No Murder

We’ve been studying God’s ethics, what’s right and wrong in the eyes of God, what it is to do well in His eyes and what it is to do poorly. And we’re using the ten commandments to do so. Taking one each Sunday and talking about what was on God’s heart with each one and how it applies to us. And if we understand what is truly best for ourselves, our families, everybody, then learning righteousness, how to walk in unity with God in our lives, is our top priority.

I wanted to remind you of that as I start this morning. Let’s read a Psalm that speaks of how extremely blessed is a person who loves God’s commands and learns to walk in God’s ways.

Psalm 112:

Praise the Lord!
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who greatly delights in his commandments!
His offspring will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
who conducts his affairs with justice.
For the righteous will never be moved;
he will be remembered forever.
He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever;
his horn is exalted in honor.
10 The wicked man sees it and is angry;
he gnashes his teeth and melts away;
the desire of the wicked will perish!

So learning God’s commands, learning to walk with Him in our lives is learning how to be a successful human being, it’s learning the path to all that our hearts really long for. And these matters we’re studying are the answers to many of our problems.

This morning we’re on the sixth commandment, which in the various Bible translations is usually rendered either, “You shall not kill” or “You shall not murder.” It may at first seem very obvious in its meaning and maybe irrelevant to you because you can’t imagine yourself ever committing murder. But determining all that this means is a bit more complicated than it may seem at first. And as we’ve been seeing with all these commandments and the way the rest of Scripture elaborates on them, its application is broader and much more relevant to us than it may at first seem.

“Words are the buckets into which thoughts are poured and transferred from one mind to another.” Sometimes very different thoughts can be poured into the same bucket. I might take the bucket, “You shall not kill,” and use it to tell my boys not to shoot the squirrels and birds in the yard with their B.B. guns. Or I may use the same bucket and put into it the idea that a criminal should be spared from capital punishment. I may use the bucket to transfer other ideas. But what thought was God pouring into that bucket and communicating to His people?

Let’s take just a minute or two to notice…

What God was not condemning in the sixth commandment

First of all, He was not referring to killing animals for food or for sacrifice. Later in the Law to the Jewish people, God commands them to offer certain animals in sacrifice and approves the eating of certain animals. Genesis 9, Noah and his family come off the ark after the flood, and God is giving them rules for living in this new world that’s been washed clean by the flood. And He explains to them that for now man will be allowed to kill and eat animals, which it seems God did not permit before the flood. Genesis 9:3, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” So the killing God condemns has to do with the killing of human beings. And the fundamental reason for valuing the life of every human being is that every human being is made in the image of God, and as such is very dear to God, just as your children who bear your image and likeness are dear to you.

But it’s also not any and all killing of human beings that God condemns. God does not condemn capital punishment when that’s the just penalty for the court to decide. In Exodus 21:12ff, God lists several crimes that the justice system of Israel was to administer the death penalty for.

The sixth commandment is also not talking about killing out of self-defense or the defense of others. You can see this clearly in Exodus 22:2-3a, “If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him, 3 but if the sun has risen on him, there shall be bloodguilt for him...” A man was not to be regarded as guilty of violating the sixth commandment for killing a thief that was breaking into his house at night, to protect himself or his family. But if the killing happened after the sun had risen, assuming that the robbery happened at night, then the killing was not out of defense; it was out of revenge or the desire to get back what was stolen, then the person is guilty of murder, violating the sixth commandment. So I think about police officers who sometimes have the moral duty to kill someone for the sake of saving others. And that’s not what God was against in the sixth commandment.

He also was not talking about killing in justifiable war. And I know there can be difficulties in determining what justifies war, but nonetheless several times in Israel’s history God sent them to war. David honored God and worked with God in killing Goliath and the Philistine enemies of Israel who had come against them. There are rules for war in Deuteronomy 20:10-11, like how you are first to seek a peaceful settlement. War is a last resort. But nonetheless there’s time when war must happen. When soldiers came to John the Baptist, asking about what repentance would entail for them, John did not tell them they need to change professions, but rather they must avoid the sins common among soldiers. John said, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages” (Luke 3:14).

So when God says “you shall not kill,” He was not referring to any and all types of killing. We don’t want to apply the command broader than God intended it.

However, we also don’t want to limit its application too strictly.

What God was condemning.

It applies to much more than just first-degree premeditated murder.

It appears in the Law of Moses the sixth commandment applied also to taking safety precautions for others.

Deuteronomy 22:8, “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet [a railing or a low protective wall] for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.”

Exodus 21:29-31, “But if the ox tended to thrust with its horn in times past, and it has been made known to his owner, and he has not kept it confined, so that it has killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death.” If you owned a dangerous animal that you knew had a tendency to go after people in the past, and you neglected to keep it confined then you’ve got blood on your hands in God’s eyes.

