NOTE: The manuscript may contain spelling or grammatical errors, and may deviate from the actual audio of the final sermon delivery. Quote with caution.

Scripture Reading

"Do not murder"

-Exodus 20:13

"You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder , and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Fool!' will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, 'You moron!' will be subject to hellfire. So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you're on the way with him, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge, the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. I assure you: You will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny!

-Matthew 5:21–26

For a quick moment, I want you to mentally chew on the title of this message, which is a longer one. Initially, I had planned to make the title of the message "Murder, We Wrote." That's a clever title if I do say so myself. Shame that somebody else already took it. (Sigh) But the title I've chosen for today is  "When you think about it, everyone murders." Just chew on that mentally while I muster about a little preamble here, a little sort of introduction.

It seems that my apology for last week's message length was unnecessary because I managed to get it done in my usual time. No one complained about the length. Everyone said it was a good message last week, a very challenging message, even. And I certainly will agree with that sentiment. And we all see eye to eye when I say that if preaching the word is commanded in scripture, then it's worth preaching it to the best of our abilities. Know that I don't ever choose lengthy sermons because I enjoy hearing myself prattling and waxing on and on, but rather, I believe in giving the scripture the time it is due and God the honor he is owed.

 To that end, we begin to take a sobering look at the sixth commandment. There are some who argue (many commentators, theologians, professors, preachers, and so on) that the sixth commandment or the sixth word to God's people is indeed at the beginning of the second half of the commandments. Mathematically, this is accurate. If you divide ten in half, you get five on one side and five on another. 

Stubborn contrarian that I am, I do not subscribe to this mentality. As you saw last week, I believe there are four commands that deal with man's relationship with God and six commands that deal with man's relationship with man. Or if you want to say 'humanity's relationship with God and to each other' perhaps in some politically correct pursuit, then you may do so. 

I believe that honoring your parents, the orchestration of the family unit, while it is authorized by God and enabled by our relationship with God, has much more to do with our relationship with people. It's a nitpicky theological point, but one that provides much-needed clearness. 

But my point should also become apparent from that last sermon and the sermons as we advance is that none of the commandments (five through 10) make even the slightest bit of impact if you remove God from the equation. As we saw last week, if the horizontal relationship with the Father is completely kaput, then the vertical relationship with our earthly fathers will be equally kaput. It then does not make sense that we would try to attempt to live out commandments five through ten unless we have fully understood and have embraced the reality that is commandments one through four because, ultimately, when you take away the relationship with God, then the relationship with people becomes negotiable. 

There's no necessity to honor one's parents if God has not commanded it as our loving heavenly Father. It is not necessary to maintain the family unit if it is not God's will for the flourishing of humanity. If you refuse to smash the idols that possess your heart instead of God, guess what? Your relationship with people will be practically impossible.

If you do not worship God and God alone, then you will find yourself worshiping something else that ultimately will distort your relationship with people.  Everything becomes negotiable in the relationship with other people when our relationship with God is itself negotiable. Even murder becomes negotiable. When the standard for whether or not we should murder is no longer transcendent but is instead temporal, then human rights, human dignity, and human beauty are all limited to only what humans decide about each other.

The secular, pagan world will attempt to seize control of the definitions, to act as if they can champion human dignity and human rights, to act as if we can support equality, to pretend as if we can have beauty without a God who transcends our humanity. And so they will fall on their face, as we are falling today.

They argue that humans are intrinsically valuable. The obvious question then becomes, "Why?" If you subtract God from this holy equation, how can you contend for the value of human beings? This is the insanity of a post-Christendom Western world; when ethics become situational, when we are not governed by what's outside of us but instead govern what's outside by the whims of what we feel inside, it causes obvious consequences: confusion and chaos.

Lucky Animals?

Unlike the previous command, which had a positive result attached to it, where God gave a rationale for honoring one's parents, God determines for the sixth command, for the sixth word, that no explanation is necessary for our comprehension. Why? Because there's an original rationale he offered as the self-revelation to man that man often forgets when it's convenient for them.

