry, and we have no right to think or speak in this self-defeating way because it shows contempt toward God’s providence in our lives.

Deeds

You’ve committed murder in your heart and mind, you’ve verbalized it with evil speech, and next comes physical aggression. This includes pushing, shoving, fighting, and so on, or perhaps a temper while you’re driving that turns into road rage. But whatever form it might take, it’s an attempt at taking vengeance into your own hands, and God is not pleased. Not only is He not pleased, but He is against you. 1 Peter 3:12 says “the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” We see this physical aggression with Saul against David. In 1 Samuel 18, an “evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul…he had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying ‘I’ll pin David to the wall.’” Remember where this began? It stemmed from the women’s refrain after the battle with Goliath and the Philistines, that “Saul had slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” Ever since then Saul kept a jealous eye on David; he was harboring those destructive thoughts until they bore the bitter fruit of aggression. We see how viciously a destructive thought can escalate to physical aggression, and we see the snowball effect of this sin overtaking someone as it did King Saul, and we must be on guard against it.

Next there are destructive deeds of “unlawful killing.” This is a broad category. It’s generally what we think of first when we read “you shall not murder.” But I want to point out that not all killing is breaking the sixth commandment. The KJV reads: “Thou shalt not kill,” which has led to misunderstanding. The NIV, ESV, and interestingly the NKJV translate it “murder.” The Hebrew word used is ‘ratsakh’ and refers to killing that is unlawful. Scripture never uses ‘ratsakh’ for the killing of animals or for killing in sanctioned war. That would suggest the better translation is “murder,” not the more general “kill.” When we talk about unlawful killing, we’re speaking, ultimately, in terms of being unlawful according to God’s perfect law, not man’s imperfect law.

These are complex subjects, and this is not a course on criminal law (nor am I a qualified attorney). If you are interested in digging deeper into this, John Frame has a good and thorough treatment in his book, Doctrine of the Christian Life. In brief, there’s first and second degree murder, there’s voluntary and involuntary manslaughter, and so on, and Scripture does distinguish between some of these various types of murder. For example, recall the cities of refuge in Numbers 35, where someone guilty of unintentional manslaughter fled as a protective provision.

But by far the most prevalent form of unlawful killing in this country today is abortion. To compare, the estimated number of homicides in the US in 2016 was 17,250, while the estimated number of abortions was 893,000. That’s over 5000 percent more abortions. Over 60.6 million babies have been killed in the US alone since Roe v Wade in 1973, over 1.5 billion worldwide since 1980. Theological liberals try to justify abortion by arguing that Scripture doesn’t mention it explicitly, but the clear fact is that multitudes of passages speak about the existential value of unborn children. Exodus 21:22-25 gives a special safeguard to pregnant women and their unborn children. Psalm 139:13-16 emphasizes the personhood and the value of an unborn child. David refers to his unborn life as fully personal: he designates the fetus with first person pronouns. It was he, David, whom God formed in the womb. Furthermore, God cares about the needy, the weak, and the helpless, and unborn babies are arguably the neediest, weakest, most helpless people. They have no physical, political, or economic strength to plead their own cause. They are under vicious attack by the dominant forces of society. But most terrible is that these children are under attack, of all people, by their own mothers, who should be the child’s primary defenders.

Then there is euthanasia, the practice of intentionally killing life to relieve pain and suffering; also referred to as mercy killing and assisted-suicide. But God’s command “you shall not murder” applies to all types people, suffering people included. We must not refuse ordinary care to someone simply because he or she is disabled or suffering or because we’re tired of taking care of them all the time.

There are also destructive deeds that pertain to destroying ourselves. First there is immoderate use of food and drink. It’s enough that the Bible explicitly speaks of gluttony and drunkenness as sinful, but it’s also true that too much of these is clearly shown to have a harmful effect on our bodies, so this certainly falls under the negative prohibitions of the sixth commandment.