In the New Testament we’re told very clearly that just as not all killings are murder in the sense of a violation of the sixth commandment, also not all murders are killings in the sense of actually putting someone to death physically.

In I Corinthians 8, Paul teaches that when we cause a brother to stumble, when we either by our example or teaching or pressure lead a brother into doing something that violates his conscience, something that he’s not sure is right, then we’re leading him into sin, and to do that, Paul says, is to destroy the brother for whose sake Christ died (I Corinthians 8:11). You’re actually committing spiritual murder against your brother. So we need to be very careful about how we’re influencing other people and leading them.

Another way you can murder – James 5:4-6 is addressed to some greedy rich folks, “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.” I don’t believe these rich folks were literally stabbing or shooting innocent people. But James was showing them the seriousness of withholding the wages of the people who worked for them. That’s a subtle form of murder in God’s eyes. Because you’re withholding their livelihood.

Another way to commit murder is mentioned earlier in James 4. Listen to James 4:1-2, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

Do you think the Christians to whom this letter was originally written were physically slaughtering each other? I don’t believe so. I believe James was showing them the seriousness of their fighting and quarreling in the eyes of God. The statement, “You desire and do not have, so you murder,” I believe is synonymous with the next statement, “You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” To fight and quarrel over some earthly thing you want is to murder in God’s reckoning.

Why? How could that be? And there may be more than one reason for how that can be true. One sense in which actions like fighting and quarreling are murder is if you think of murder as simply the unlawful taking of human life, and life is more than just brain function and heartbeat. Life is the experience of good things, the experience of the blessings of God. And fighting with people, insulting people, gossiping about people, harming people emotionally, financially, socially, or in whatever way, is taking bits of their life. We’re taking their peace, their joy, their comfort, their reputation, their position, their money, their health, their whatever. And in that sense it’s makes us life takers, murderers. Another sense fighting and quarrelling with people is murder in God’s eyes is that it stands to reason that we are manifesting the potential to murder in an extreme set of circumstances. We’re exhibiting an attitude toward them that, “If it comes down to you or me, I’m looking out for me!” So in an extreme set of circumstances where somehow letting them die would greatly benefit you, or it would cost you greatly to save them, you would let them die. And God knows your heart, He knows what you would do in an extreme situation.

I think of David’s lack of love for Uriah, a loyal soldier in his army, the husband of the woman David got pregnant. David would have never imagined he could murder Uriah or anybody else. But if you know the story, the circumstances became such that if Uriah wasn’t killed out in battle, where David could marry Uriah’s wife, David was going to be greatly humiliated and lose the respect of the people. So David wrote a letter to the general of the army with instructions about leaving Uriah exposed and vulnerable to the enemy in battle, he got him killed. But you know God could see the dirt in David’s heart long before David got himself in that dilemma. Before he ever laid eyes on Uriah’s wife, God could see the lack of love, the potential to murder. And God sees our hearts too. He can see the lack of love. He can see the potential for murder. And we manifest that when we fight and quarrel over selfish things.

Now, I want to invite you to look with me in your Bible at a section at the very center of I John about love and hate, and the enormous ramifications of which we choose. I’d like to read…

I John 3:10-19

10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;

So one of things we see plainly in that passage is the gravity of how our hearts are toward one another and how we treat each other. What really marks us as either children of God or children of the devil, is not things like church attendance, doctrines we claim to believe, or religious practices. It’s, do we practice righteousness and do we love. And there can be many reasons for not loving our brothers and sisters: “they annoying, they’re needy, they’re whiny, they wronged me in this way, they’re wrong in their political opinions, etc.” If we don’t love our brothers and sisters, then he says we abide in death, we are still children of the devil, we do not have eternal life. We’ve not really given our heart to the Lord and let Him change it.

Do you remember at the last supper when Jesus instituted the Lord’s supper, how Jesus went around the table and washed everyone’s feet? He said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another just like I have loved you.” Then He said, “By this, all people will know my disciples, if you have love for one another.” So what really marks you as a child of God is “Do we love one another like Jesus did?” Jesus loved His immature disciples, and the annoying ones, and the ones that would deny Him, doubt Him, betray Him, forsake Him. And He loved the ones that had very different political opinions. There’s Matthew the tax collector and there’s Simon the zealot, and they’re on total opposite ends of the spectrum, yet He washed the feet of both. He loved them all and He said, “You have to love each other.” That’s what really marks us as one of His people.

This passage in I John gives us two examples to think on. The first is Cain and the second is Christ.

So let’s first think a bit on Cain.