What is the revelation? The revelation is in Genesis 1:26 through 27, when God says, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness." And so, he did. He created man in his own image. He created them male and female in his image. Genesis 9:6 clarifies,  "Whoever sheds human blood, by humans his blood be shed. For God made humans in his image."

Before the sixth commandment, before the Lord utters the sixth word, it is unmistakable that this is a command that is not just for a covenant time and a covenant people but is instead broadened to a universal command for every time and every people. Why? Because of a little concept we call the Imago Dei, the image of God. As we are made in the image of God, as every human being is made in God's own image, it is then an affront to God to murder humans.

The weight of this command rests not in the notion that humans are intrinsically valuable in themselves; Contrary to the insane arguments of post-Christendom culture meant to imply that humans are valuable just "because they are." No, God builds his command on one fact: we are intrinsically valuable because we bear God's intrinsic image. That is the number one reason that murder is condemned. And you cannot arrive at such a conclusion if you believe that there is nothing in the universe that points to a creator. If you decide that humans are not the product of a divine creator but instead are an amalgamation of an evolutionary process that brought them to this point randomly (that is to say, a lucky animal), you cannot then claim that the deliberate rejection of animalistic instincts (such as murder) are things we are morally or ethically inclined to do. Yet, that's the assertion that the pagan worldview will make. And that they refuse to realize it is inconsistent baffles me.

 Humans have value. On this, we can agree. But if you're trying to support that value outside of a Christian worldview, when you have to say that humans are merely a product of evolution, lucky animals that bear no unique image of their creator, then the ground for such value is not only shaky, it's downright nonexistent. If might makes right, if the strongest survive, and some of the few laws to which humans are bound, then you cannot cry for equality, dignity, or value among people. You can only do that if God has made man in his image.

It's insanity what they declare without inconsistency out there—crying for both animal rights while screaming for abortion rights. To blind is their sin to realize that this is an inconsistent worldview, a worldview that champions murder when it is convenient, champions murder when it is politically expedient, and champions murder when it is on our blood-stained terms and not God's terms. Why do many hold to such a view? Because there are those who are unable to accept Christ's message, the message of a transcendent Lord, who ultimately is the one who determines who deserves to be punished for their iniquities and who is ultimately saved.

Of these people, in John 8:44, it is said that "they are of their father, who is the devil, a murderer from the beginning." Proverbs 8:36 says it as plainly as you can possibly get: God says, "Those who hate me love death." First John 3:10 through 12 says this: "The children of God and the children of men are manifest, for whoever does not practice righteousness is not from God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you've heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous." Murder has existed since the very beginning of man, and it's always been a curse that afflicts our humanity.

Cheapening Life

Therefore, one cannot argue that the ancient principles of the biblical text are no longer relevant when we certainly look back at the contrast between the righteous and the evil. The evil will, in comparison to the righteous, ultimately cheapen life, and this is an abomination to God. So it was then, and so it is now.

I wish I could tell more jokes in sermons genuinely. But the weight of what you have to say often precludes such things. Because we live in a world where life is cheap. We can wail about how enlightened we are, but if we take stock of our world, it is self-evident that life is cheap. 

Think about the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza, right? Think about that. Think about how casually we discuss it. I was watching the news the other day (my first mistake, honestly ), and I found myself floored by this military consultant who was talking about specific military strategies. One of his proposed strategies was clamping down on a particular area to drive out enemy combatants. It was a sound strategy, but it would also result in the starvation of over 600 innocent civilians. And when he was called out for his cruelty, the only thing he had to say was, "This is the cost of war." To which I and many others would say, "Uh, no sir. Um, that there is a war crime." 

To wantonly shed the blood of innocents? It is a war crime! And it is not a war crime because some lawmakers said so or because some guys at the Geneva Convention made a Geneva suggestion, but it's because every single person murdered is valuable in the eyes of their maker. So to do what you've done, to do what any people do and cheapen life, to consider a life disposable in any regard is to sin against our creator. 

