Murder

Commandment #6

“You shall not murder.”

This really seems pretty straight forward. Most people in the world have never murdered someone else. They have not sat down and thought about taking another human life – for that is what murder is – the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.

Is that all there is to it? What about the following situations? You might want to think about them then check the bible verses to see what they have to say.

What if …

I just paid someone to kill someone else  (Deut 27:25)

Accidently killing someone (Deut 19:4-6)

I just strongly hate someone (Matt 5:21-22)

I am a  soldier killing another soldier in war (Ecc 3:3)

I kill a person in self defence (Deut 19:4-6)

I wished someone was dead (Matt 5:21-22)

For us the best place to look is forward to the NT to see what Jesus has to say about this.

Matthew 5:21-22

Jesus makes it clear to us that even just hating someone is just as bad as murder. So while getting angry at someone will most likely not result in murdering that person that is not what is the real issue in this commandment. What is trying to be said here is that often that is where things begin. The point of the commandment was not that you could do anything you want and just stop short of killing someone, but that you should never get near the thought that you wish they were dead. Getting angry with someone then is also wrong.

Instead we should be reconciled to them. We should seek forgiveness and do our best to not live that way as that is not the way that Jesus wants us to live.

Quite often our anger comes from when we do not get our own way, when we don’t get what we want. Because we are jealous of what someone has, or from our own selfish desires.

We often get jealous which leads to hatred or anger about what someone has, which can lead to murder.

1 John 3:11-15 actually calls on us to love one another instead of hating.

Murder They Wrote

It is actually amazing to see that large sections of the bible were actually written by murderers. Moses, King David and Paul are just some examples. These guys were all forgiven though. This shows us that although murder is a serious sin, it can be forgiven. This shows us once again the depth of God’s forgiveness for his people. God’s forgiveness is greater than we can imagine.

What Should We Do?

We often get angry at people for all sorts of reasons and it is often hard to control it. We have to work hard at being the people that God wants us to be. With that in mind look for ways in which this week you can control your anger and have a think about anyone that you may have already been angry at that you need to say sorry to and ask for their forgiveness.

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