Cain was the first son of Adam and Eve. Abel was his younger brother. Cain was a farmer. Abel was a shepherd. There came a time when they both sought God’s favor by bringing offerings to the Lord. Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground. Abel offered, it says, the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. It seems he offered his first and best. God was well pleased with Abel and his offering, and made it evident somehow. Abel was somehow blessed by God. But the Lord was not pleased with Cain’s offering. The text doesn’t explicitly state why, but that Cain could have done much better in worshipping and seeking the Lord’s favor. It seems he tried to get by rather cheap and conveniently. Cain saw that his brother Abel was favored and blessed over him. It says it made him angry and his face fell. And he apparently wasn’t angry at himself so much as he was angry at his brother and maybe also at God. His brother made him look bad. And his brother had what he wanted. And maybe he thought God was being unreasonable or unfair, because he was kind of blind to his own faults and he could see faults in his brother. Pride, seems to me, is behind that anger. The Lord counseled Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is to have you, but you must rule over it.” So God’s advice for Cain is to realize he was the one at fault and to just do well. Seek the Lord’s favor properly. And then he too would be blessed like Abel. But if he hangs on to his pride and anger, God warns him that sin is like a lion crouching in wait to take him over. Abel is not the only one in danger here. Cain is in very serious danger as he retains his pride and envy and anger. And Cain rejected God’s advice, and soon lured his brother out into the field with him where they were alone, then killed him. And John says we must not be like Cain, and he doesn’t just mean we must not literally physically kill our brother, but we must not be like Cain at all. Having any of his attitudes or ways that we see in his story.

How do we respond when some weakness or flaw or bad habit in ourselves is exposed by someone else’s goodness? When you see someone who honors God more than you or sees God more than you? Or they’re a better parent, a better friend, a better teacher, a better worker, or better at whatever than you? People who seem wiser and more righteous than you… Do you rejoice at their progress? Does it inspire you to strive to do better, or be more like them yourself? Or do we maybe just want to avoid those people? Or find fault with them so they don’t appear better than us? How do we respond?

And how do we respond to the good fortune or blessings of others? Do we rejoice with them? Or resent it?

I believe we see in the story of Cain what is the root behind so many peoples’ anger and hate. They do not prioritize and seek the Lord the way they should. That was the first failure on Cain’s part that led to all the rest. And I’m convinced our heart and devotion to God will also be at the root of whether we become angry, envious, hateful like Cain, or love like Christ.

And clearly not all worship and attempts at acquiring God’s grace and blessing are acceptable. Many try to get by cheap and convenient. They may seek His favor a little bit, just work Him into their busy schedule. They’re lukewarm in their seeking of Him, giving God just a little church, a little prayer and some Bible verses here and there. But other things are clearly much more the delight and priority of their life. That’s like a Cain offering. As we were talking about when we we’re on the first of the Ten Commandments, God is not okay with us having other gods, other competing loyalties. And in not prioritizing God, they’re not experiencing the peace He gives, the answered prayer, the presence and favor of God. And that may make them angry. But I believe when we seek God as we ought, He fills us up in such a way that we bear the fruit of His Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience and so forth.

Jesus told His disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” And if we’re disconnected from God, the sap of His Spirit isn’t flowing and we’re not going to bear fruit. But He said ‘abide in Me, be well grafted in Me, then I’ll be flowing in you and you will bear the fruit.’

Now, let’s notice the positive example and explanation in John 3, “16 By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. [Hate is life-taking, love is you lay down your life for others, and as John explains, you lay down as much as others need.] 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” James 2:15 puts it this way, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” He’s saying love is not merely warm feelings, friendly words or hugs. Love is laying down as much of your life as they need. Love is taking out your wallet. Love gets off the couch and goes to their bedside at the hospital. Love is putting the pan on the stove, making the soup and taking it to their home. Love is calling them up and offering to babysit. It’s bringing them a load of firewood. Love is getting up at 4 in the morning, getting in your car and driving them to the airport. Love is meeting needs with deeds. When there’s needs, but no deeds, then there’s no love. Love is self-sacrificing. It’s laying down your life to the extent that they need it. But hate takes life.

Do you love all your brothers and sisters? Do you love them in practical active ways? Would you lay down your life for them? Do you hold resentment, bitterness, hate in your heart?

Let’s hear what John has to say about the eternal ramifications. If any of us need to this morning, let’s not leave here with a burden of anger, guilt, bitterness, fear, etc. Because Jesus is here to free us from all of that. He took it on the cross. We need to do what Cain needed to do. We need to acknowledge our guilt, that our anger and bitterness is not God’s fault. Then we need to do well, offering to God what we should.

Here’s a big thing we’re to offer God, Romans 12, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Give God your bodies, let Him live in, direct, control your eyes, your tongues, your hands, your feet. Saying, “Lord, I’m yours from this day forward. Live in me, teach me how to be. Take over my life, love people through me. My life is Yours, my time is Yours.” Give yourself to Him in repentance and He is faithful and righteous to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

He’s good, He’s a wonderful master, He’s going to lead your life better than you ever would. We can trust Him; we can give Him everything and let Him heal our hearts and teach us how to love.

-James Williams

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