We are mired and spiraling in sin. Every advancement humanity has made technologically either has served to subjugate or terminate human life, making the mass destruction of such life more and more expedient.  And that points to the first reason murder is particularly terrible as a sin; it's irreversible. That's the first reason. It's irreversible. You think about the sin of lying and note that it could be backpedaled into truth. The worship of falsehoods and false gods can be redirected into the worship of God. Idol worship versus honor of God. These are all reversible. These are dreadful mistakes that can be undone. Death, however, ultimately cannot be reversed.

The second reason I've already touched on is that we must also consider that such grotesque readiness to attack another human being is a readiness to attack the very image of God. To cheapen human life is to cheapen God Himself. Such is nothing less than demonic.

A Reminder of the Cruelty of Abortion

That this sin of murder persists arguably proves that we've not transcended the wicked ways of our ancestors. We've not progressed ever upward as humanity and created some utopia that is wholly divorced from the monstrosity of our past generations and cultures. Recall that God had freed the Israelites from a terrifying pharaoh who, in Exodus One, ordered Hebrew baby boys to be drowned en masse in a revolting act of infanticide. And we may naively declare, "Well, we would never abide by such cruelty. We've crossed over to modernity; we're even postmodernists now. We would never fall into such wickedness, really."

 I would argue we've not surpassed our sin of cheapening human life, and Pharaoh is still at work in other ways. It is estimated that 620,327 abortions were committed in the year 2020. And while the CDC notes that this seems to denote a downward trend in abortion, I'm of the completely correct opinion it's still 630,327 too many. Of course, perhaps part of the problem is we've become numb via a combination of heartless statistics and a 24-hour news cycle, with the understanding that if it bleeds, it leads. So, how about a true story?

It's one of a newborn baby, Baby Garcia. The story took place in a major hospital in Los Angeles. The nurse involved, Jennifer, relates the events like so:

"One night a nurse on my shift came up to me and said, 'Jennifer, you need to see the Garcia baby'. There was something suspicious about the way she said it, … She led me to a room the nurses used for their breaks. Women were smoking and drinking coffee, their feet up on the stainless steel counter. There, lying on the metal, was the naked body of a newborn baby. 'What is the baby doing here on this counter?', I asked timidly. 'That's a preemie born at 19 weeks', she said. 'We don't do anything to save them unless they are 20 weeks.' I noticed the chest fluttering rapidly. I picked him up for a closer look. 'This baby is alive!' I exclaimed. I thought they hadn't noticed. Then I learned the horrible truth. The nurses knew, and it didn't matter. They had presented the baby to its mother as a dead, premature child. Then they took him and tossed him on the cold, steel counter in the lunch room. I did the one thing I could think of. I held him in his last moments so he'd at least have some warmth and love before he died. Just then one of the nurses—a large harsh woman—burst into the room. 'Jennifer, what are you doing with that baby?' she yelled. 'He's still alive …', I pleaded. 'He's still alive because you are holding him', she said. Grabbing him by the back with one hand, she snatched him from me, opened one of the stainless steel cabinets, and pulled out a specimen container with formaldehyde in it. She tossed the baby in and snapped the lid on it. It was over in an instant. Jennifer went on to say, 'To them this child wasn't human. In seven more days he would have qualified, but at 19 weeks he was just trash'" (Beckwith & Koukl, Relativism)

My arrow (so to speak), if you feel disquieted, has struck its mark. Disquitedness was my aim. To ask all of ourselves if we've allowed the pagan world's numbness to violence to seep into our hearts. To ask if we've allowed the demonic abominations of abortion, of war, of violence against the innocent in any regard to simply be something that is "just another day."

