Introduction

 

Let me begin with the heart-warming story of Dan Harrison … who in 1986 was on safari in Kenya, where he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Dan approached it very carefully … and noticed a large piece of wood embedded in the elephant’s foot.  So as gently as he could, Dan worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.  When it realised the pain was gone … the elephant then turned to face Dan, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments … before trumpeting loudly … then walking away.

Well twenty years later, Dan was walking through the Chicago Zoo … when he came to the elephant enclosure.  And as he was standing there … one of the elephants walked over to where Dan was.  And this large bull elephant lifts its front foot off the ground … then puts it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at Dan.  Remembering the encounter in 1986, Dan couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant.  So he looks around … then climbs over the railing and makes his way into the enclosure … where he walks up to the elephant and just stares back in wonder.  The elephant then wrapped its trunk around one of Dans legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.  Probably wasn't the same elephant.

Well I tell that joke because we’re looking at the 10 Commandments this term … and today we’re looking at Commandment number 6: ‘Thou shall not murder’.  And on the surface … this commandment seems simple enough … right?  Don’t kill people?  But when we scratch beneath that surface … we realise Commandment number 6 is probably the most complicated of all of the 10 Commandments.  Like … where does killing in war fit in … or capital punishment?  What about euthanasia … or abortion?  And what about suicide?  Now if THAT’S not complicated enough … the Sermon on the Mount muddies the waters even more by saying that ‘if anyone is ANGRY with a brother or sister’, they will be subject to the same judgment as murderers.

So what do we do with Commandment number 6?  In particular … what do we do with it when God himself COMMANDS people in the Bible to kill … such as the Conquest of Canaan in the book of Joshua … or Saul being told to wipe out the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15?  So how is taking a human life considered OBEDIENCE in some circumstances … but murder in others.  Well … that’s what we’re here to try and unpack over the next 25 minutes or so.

And TODAY I’ve got … you guessed it … 3 points to help us do this … as your sermon outline shows.  So we’re going to begin by looking at (i) The REASON for Commandment 6 … that’s point number 1 … which has to do with humans being made in the image of God.  We’re then going to try and apply the REASON for Commandment 6 to our lives … which I’ve titled (ii) The MECHANICS of Commandment 6.  We’ll then conclude by turning to the NT … where Jesus outlines for us (iii) The intention BEHIND Commandment 6.  And this is where the rubber really hits the road for this topic … because the intention behind Commandment number 6 is to build the kind of society we ALL want to live in.

Now because this topic is so complicated … I won’t be able to cover everything in detail in just 25 minutes.  So we’ll have a question time at the end … where you can ask about anything I may not have haven’t covered well enough in the sermon.  But until then … I pray you can stick with me … as we dive into (i) The reason FOR, (ii) The mechanics OF, and (iii) The intention BEHIND this most complicated of commandments: ‘thou shall not murder’.

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The reason for Commandment 6 (Gen 9:-12)

 

And we begin our study today in Genesis chapter 9 … which comes straight after the world-wide flood that wiped out everything that wasn’t on Noah’s ark.  Now put yourself in Noah’s shoes for a moment.  He’s just experienced first-hand how powerful and destructive creation can be … where he and his family were tossed back and forth on the high seas for over 9 months.  So Noah is probably feeling pretty insignificant at this point … when compared to the enormous canvas that is God’s powerful creation.

Well it’s at this point that God comes to Noah … like a gentle pastor … and reminds Noah and his family that they’re NOT insignificant.  Even though humans are tiny in comparison to the high seas … not to mention the universe … humans are nonetheless PRECIOUS in God’s eyes.  In fact … they’re the most precious thing in all of creation.  Take a look:

Genesis 9:5-6 (NIV) […] for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. 6 “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.

So God says if an ANIMAL … acting on instinct … like that elephant from my opening joke … kills a human … God is going to hold that animal to account.  Now what does THAT mean?  Well the answer is … we don’t know.  We’re not told HOW God will hold animals to account if they kill a human.  The POINT is … if God is going to hold ANIMALS to account … who don’t know what they’re doing … how much more will he hold HUMANS to account … who DO know what they’re doing?  And what he's holding them to account for … is taking a human life.  Why?  Because human life is sacred.

Now …  this is not to say that plants and animals are not also sacred.  Genesis 2 tells us God put humans on this planet to ‘take CARE of creation’ … not exploit it.  So we can’t just do whatever we want with the environment.  But according to Genesis 9 … human life is sacred in a way that is different to everything else in creation.  And the reason given for this is … humans are made in God’s image … v. 6.  So what does THIS mean?

Well … an image is something that reflects something else … isn’t it?  Like if you look at a photo of yourself … you’re not actually looking at yourself.  You’re looking at your image.  So being made in God’s image means WE reflect something of God.  Now if I were to stand up here with a photo of your face … and then proceed to rip it up … in front of you … I would be making a statement of some description … right?    And it wouldn’t be a GOOD statement.  In the same way … God is saying when we kill GOD’S image … we’re doing something deeply heinous.

