The Sixth Word

Introduction

One evangelism technique is to use the 10 commandments to explain someone’s sinfulness. Most people say they’re a good person despite breaking all of the commandments because they haven’t broken the sixth. “Hey, at least I haven’t killed anybody.” Sadly, people break this one much more than they realize.

The Passage

You shall not murder. Exodus 20:13

Explain the Passage

The way you explain this command is the point of the command. Why is murder wrong? Is it because it’s against the law? Does the state decide if something is murder? If so, does that also mean they also get to define what a life is and when it begins?

This command prohibits premeditated murder as well as negligence, what we call manslaughter. A serial killer obviously broke the sixth word, but so does the owner of the rottweiler whose dog mauled an innocent child to death. The guilt for murder doesn’t fall on a living person just because another person dies. For example, the bible says if a man kills a burglar who snuck in at night, he did not murder him. The premeditation was not on the man asleep in his house, but on the man who broke in. The same is true for negligence. If you run out in front of traffic on the interstate, it’s your fault if you get.

The Guilt of Abortion

Like I said when we started this series, these commands are linked. The sixth word flows from the first word. If the God of the bible is your God, He defines murder. However, most Americans and many Christians have another god in their hearts. It’s the god of feminism. Worshippers of this god state that the mother who walks into Planned Parenthood will never be guilty murder. Obviously, some women are threatened to kill the baby in their womb by the father or their parents. But the vast majority of women who visit Planned Parenthood do so willingly and desperately.

Here's why this is important. Many states are passing pro-life laws that make it more difficult to get an abortion. Our state has a heart-beat law for example. The next step is for states to pass equal-protection legislation. These laws state that a preborn human is just as sacred as born human. But right now, pre-born babies are not the protected party—pregnant mothers are. What we really have is religious sacrifice. If a woman goes to the high priests in lab coats or buys pills that these priests prescribe, then she can kill her baby on the altar of her own happiness. National repentance for this sin begins with churches growing a back bone and be willing to tell people who are murderers in God’s eyes that they are murderers who need to repent. National repentance ends when murderers are tried and executed for their crime.

Just War?

Soldiers at war kill other soldiers at war. Sometimes the war for one side is a justified act of self-defense. Most of the time, war begins because of selfish ambition. In the old covenant, before waging war, God commanded leaders to tell men if they aren’t willing to die for this battle, they should go home (Deuteronomy 20:5-9). It was the duty of kings to convince men that a war was just before calling men to fight. Today, we draft men (and now women) into war then tell them after the fact that it was a mistake.

This isn’t an abstract political opinion. How do you counsel a young man who killed people overseas? Just because the United States was in the right to fight in WW2 doesn’t mean the U.S. will always be in the right when deploying soldiers overseas. In the Old covenant, every fighting-age man had to get atonement for their sins before they went to war (Ex 30:11-16). This means that the army of Israel could only be free from the guilt of murder if God sanctioned or allowed the army to mobilize. Do you think the American government decides if God would approve before sending our soldiers overseas? Nope. And if the soldiers make it back home after seasons of action, will the American government provide atonement for the guilt these men feel for taking another human life? Nope. Christians must only kill if God thinks its permissible. “If we kill at another’s command, that other has become our God, our Lord of life and death (Liethart, Ten Commandments).”  

Violent Hearts

Sins grow like plants grow. Scripture even refers to the sin of false prophecy as a tree that produces bad fruit (Matt 5:17). The sin of murder starts out as a small little sprout, then a sapling, then, after digging its roots in the ground it matures and produces the sin of murder. But what does it look like when it’s younger? How can we uproot the sin of murder before it produces fruit? By repenting of the sin when it’s small.

Anger can hide under our immediate attention but manifests itself under the slightest altercation. Your child spills a drink, and you make a passive-aggressive jab hoping a little bit of guilt will make your child a little more careful. You have a bad day at work, and long for a few minutes of rest before supper, only to be greeted with problems to fix when you walk through the door. You fly off the handle demanding pity. You say your honest and transparent, but your tongue is a weapon that throws insults and curses others. These are murders in sapling form. Selfishness, resentment, bitterness, gossip, slander, envy, malice, and hate.

Some of these emotions are really strong. Take selfishness for example. You can justify almost anything today if you say that you “need it.” “I need a break.” And when someone gets in the way of what you say you need, you grow bitter toward that person. They could be your family, church, neighbor, or friend.

How do you repent of this? First, you choose no longer to live for yourself, but to serve. Men this means serve by leading, making the hard decisions especially after a hard day’s work. Ladies, this means not resenting the people God has placed in your life to serve. Murder is ultimately Cain looking out himself and not his brother. When you fail to live selflessly and notice selfishness confess it to God and to whomever else you sinned against. So, begin with humility. Second, after you’ve trained your selflessness muscles you’re in a better position to practice self-control during those moments you are more likely to be unrighteously angry. Lookout for those times and pray over them.