Pro-abortion advocates often fight tooth and nail to prevent Christians from paying for ultrasounds for young mothers considering abortion. Because statistically, when you see that ultrasound, you change your mind and have the child, and we prevent another senseless death. Of course, you will not hear pro-abortion advocates phrase it in terms of the death of an innocent. You will hear them phrase it in terms of preserving the bodily rights of the mother, which somehow makes it palpable to them to encourage people to discard human life wantonly.

Such is what the sin of murder does. It desensitizes us to the point where we denigrate the very image of God, to where the foremost defenseless and most innocent embodiment of this image is no longer considered sacred but is instead deemed disposable. Such is the price we pay for our supposed freedom.

What Precedes Murder?

And understand all of the steps that have to happen to arrive at this point, not just in abortion but murder in any capacity. All of the dehumanizing, the dechristianizing, and the devaluing of human life all have to happen before you arrive at the decision to commit murder. God understood when he gave this sixth word, there was more than the simple command, 'Don't literally kill people.' He understood that a lot goes into the decision to commit murder. 

In my sermon today, the first reality we have to face when understanding what it takes to get to the conclusion that human life is not valuable is we have to understand  how desensitized we are. Mass shootings happen all the time, for instance. And I believe the decision of an active shooter to go out and take human life (while it's a decision that takes many extreme steps to get to) first begins with a desensitization to violence. It's estimated that by the time a child finishes elementary school, they will have witnessed 8,000 murders on TV. By the time they reach 18, they will have seen 200,000 violent acts on TV. That statistic does not include video games, movies, or other such activities.

Jesus recognized that what we see has a direct impact on our spiritual health. This is what he said in his warning in Matthew 6:22 through 23: 'The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be?'

What we consume with our eyes, what we fill our eyes with, will ultimately be what we fill our souls with, and if we are ingesting nothing but darkness, eventually, we will fill ourselves with nothing but darkness. So, understanding that first reality, our desensitization, our numbness, perhaps being obedient to this command is understood better as not simply avoiding physically harming someone (which, let's be honest, is not that high of a standard). Instead, it's about guarding against violence in our lives in any capacity.

 Now, the second reality we must consider is that perhaps this command isn't as simple as we make it out to be. On the surface, it seems simple enough: 'Do not commit murder.' And I don't want to gloss over the importance of this superficial simplicity. God does not wish us to kill other people. People are precious to God. Not everyone is a child of God, but everyone is made in His image, and that alone means everyone deserves respect, honor, and the preservation of their life. When we shed the blood of human beings, when we attack another person, then we attack the very image of God. We wound God Himself.

However, behind the blatant simplicity and ease with which God phrases his command, there hides a dizzying depth. And I confess I wasn't prepared for that depth when I began studying this week. I am the first person to say that the Bible is not complicated. I am the first person to say that the only people who overcomplicate what God's clear word says are people who wish to obfuscate it so that they can continue living in the sins that they prefer while hypocritically bashing the sins that they do not.

Having said that, let me de-simplify this command. In Hebrew, you have two words: You have "lo," and then you have "ratsach." "Lo" means "no," and ratsach means "murder." Simplicity upon simplicity. But, when studied, is this actually that simple?

What I began to unpack in my studies was that, perhaps because of the unintentional mistake of the King James translation, the popularized translation of this command renders it as "You shall not kill." This is an inaccuracy. Modern translators can and should translate this as "Do not murder." Because the word "ratsach" only occurs two times in the Old Testament, and at both times, it means something more nuanced than mere killing. I know this because there is a perfectly serviceable word in the Hebrew language for killing, and it's found all over the Old Testament. It is 'harag.' Everywhere we see "kill," we see "harag." 

"Ratsach" does not mean to admonish all killing, period. It means to rebuke unjust killing. To paraphrase one commentator, there are commands in the Bible to sacrifice animals. It is impossible to sacrifice an animal without killing them. There are commands in the Bible to put a murderer to death. You have to kill someone in order to do this. There are commands in the Bible towards self-defense and even such things as justified wars and whatnot. So, we note that the Bible does not call you to be a pacifist or, even worse, a vegetarian. God forbid.

