Guardrails - Do Not Murder
No Other Gods.
Do Not Have Idols
Do not misuse God’s name.
Rest on the Sabbath.
Honor your Father and Mother.
Do not Murder.
Do not Commit Adultery.
Do Not Steal.
Do Not Lie.
Do Not Covet.
Today, we look at the sixth commandment, “Do not Murder.”
I think we would all agree. If you break this commandment, your life will crash and spin out of control! Traditionally, this commandment has been understood as “Thou shalt not kill.” But the first thing we need to understand is that:
DO NOT MURDER DOES NOT MEAN DO NOT KILL
Suppose we understand that this commandment means that Killing other people is a sin. In that case, we immediately run into problems because God demands the death penalty and instructs the Israelites to go to war against other nations.
People are always killed in war, so what does this commandment mean?
In the original Hebrew language, murder involves personal motive and intent. God is not sinning against his command. God is saying, “If you have a problem with somebody, do not take their life!”
My wife was explaining the 10 Commandments to her Kindergarten class. After discussing what it means to Honor your Father and Mother, she asked, “Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?”
One of the kids answered, “Thou shalt not murder.”
When I would get into a fight in elementary school or middle school, the first thing I would say was, “I am going to kill you!”. I never meant it. I wasn’t really going to kill them. It was an expression to strike fear into their mind to give my scrawny, Steve Urkel body the upper hand. So, of all the commandments, I have not broken this one. Yet, even if I had, God is a forgiving and redeeming God.
The New Testament describes a man who often ordered the death and persecution of followers of Jesus – yet his life was changed, and he became a follower of Jesus. His name was Saul. After he became a follower of Jesus, it was changed to Paul, and Paul wrote most of the letters in the New Testament. God can change anybody and give them hope and a purpose. Why is it important to God that we do not murder anyone? Every person who is born is going to die. Some may die of cancer and disease; some may die of old age. Some may die tragically, and some babies will never be born but will die in miscarriage.
So why are our lives so valuable to God that we do not murder people?
GOD’S GREATEST CREATION IS THE HUMAN BODY. IS IT YOURS?
It may not be politically correct to make this statement, but here it is:
Human beings are the very BEST of God's creations. The human being is the BEST God could create!
Genesis 1:26-28 (NLT2)
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
God created human beings in His image to be like Him. Nothing else in all of creation was designed in his image. Nothing. We stare into the galaxies and marvel at the pictures received from NASAS Telescopes that reveal striking images of comets, stars, planets, and other Galaxies…
Yet – there is nothing as awe-inspiring as you. God created you and every other person in his image. So, the next time you want to be amazed, look deeply into the eyes of your spouse, child, or yourself in a mirror.
Ephesians 2:10 (NLT2)
For we are God’s masterpiece…
The beauty of nature, the ocean depths, and the deepest parts of the galaxy pale in comparison to the majestic beauty of people. The person beside you is a masterpiece. Wouldn’t it be amazing if, like visitors to the Grand Canyon, we lined up outside one another’s house and stared, applauded, and snapped pictures appreciating one another…oh…that sounds a little like stalking…But you get the point.
We ought to stand in AWE and WONDER at the beauty of one another. It is not only because of our bodies, brain, and soul's complexity–but because God has stamped HUMANS with His image! God’s most incredible creation is the Human Body – but is it yours?
Do you value human life the way God values human life?
I remember the first time Kristy and I had a 3-D Ultrasound of our firstborn, Sofie. We could see her face, her eyes, her mouth. We could see her heartbeat. Looking at the ultrasound video reminded me that we were catching a peek at what God saw with every person who has ever been born.
Psalm 139:15-16 (NLT2)
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
God values life so much that every human being is stamped with the image of God, and God is devoted to watching and forming us in the womb. Not only does God see that moment – but he sees every day of our lives played out before a single one of them has passed.
God highly values you.
And poetically, even the tears you have cried matter to God.
The Psalmist writes:
Psalm 56:8 (NLT2)
8 You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.
Dad came home from work one evening to find his 5-year-old daughter broken and crying because her goldfish (Goldie) had died. Dad offered her a new goldfish, but that didn’t work.
Desperate to bring an end to her tears, he said:
I tell you what, we’ll have a funeral for Goldie. We’ll invite all the kids from the neighborhood. We will have ice cream, cake, lemonade, balloons, jumpy houses, and water slides…all your friends and kids in the neighborhood can come to our house to play. Then we will put Goldie into a box and bury him in the backyard."
This idea of the Celebration of Life did the trick. Instantly, she was her happy, smiling self. Then, inside the tank, Goldie began to move. A few seconds later, he was swimming! Goldie was alive! Seeing the Party plans come to a screeching halt, his innocent, wide-eyed daughter looked up at her daddy and whispered,
Daddy, LET’S KILL IT.