And we see just how heinous it is when God outlines how much a human life is worth.  Notice God DOESN’T say ‘if you murder someone … you have to pay a million-dollar fine’ … or ‘go to jail for 30 years’.  If he DID say that … then he’d be saying a human life is worth $1M … or 30 years jail.  Instead … God says a human life is so precious … so valuable … that you cannot pay for it in any other currency other than another human life.  ‘Whoever sheds human blood’ … that’s a euphemism for taking a life … ‘by humans shall THEIR blood be shed’.

But in saying this … it just got a little more complicated.  Because in the exact same breath that God says ‘DON’T take a human life’ … he commands people to take a human life; ‘by humans shall THEIR blood be shed’.  So what’s going on HERE?

Well … this verse is best understood when we realise we don’t own our own lives.  You see as our creator … God owns us.  Like if you were to make something in your back shed … like a table … you OWN that table … don’t you?  And AS the owner … you can do whatever you like with it.  You can use it in your house … or sell it … or chop it up for firewood.  But it’s YOUR prerogative what you do with that table … because it belongs to you.  In the same way … even though God says taking a human life means destroying His image … he ALSO says there are some situations that WARRANT taking a life.  THAT’S why Commandment number 6 is not ‘thou shall not kill’.  It’s ‘thou shall not murder’.  And GIVEN God is the owner of his image bearers … he gets to say how they are to be treated.

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The mechanics of Commandment 6

 

So the NEXT obvious question is … how do we determine when taking a life is forbidden and when it is allowed?  Well what I want to do NOW … is look at the mechanics of how to apply this commandment.  And I’m going to do this by looking at 2 areas where killing IS allowed by the Bible … and 2 areas where killing is considered murder.  And the first comes from our Genesis 9 passage … which is talking about capital punishment.

Genesis 9:6 (NIV) “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed …”

Now capital punishment is highly debated within the church.  So the FIRST thing I would say is … we cannot argue that the Bible is against capital punishment … when it clearly allows for capital punishment.  Not only does the OT Law CALL for capital punishment in certain situations … the NT ALSO allows it.  The Apostle Paul says this in:

Romans 13:4 (NIV) for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason

Most commentators say that’s an allusion to capital punishment.  So what are we to make of this?  Well … it’s important to realise that the OT Law was given to a society that had no prison system.  So think of it this way.  Imagine you’re stranded on a desert island … with say 20 other people.  Then imagine and one of those people starts sexually assaulting all the women … then killing any man who tries to stop him.  Like what do you DO in that situation?  There’s no police, no court system and no jail on a desert island.  The only way to stop that violent criminal … is to put him to death … then and there.  And THAT’S what the OT law is getting at.  Some people are going to sin … heinously.  And God has put the role of administering justice into the hands of humans.  And in a society with no prison system … stopping serious evil may require capital punishment.

HOWEVER … in highly developed societies such as ours … there are ways to ‘purge the evil from among you’ … as the Torah puts it … without putting violent criminals to death.  And that is to lock them up.  So EVEN though the Bible doesn’t rule out capital punishment … I think developed societies should look for more humane ways to deal with their criminals.

The SECOND area I want to look at is in regards to war.  Now as I pray we all know … war is the most horrific thing on the planet.  So we should do everything we can to avoid it.  HOWEVER … like I said … God has put the job of administering justice into the hands of humans.  And when evil is perpetrated on a national scale … you need international justice.

And this is why God commanded the Canaanites and the Amalekites to be wiped out.  Their evil had reached such a scale … that it could only be stopped by another nation bringing them to justice.  So according to the Bible … while war is horrific … there are circumstances in which it is warranted … so long as it is fought for just reasons … and in a just way.

So they’re the 2 main ways in which God says it is OK to destroy an image bearer of God.  Let’s now turn to 2 ways in which it is NOT OK.  And the first is abortion?  Now … the pro-choice camp rightly points out that if a woman has an unwanted pregnancy … whether that’s an unplanned pregnancy or a baby with serious birth defects … having that baby will be significantly detrimental to the mother’s life.  Furthermore … it’s often NOT as detrimental to the father’s life.  So there’s an inequality inherent in unwanted pregnancies as well as long-term hardships.

Those in the pro-life camp ALSO rightly point out that killing an unborn baby is murder.  OK … the moment a human sperm enters a human egg … a 100% repeatable process begins … with statistically negligible exceptions.  The outside of the egg freezes … to stop any more sperm entering … and that single cell starts to multiply into 2 cells … then 4, 8, 16, 32 and so forth.  And that process … according to scientific definition … constitutes life.  If an organism is multiplying and growing … that’s a ‘life’.  And that life has its own unique human DNA.  It’s NOT some cancerous parasite … as some claim … that can simply be cut out of the body like a tumour.  It’s a human life.  And as such … it is an image bearer of God … even though it doesn’t LOOK like a human yet.  What this means is … God strictly forbids abortion … even if it means the mother will have an easier life.  OK … the emotional or economic wellbeing of a mother does not outweigh the life of that unborn child.