So there's such a thing as unjust violence and such a thing as justified violence. Self-defense, capital punishment, just war? These are just. Euthanasia, suicide, abortion, and so on are unjust. These are unjust killings. And that is what the sixth commandment forbids. Not all killing, just unjust killing. It's essential to clarify this reality because we might find ourselves misinterpreting and going down an incorrect path when it comes to following this command. Now, especially in our confusing age, it's vital to make the definitions distinct. Oversimplicity often precedes murder. 

 But, the clarity of this verse need not be muddled too much. Let's bring it back to a single point of clarity: We grieve God when violence of any form is visited upon his children. Two words in Hebrew, so this command is the simplest. And whatever the justification for violence against another made in the image of God. Even if it is justified, according to scripture, it will ultimately only ever be a begrudging acknowledgment of the fallen nature of our world. I don't want weapons in my home for self-defense. But such as the begrudging acknowledgment of our fallen world. I don't want to train my family in ways to harm people should they be attacked. But that's the tragic reality of this fallen world we occupy.

The Deeper Command

 I also wish to note a third reality, which is tangentially connected to me stating mere moments ago that the brevity of this command doesn't necessarily mean it lends itself to simplicity. The Westminster Larger Catechism, answering the question, 'What are the duties required in the sixth commandment?' says this:

"The duties required in the sixth commandment are, all careful studies, and lawful endeavours, to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices, which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any; by just defence thereof against violence, patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit; a sober use of meat, drink, physical, sleep, labour, and recreations; by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness; peaceable, mild and courteous speeches and behaviour; forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil; comforting and succouring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent." (WLC 135)

Wow. That's a lot to chew on. You think? As I've tried to demonstrate to varying degrees of success throughout this series, we believe these commands are simple, but in reality, what they are asking is far more than we might presume. There is a positive implication in 'do not murder,' and that is the promotion of life. You may not murder, but do you promote life? A question worth careful contemplation. 

The catechism continues, answering another question, 'What are the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment?' The answer?

"The sins forbidden in the sixth commandment are, all taking away the life of ourselves, or of others, except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defence; the neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means of preservation of life; sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge; all excessive passions, distracting cares; immoderate use of meat, drink, labour, and recreations; provoking words, oppression, quarrelling, striking, wounding, and whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any." (WLC 136)

Wow. Far too many of us pat ourselves on the back because we've never broken this command explicitly. But a cursory glance at the scriptures teaches us the command extends beyond even ending someone's life.

 As I read earlier, the sermon on the Mount is where Jesus expanded on this command best: "You have heard it said to those of old, 'Do not murder,' and whoever murders will be liable to judgment, but everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to hellfire." This is a powerful challenge to all of you who follow Jesus. Jesus says that even anger and hate towards others is murder in your heart.

To fan the flames of anger, no matter how justified, is to fan the flames of murder in your soul. As I reviewed in a sermon a while back, I'm not so sure where that sermon is, but I noted that 'you fool' is translated from the word 'Raca.' 'Raca' is a derogatory expression, meaning vain, empty-headed, or worthless. The insinuation behind such a curse was that the person you cursed was inferior and stupid. In saying 'Raca,' you assert that you're so much better than them, that they were literally worthless. The word 'Raca' displayed one's utter contempt for another person. With this in mind, I ask you today, do you hold a person in such contempt today? Do you consider them worthless, as too stupid to be deserving of you? Do you mock and scorn them with utter disdain? You might be in sin.

Murder is rooted in an angry spirit. And anyone who's even angry will be subject to judgment. That's what Christ says. The very thoughts, the very intents of the heart, are known by God. So if you are unrighteously angry (and let's be honest, there are very few times in our lives when we've been righteously angry), you are subject to judgment. 