Many people today value life ONLY if life doesn’t stand in the way of what they want.
If life looks like it will ruin their “party,” then it’s time to eliminate the problem – the LIFE! It is estimated that 65 million babies have been aborted since 1973. Almost one million babies are murdered…often because they are in the way of a “party.”
In 2019, USA Today reported that 1% of abortions were rape-related, and ½ percent were incest related. I am grateful to bold women who chose to have their baby even though initially they felt the baby was “too soon.” I am also grateful for the number of women who had an abortion and now counsel and help other young women to prevent more abortions. I am grateful for a God who forgives, redeems, and loves unconditionally. We must cherish and value life the way God values life.
This is why we support Coastline Women's Center here in Myrtle Beach. Coastline Women’s Center educates, supports, and empowers women facing unplanned pregnancies with compassionate and professional medical care. If you think you may be pregnant or considering abortion, their staff have been in your shoes. They are there to help you. If you really value life – and are interested in becoming a volunteer at Coastline, jump online and submit a volunteer application.
Let’s be a church known for what we are FOR not for what we are against. If you say you are pro-life, show it. Be pro-life. Don’t grab a picket sign.
Volunteer to babysit for parents in our church. Become a Foster Family for kids who need placement. Currently, there are 3,800 children in foster care in South Carolina.
If you are unable to foster and adopt, if you are unable to get involved with Coastline, then show you are pro-life and care for the shivering man and woman on the corner. Buy them lunch. Listen to their story. Laugh at their jokes. Tell them Jesus has changed your life. Offer them hope. Those are ways we can value life like God values life. There are other heart issues when it comes to “murder” as well.
HEART ISSUES: ENTERTAINMENT, UNFORGIVENESS, VALUE
Up until the days of Jesus, the religious leaders restricted murder, but they did not restrict hatred. The Jewish people could hate somebody all they wanted to, as long as they did not murder them. But Jesus came along and raised the standard of what it meant to murder somebody.
Matthew 5:21-22 (NLT2)
21 “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ 22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.
God’s not just interested in whether you murder. He is more concerned with whether you would murder if you could get away with it. I have lived 51 years without experiencing the temptation of murder. Chances are, by God’s grace, I will live another 51 years without being tempted to murder. But I believe I have been guilty of breaking the heart of the 6th Commandment in a couple of ways:
ENTERTAINMENT:
It is virtually impossible to find any action movie released today where people aren’t shot, stabbed, murdered, decimated, decapitated…If you were to scroll through my Netflix account, you would find movie after movie involving murder. God calls MURDER a sin – but I am entertained by it. One night, we tucked and prayed the girls into bed. Sofia was about 5 years old. I went downstairs and turned on the TV to watch The Walking Dead. About 40 minutes into the show, Sofia stood beside the couch. I jumped up, grabbed the remote, and turned off the TV. “Sofie, what did you see on the TV?”
“I saw that man poke a stick into the other man’s head.”
PARENTING FAIL!
If a child streams 3 to 4 hours of shows per day, he will have seen about 8,000 murders on TV by the time he finishes grade school. I am not saying I do not watch movies with killing and murder (Walking Dead doesn’t count because they are already dead.) But Hollywood knows what we will watch. They know we will entertain ourselves with murder.
So, I ask myself, if I am ok with fictional murder, will I be entertained by:
Fictional adultery?
Fictional Idolatry?
Fictional language that takes the Lord’s name in vain?
Sadly, I often find myself entertained by something God hates…
Another way I break the heart of the 6th Commandment is through:
UNFORGIVENESS:
Cain and Able were two sons of Adam and Eve. Brothers, Cain had some anger issues toward his Abel. They each offered to give to God – God accepted Abel’s and rejected Cain’s. The speculation is that God rejected Cain’s offering not because of what it WAS but because of what was in Cain’s heart. The apostle John wrote about the murder already in Cain’s heart in 1 John 3.
1 John 3:12 (NLT2)
12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous.
1 John 3:15 (NLT2)15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.
Anyone who HATES his brother or sister is a murderer. God wants us to LOVE the people He has made in His IMAGE. When we hang onto the junk that bothers us about people, we move down that slippery slope toward hate.
If we hate people, you and I are guilty of murder. So, prevent your life from crashing and honor the heart of the 6th Commandment. Eliminate unforgiveness from your heart. If you have a problem with somebody, forgive them.
Who do you need to clear the air with? Write their name in the space in your notes… begin to pray for them, and ask God to help you value them as He does.
Romans 12:18 (NLT2)
18 Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.
Repeat after me: “I was wrong. I am sorry. Will you forgive me?”
See. It really is that easy.