There is also immoderate use of labor and rest. Work, sleep, and recreation are all necessary to human life. Without them we cannot have a healthy, functional body and mind. But they must be kept in proper balance, and subordinated to the chief end of man, which is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Apply to your own life what I call the “too much, too little” test, I’ll give just two quick examples. The first is food. Am I eating too little food, or maybe not enough healthy food? That’s detrimental to your physical health. Am I eating too much food, or maybe too much junk food? That’s overindulgence, and also detrimental to your physical health. Paul says about enemies of the cross in Philippians 3:19, their god is their stomach, and that is not how we want to be classified. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” The second is sleep. Am I sleeping too much? Am I sleeping too little? Scientific research has shown that both extremes are very detrimental to our health, including increased risk for heart disease and a whole host of other medical problems, not to mention the adverse effects on people around us. Psalm 127:2 says, “[God] grants sleep to those he loves.”

Another immoderate use example is medicine and drugs. The National Institute on Drug Abuse recently declared overdosing on opioids a “serious national crisis,” affecting more than 2 million people who suffer from substance use disorders related to prescription opioids, and it’s also a huge socioeconomic burden costing over $75 billion per year. On the other hand, there’s also an error in some church circles who claim that those who use medicine are not really trusting in the power and goodness of God’s providence. While we can all be challenged by first going to God in prayer rather than rushing immediately to our medicine cabinets, and while we understand that suffering has its crucial role for our spiritual and eternal benefit, God, in His providence, has given us the ability to discover and apply the means by which human suffering can be alleviated. Recall how the prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20 to apply a poultice of figs.

Then there’s the ultimate in destructive deeds towards oneself, which is suicide. Suicide is a violation of the sixth commandment because Scripture makes no exception for self-murder. Murder is wrong because it destroys the image of God without biblical warrant, and suicide does the same thing and is wrong for the same reason. Certainly, people who contemplate suicide are in special need of the compassion of the body of Christ, and we should point such people to Christ. But as it pertains to ourselves, the high-level truth we need to remember is that God has given us our bodies and our very lives for HIS glory, and we need to be good stewards of what He has entrusted to us.

Duties Required in the Sixth Commandment

The sixth commandment requires us not only to abstain from negative prohibitions pertaining to murder, but also positively to take precautions against the loss of life, to respect life, and to preserve life. Let’s again view this in progressive categories of thought, word, and deed.

Thoughts and Attitudes

First, the sixth commandment requires life-promoting thoughts and attitudes

Humility

A humble attitude will guard our hearts from breaking the sixth commandment. If “in humility, [you truly] consider others better than yourself,” you will not only safeguard against all forms of murder, but you’ll also placate the wrongful anger of others. See the example of Saul and David. Even though Saul never truly repented in the long run, David’s humble attitude to not lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed did have the effect of pacifying Saul’s anger, albeit for a time. But David knew God would deal with Saul, that it is God’s to avenge. It is ours to be humble!

Cheerfulness

Why does the sixth commandment require us to be cheerful? Because the opposite—gloom and depression—adds to the wear and tear of our mind, body, and soul. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” What’s the general tenor of your life: are you constantly depressed? How do you respond when you don’t get what you want? Johannes Vos wrote, “It’s [our] duty [as Christians] to face life serenely and cheerfully, in spite of disappointments, sufferings, and hardships, in order to glorify God in [our] body and spirit, which are God’s property and are consecrated to God’s service.”

Patience

To be impatient or rebellious against God’s providence is self-destructive. Patient submission to the will of God is necessary for our ultimate welfare. By faith, look up to God, and bear patiently! Perhaps you’ve been wronged by a classmate or a sibling…perhaps they’ve aggravated you. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:26: “In your anger, do not sin: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” By faith, put on the attitude of patience, and know that in every situation God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Peacefulness

The opposite of a peaceful spirit is a spirit of dissension, which destroys the unity of the Spirit. But we are called to “seek peace and pursue it” (See Pastor Mathew’s sermon on 1 Pt 3:8-12, Living the Good Life). Psalm 133 tells us “how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” But in our own strength we will surely fail. Saul attempted to control himself for a time, but his failure was that he never submitted to God, and if we don’t submit to God, our efforts will also end in futility like his. We need the Holy Spirit to grant us attitudes of humility, cheerfulness, patience, and peacefulness.