Our Murderous Hearts

Yeah… When you think about it, everyone murders. Everyone's soul likely houses a bloodthirsty spirit, perhaps even without their knowledge. Just because we are not acting on our sinful, murderous ways doesn't mean that we're not harboring a wicked spirit in us. A heart that murders.

1 John 3:15 declares unequivocally, "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know, no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." In Matthew 5:43-45, Jesus says,  "You have heard it said, 'You should love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those that hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

Every single person in here should feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit because every single person in here, without much prompting, knows precisely the unrighteous anger that they currently carry in their hearts. And that anger dishonors God, but more to the point, that anger is the fire of a murderous spirit. You would never actually murder this person. Or would you? If there were no consequences, if there were no laws, if you possessed the power and the ability, what then? Life will teach you the sad truth that many people don't act on their most sinful instincts not because they hunger and thirst for righteousness but because they fear consequences. I believe that tragic fact with all my heart.

So, the question becomes, do you have a murderer in your heart?  The Heidelberg Catechism expands on the command this way: "By forbidding murder, God teaches us that he hates the root of murder—envy, anger, vindictiveness." (Heidelberg Catechism, A 106)

In God's sight, all such are mere disguised forms of murder. Knowing this, embrace for a moment the shocking nature of this command. Begin reflecting and understanding how often we've sheltered and tended to the roots of murder in our hearts. We never killed anyone, but we wished them dead all the same.

To once again quote Dr. Peter Leithhart at length:

"You might be feeling some relief. At least here is one commandment you've never broken. Not really, not in any serious way. Don't let yourself off so easily. If you live in a modern society, you're entrenched in networks of violence. Entertainment's thrill us through granular depictions of violence. Scripture calls false witness violence. Spend a few minutes on Twitter, and you'll see verbal mayhem. Liberal order presumes that we'll forever disagree on fundamental truth and thus relies on good violence to counter bad. American greed for oil, more comforts, more stuff drives a fallen foreign policy of perpetual war. Soldiers kill for a state whose very ideal is the separation of violence from the will of God.

Even Christians are happy to separate violence from the will of God. Many Christians go to war at the command of secular states without consulting their pastors or considering whether the war is just in the Lord's sight. Few Christians think the Church has authority over a Christian's decision to fight. If God is the Lord of life and death, Christians should kill only if He permits it.

Because we don't honor the family as the context for reproduction, because we demand the perfect baby or the right to a child, we develop technologies of reproduction that create and discard embryos by the thousands. Our disobedience to this word feeds a high-tech culture of death, buttressed by legal guarantees. In most advanced societies, the murder of unborn babies has been industrialized. Legal abortion grants the most interested party a license to kill—a privatization of murder that is nothing less than a relapse to pure barbarism." (Leithart, The Ten Commandments)

Dr. Peter Leithhart continues, turning to the teachings of Jesus:

"Anger can dominate one's life, churning beneath the surface and breaking through with the slightest provocation—a child's embarrassing accident, pressure at work, a traffic jam. You say you're ambitious, but what looks like ambition is envy—a desire to take down the competition. Deep down, there are murderers.

You say you're plain speaking, but in reality, you've turned your tongue into a sword that kills with insults, curses, and frothy outrage. You say you're a leader, but in fact, your simmering anger intimidates everyone around you. Anger curves inward into self-hatred, cleverly disguising itself as humility.

Jesus doesn't forbid anger. Righteous outrage is real, as Jesus's actions in the temple demonstrate. What Jesus commands is a set of practices to diffuse anger and overcome evil with good." (Leithart)

The sixth word commands that we become peacemakers. The sixth word demands that we turn the other cheek. The sixth word commands that we live contrary to the perpetual outrage of our culture. That we don't become dragged down with those who live in sin, sharing and languishing in their fury, but instead, wherever possible, we try to make peace. We try to bring joy. We try to spread the love of Christ. The thing is, we need help with this command when phrased like this more than we might readily concede.  You and I, and everyone around us, without even realizing it, are murderers in our hearts.