Now having said that … let me make 2 important comments.  The first is that IF the mother’s LIFE is at risk … such as ectopic pregnancies … where the baby is embedded in the fallopian tube … Commandment number 6 says killing that baby is NOT murder.  That baby has become … unbeknownst to it … an aggressor on the mother’s life.  And if an abortion is not performed … both the mother and the baby will die.

SECOND … IF you know someone who has had an abortion … or is thinking of having an abortion … we are to STILL love and support that person … even though they’re doing the wrong thing.  OK … Christians should have a reputation for loving those who do the wrong thing.  But even more … Christians should have a reputation for giving LONG-TERM support to mothers who go through with unwanted pregnancies.  But with the exception of those rare cases … abortion is wrong … according to Commandment number 6.

Fourthly … comes suicide.  Now again … this topic needs its own sermon.  So please feel free to come back at me in question time.  But let me say 3 quick things.

Firstly … even though suicide is taking your OWN life … that life still belongs to God.  So even though a person may be suffering greatly … whether that be emotionally … or physically through a terminal illness … Commandment number 6 says we don’t get to take the decision as to when we die … out of God’s hands.

Second … although suicide is a sin … it does not exclude someone from heaven.  The Roman Catholic church teaches that suicide victims go straight to Hell … because they’re not able to atone for their mortal sin.  Romans 8:1 says that is rubbish.  There is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ.

And thirdly … if you find yourself entertaining suicidal thoughts … please talk to someone.  Whether that someone be a counsellor … a minister or a friend … please don’t suffer alone.  Reach out to someone … today.

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The intention behind Commandment 6 (Matt 5:21-26)

 

But that’s the HOW of following Commandment number 6.  I want to CLOSE by turning to the NT … where Jesus gives his followers the intention BEHIND this Commandment.  So … if you’ve got Matthew 5 there … in the Sermon on the Mount … Jesus says this:

Matthew 5:21-22 (NIV) “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, e and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister, will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Now we’re not sure what ‘Raca’ means.  But scholars suggest it’s the kind of insult you might give someone behind their back.  So what is Jesus getting at here?  He’s saying … there’s more than one way to destroy an image bearer of God.  OK … we can destroy someone physically … by sticking a knife into their heart.  But we can also destroy someone emotionally … by calling them a ‘fool’.  In the Greek it’s the word ‘moron’.  Or we can destroy a person’s reputation … by slandering them behind their back.  So what Jesus is teaching us is … Commandment number 6 is not just about making someone dead … it's about how we treat people when they’re alive too.  And what Jesus wants … is for us to build people up … rather than destroy them.  Let me say that again … because this is the intention behind this whole Commandment.  What Jesus wants … is for us to build people up … rather than destroy them.  I mean can you imagine a community that did this?  Can you imagine a community in which no one grumbled about one another … or insulted one another.  Instead … they did what they could to build other people up.

So how do we apply this?  It’s by realising we’re accountable for ANYONE who comes into our life.  What I mean by ‘accountable’ is … they belong to GOD … so we have to treat them the way God wants them to be treated.  Think about it this way.  If someone gave you $10,000 as a gift … because they like you … then you can do whatever you WANT with that $10,000 … right?  It’s YOUR money.  But if you’re a financial planner … and someone gives you $10,000 to invest for them … then you CAN’T do whatever you want with it … because it doesn’t belong to you.  Since it doesn’t belong to you … you’re accountable for that money.

In the same way … Jesus is saying God will hold us to account for every human that comes into our life.  OK … my wife Deb does not belong to me.  She belongs to God.  As do my kids.  So I’m accountable to God for them … as I am for ANY person who comes into my life.  So … we need to be meticulously careful with ANYONE God brings into our life.  OK … ANYTHING that might cause harm … and that ranges from hurt feelings up to ending a person’s life … must be avoided at all costs.

So for example … don’t drink and drive … or text and drive.  OK … ANYTHING that diminishes your control over that 1,000 kg projectile … is putting the life of image bearers at risk.  Be OVERLY careful with the lives of others.

But ALSO be overly careful with the feelings of others.  ANYONE who comes into our life ought to feel honoured and valued by us.  Treating people with indifference … or coldness … is breaking Commandment number 6 just as much as running them over is.

Now this is hard.  It means being overly nice to people who might be overly nasty to us.  Yet that’s what Jesus did for US … is it not?  Romans 5 says while we were God’s ENEMIES … Christ died for us.  OK … Jesus had to be meticulously careful he didn’t SIN while on earth … so that his death could save us.  If Jesus had sinned … just once … his death would have to have paid for HIS sin.  As it is … his carefulness means we are now honoured and valued by God … and will one day enjoy eternal life.  So if God treats us with that level of meticulous care … I pray we can show that same meticulous care to our fellow image bearers.

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Conclusion

 

So … ‘thou shall not murder’ … either physically or otherwise.  Rather … thou shall treat others with meticulous care … in our thoughts, words and deeds.

Genesis 9:6 (NIV) […] for in the image of God has God made mankind.