Words

The sixth commandment positively requires words that build up. Ephesians 4:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” What’s coming out of your mouth? Are you building others up in your speech, or tearing others down? And I’m not just talking about what you say directly to someone, but what are you saying behind people’s backs? We may not hear, but God hears. Not only are we forbidden to kill our brother’s reputation thru gossip and slander, we’re also obligated to build up his name and reputation through our words.

Deeds

The sixth commandment requires us to respect and protect the life of ourselves and others by our deeds, so let’s consider a few. Firstly, as mentioned earlier with respect to our own bodies, which are not our own, we need to maintain moderate use of food and drink, labor and rest, again, keeping in mind that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, to do it all for the glory of God.

Second, we must exercise forbearance, forgiveness, and a readiness to be reconciled. Matthew 5:23-25 says, “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. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.”

We need forgiveness of sins to escape eternal death and possess eternal life, so in a real sense, we can say that forgiveness is the antithesis of murder. The Christian has himself been forgiven his infinite sin and reconciled to God; therefore, he should be most willing, and eager, to be reconciled to his neighbor as much as it depends on him. Get rid of the ‘I don’t get mad, I get even!’ mentality. Remember this: We don’t want God to get even with us because He would be perfectly just to condemn each and every one of us to eternal hell because we have all sinned and fallen short of his glory. No, what we need is mercy and forgiveness. We should extend the same to others, just as in Christ God forgave us.

Keep short accounts with each other; much better to settle matters quickly. Scripture requires that both the person charged with an offense and the one offended should seek one another out. Neither should wait, thinking that the other should come first! Even when you’re not the wrongdoer, humble yourself under God’s might hand; exercise love thru forgiveness, cover over a multitude of sins.

Third, we must care for the needy. This includes those who are in distress, the sick and the injured, the poor, and the helpless. See the example of the Good Samaritan, who of all people went out of his way to help the needy man who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead. God cares about those for whom the world does not, and he calls us as his people to be his agents.

But in a real sense, all people are poor and needy, and the most needful thing is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. A merely social gospel will not suffice because it’s really no gospel at all if it will not preach the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, and the salvation through faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone. Our primary duty toward caring for the needy and preserving their lives—in the ultimate sense—is to speak the Gospel to them in love and pray for their salvation.

And fourth, we have the duty to protect human life against violence. First, understand that it’s primarily the government’s duty to protect its people against unjust violence. Romans 13:1-6 teaches us that the authorities that exist have been established by God, and they have the God-given right to bear the sword. This includes, for example, sanctioned war, not that every war is legitimate, but under certain circumstances, it’s not inconsistent with Christian duty to support it. And it also includes capital punishment: it’s unbiblical to claim that God opposes capital punishment in all instances, though many incorrectly use the sixth commandment as the primary argument for that claim. The prevailing opinion today is that the death penalty is a primitive Old Testament law done away with, and now we operate on the basis of love and mercy, so a more “civilized” society can substitute some other penalty for it. But if the death penalty for murder is a divine command based on the perfect law of God—and it is—it would be presumptuous of us to think that we could institute a higher standard. Christians should never rejoice when the death penalty is employed, but at the same time, we should not fight against the government’s God-given right to bear the sword against perpetrators of the most wicked of crimes.

It’s also every individual’s duty to defend himself and others against the violence of lawbreakers. As stewards of the body God has given us, we have not only the right, but the duty to preserve our own lives and the lives of others from destruction by criminal violence insofar as we are able. For this reason, we ought to be very thankful for and respect the law enforcement officers and armed forces who daily fight for our safety and freedom.

Conclusion

The application of the commandment “you shall not murder,” just like all the others, is so vast and deep, and the judgement of breaking it is likewise so vast and deep. If you find yourself regularly failing to keep this command, not just outwardly, but harboring hatred in your heart, then I exhort you, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

For God’s people, by the power of the author of life, we are made able to obey the comprehensive command to not murder, in thought, word, or deed, but to do the opposite—to “love one another deeply, from the heart.” “For you have been born again not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” May God help us, to love not merely with words, but with actions and in truth. Just as Jesus Christ loved us and laid down his life for us, that we might have life and have it to the full.