Jen Wilkins elaborates like this: 

"The impulse to murder is nothing less than the outer workings of a lesser impulse we choose to indulge on a regular basis. Everywhere we go, we see evidence around us that people regularly express anger beyond what a circumstance merits. We indulge in overexpressive, routinely exaggerated responses, revealing that we did not simply become angry in the instance but that we carry a supply of pent-up anger with us at all times. Shrewd observers have figured out how to profit from our anger hoarding. Daytime talk shows air brawls to the delight of the viewers. Cable news networks fuel moral indignation. Social media platforms happily reward vented anger with likes and shares. Our politicians forget civility for outrage, and we choose a side and join in the carnival of contempt: 'us versus them.' We are righteous, and they are not merely the unrighteous. They are worthless.

Contempt may win followers, but it is not pastoral. It masquerades as righteous anger, but it is, in fact, self-serving and self-elevating. It may make a point, but it always has a victim. We may deflect our connection to its victims by asking, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' But the blood-bought children of God know the answer to our own question because Christ, our brother, has answered it, fully and finally, with His 'Yes.' He himself, the object of anger and contempt, denigrated and devalued and stripped of His dignity, endured the breaking of the sixth word in His broken flesh and spilled blood. Cain the murderer was not the Messiah. Christ, the murdered, is Messiah indeed because He is the image of the invisible God. Those who hated God dealt violently with that image. Yet, He, whose life was extinguished, took every care to preserve life, and in receiving back His own, He lives that we may have life." (Wilkins, Ten Words to Live By)

Do You React in Pride or Despair?

 This command, as you can tell, is not merely followed by a negative action. To obey the sixth command does not mean only avoiding doing something. Instead, it is reflected in positive measures. The call, or if you prefer, the command, is to love one another as Christ first loved you. If you remember, Jesus summarized the laws in Mark 12 simply as 'love God and love others.' That's a summary of the law.

We see how that command to love others comes into play all across scripture. In John 13:34-35, Jesus gives a new commandment that we love one another, and He says, 'Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.' We are commanded to love people just as Christ loved us and bleed for them just as Christ bled for us.

And what does that mean? Love them sacrificially. Love them unconditionally. To love even our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, which is a remarkably subversive reversal in a society where extreme angry dehumanization has become the norm. Jesus's command, if lived out, is a breath of fresh air, and that's the point of this command.

In John 13:35, Jesus says, 'By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.' So the question we must ask today is not how good are you at obeying the command not to hate each other, how good are you at obeying the command not to get angry or to not hold malice or envy in your heart, but instead,  how effectively do you love others just as Christ has loved you? Because that's a much taller order, especially when it comes to objectively unjust matters.

Now, I understand that a series like this can provoke many different responses. Actually, focusing on God's law will often elicit, I've found, two specific reactions in people. One is pride, and one is despair. In the first type of mindset, I've seen people look at this list of rules, compare it with their lives, and if they're doing more good than bad, they decide they are good people. That could be what you're doing now. That could be how you're stacking yourself up now, determining whether or not you're righteous. But in the eyes of God, that's not how it works. Every sin deserves death, as Romans 6:23 teaches. So, if you break even one of these commandments, you deserve the wrath of God.

Furthermore, Jesus shows us how serious these commands are in the Beatitudes. You may claim, 'Hey, I haven't committed murder.' No, you may not, but as Jesus has made clear, this command goes deeper than that, and your abstaining from the physical act doesn't make your hands clean. To think about this command in light of the broader command to love our neighbors can unveil our failures and reveal the depths of our sins.

This then might lead us to become the second type of individual, the one that finds themselves on the brink of despair, feeling a little bit like Paul in Romans 7:24, "I am a wretched man. Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Here, it is necessary to remind us of the good news. The grace of God makes us right with God, not because of our adherence to the law, but because of Jesus's perfect obedience. So, regardless of how well you follow the law, you will never follow it enough to satisfy God. That doesn't mean we stop trying because we see that these commands please God and encourage us to love Him and others. And we see these commandments are good for society and our relationships. But we also recognize that following them won't save us. And when we fail, and we will, there is grace. There's always grace, and grace more abundant. King David was guilty of murder, adultery, lying, and more. God forgave David and still used him and blessed him. What does that say about what God can do with us?

