You Shall Not Murder

Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.”

Continuing through this short topic Bible study of the Ten Commandments, the lesson points out that our secular culture no longer takes seriously many of the Ten Commandments of God. In the US Supreme Court case Stone v. Graham (No. 80-321), November 17, 1980 banning the Ten Commandments from being posted in US Public Schools, it was decided that “If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate (honor and respect) and obey the Commandments.”  What do you expect from a nation whose national motto is “In God We Trust” and has it inscribed on all its coins and currency? There is a good argument that our current secular humanistic, worldly and materialistic society does not care much about God or the Ten Commandments prohibitions. Feticide, Infanticide, Genocide, Homicide, Medicide and Suicide are all murder. However, apart from abortion and euthanasia, there is no movement to legalize murder.

Deuteronomy 5:17 “You shall not murder.”

Many translations of this sixth commandment form God say: “You shall not kill”, but the Hebrew word used is actually “רְצָֽח”, pronounced “ratsach” translates to the English word “murder” – to kill a human being. The Hebrew language has several words that mean “kill”, but the word used in this commandment is in the context of taking an innocent life. Not every kind of killing is murder, which means that not all acts of killing are against God’s law. Exodus 22:2-3 does not prescribe the death penalty is a person kills someone in self-defense when the person has no other recourse to protect their life and property. Therefore, killing in a legitimate act of self-defense is not murder and not forbidden by the sixth commandment. The concern in the commandment against murder is to protect innocent life, and in the case of self-defense, the innocent party is the one who must defend their self.

Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”

We sin against God and our fellow man in thought, word and action (or deed), so the Lord Jesus explains that the sixth commandment prohibits also the attitude of the heart that leads to murder. Harboring angry hearts against another person is ungodly and violates the sixth commandment.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Yet even with the sin of murder, anyone who has taken innocent life unjustly will be forgiven in Christ when they repent and believe. The wages of any sin (albeit the unforgivable sin of not accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord) is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).

All praise, honor and glory be to God.