Conclusion

So we have a lot to consider. We have a lot the Holy Spirit might be convicting us on. Let me conclude by focusing on another verse from Romans.  Romans 12:17-21 says this:

"Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you heap burning coals upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

I don't know if you remember when I taught this passage in Romans when we went through that series. If you forget, don't worry. I will one day reteach it. The sad reality is that those who are the enemies of God's people are ultimately the enemy of God. And as the Gospel of John states in John 3:18, "Whoever doesn't believe is already condemned."

When we do good in the face of evil, when we do not react as the world expects with an anger that the world has justified, we then heap burning coals upon their head for their choice to hold on to their wickedness in the face of godliness, and it reveals their condemnation. It heaps burning coals on their heads. This is to the glory of God.

The tragic thing in our own Christian walks is that when we choose to hold on to our hate and our unforgiveness, what we reveal is a doubt that God won't do His job. Or if He does His job, He won't do it correctly. That God will not ultimately mete out His justice. That God won't someday punish the sinners. That God ultimately won't right the wrongs. Our angry, murderous spirits will eventually reveal this disbelief and doubt. I, for one, choose once again to believe.

So, my question is, do you have some people you need to forgive? Do you have some anger you need to repent of? Do you have some murderous thoughts you need to pray for forgiveness for? Corrie ten Boom, in her book 'Tramp for the Lord,' said it this way,  "Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart." That is so true. Forgiveness happens at a specific moment in time with prayer with the Lord. So, the feelings may not be there, but they will eventually follow. You follow. The act of forgiveness is an event of forgiving prayer that says something like, "Lord, despite what I feel, I am choosing now, in obedience to your word, to forgive so and so for such and such. I release them from the debt they owe me because you already paid for it. I forgive them, and furthermore, I ask you to bless them." That is the Christian attitude. That is the Christian response. In a world chock-full of everyday murderers, we would be everyday forgivers, everyday lovers, and we would be everyday joy dealers (to use a ridiculous term, but it works). Everyday peacemakers, amen? It will require sacrifice. It will not be what you feel you want to do. It will not please your flesh. And God commands it anyway.

One of the most significant evangelical thinkers was Dr. Francis Schaeffer. He devoted himself to a project at the end of his life entitled 'Whatever Happened to the Human Race?' In his book and series, he sought essentially to encourage Christians to quell the tide of abortion and then to side with infanticide and euthanasia. And while I believe this command is much more than simply those issues, his words at the end of that book, I believe, really speak to the necessity of this command and the challenge to each of us today. He writes this, 

"Future generations will look back, and many will either scoff or believe in Christ on the basis of whether we Christians of today took a sacrificial stand in our various walks of life on these overwhelmingly important issues. If we do not take a stand here and now, we certainly cannot lay any claim to being salt and light in our generation. We are neither preserving moral values and the dignity of the individual nor showing compassion for our fellow human beings. Will future generations look back and remember that at least there was one group who stood consistently, whatever the price, for the value of the individual, thus passing on some hope to future generations? Or are we as Christians going to be swept along with the trends—our own moral values becoming increasingly befuddled, our own apathy reflecting the apathy of the world around us, our own inactivity sharing the inertia of the masses around us, our own leadership becoming soft?" (Schaeffer, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?)

Well, dear Christians, will our families and the future generations who look to us see those who refused to forsake their dalliances with murderous hearts? Or will they see those who said, above all else, that everyone is made in the image of God? Everyone deserves love, grace, compassion, forgiveness. If any single one of these things is something that cannot be visited on an individual in your life, then you have chosen to murder them. The challenge is laid before us. To live differently. To not murder.

-RJ