You Shall Not Murder

“You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13).

Every moral and civil code in human history has prohibited murder. People have always recognized human life as inherently valuable, certainly more so than plant or animal life. Sociologists have fascinating theories as to why this is so, but the Bible offers a simple explanation. The creation account of Genesis tells us that mankind was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Later, when Noah and his family emerged from the ark to replenish the earth, God warned, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man” (Genesis 9:6). Human life is precious because we are made in God’s likeness.

Murder is an ancient evil, almost as old as mankind. After God rejected Cain’s offering and accepted Abel’s, Cain became angry and killed his brother (Genesis 4:3-8). God’s law had been broken; He said, “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground” (verse 10). For his wickedness Cain was cursed and banished. To destroy what God has created in His own image is a direct assault on His holiness.

The classic translation of the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” can be misleading. The meaning of the word is “murder,” not just “kill.” God’s command to the Israelites did not preclude all killing. Craig Blomberg notes that “the underlying Hebrew did not include killing in self-defense, wars ordered by Yahweh, capital punishment following due process of law, or accidental manslaughter" (Matthew, 106). What this command prohibited was murder — killing as a result of wanton disregard for human life.

Any discussion of God’s command against murder brings up some important issues.

Suicide. Is suicide not simply murder of oneself? The Bible records a number of suicides, but it doesn’t record God’s opinion of them. However, it would be presumptuous to think that He views murder of oneself any differently from murder of another.

“Assisted” suicide. The last few years have focused national attention on this issue. Assisted suicide is when a doctor provides a terminally ill patient with the means to take his own life. Dr. Jack Kervorkian has done this enough times to earn the nickname “Doctor Death.” Some European countries have already legalized euthanasia (Greek for “good death”), and there is pressure from some quarters to make it legal in the U.S. But assisted suicide is still the willful taking of human life. The fact that a person wants to die does not diminish his value before God, nor does it diminish the wrongfulness of taking his life.

Abortion. In many ancient pagan societies, babies that were sick, deformed, or just unwanted were taken outside the city and left to die. We do basically the same thing in modern America. The only difference is that unwanted babies are now neatly (?) disposed of in sterile clinics before they can be born. Americans abort about 1.6 million babies a year — more than all the deaths in all the wars in our nation’s history.

Any way you look at it, the central issue in abortion is whether an unborn fetus is a human being. If it is, then destroying it is murder. The Bible indicates that God recognizes human identity before birth. “For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother’s womb…My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret…Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed” (Psalm 139:13-16). The inspired physician Luke uses the same word for “baby” before birth (1:44) and after (2:16). God views an unborn child as a human life made in His image. For anyone who believes the Scriptures, that should settle the issue of abortion. And knowing that one pregnancy in four ends with the unborn child being murdered ought to sicken us.

New Testament Applications

The New Testament plainly condemns murder (Romans 1:29; 1 Peter 4:15), sometimes simply quoting the sixth commandment (see Romans 13:9; James 2:11). But, as we might expect, Jesus’ teaching on the subject goes even deeper. Hear His words from the sermon on the mount:

You have heard that the ancients were told, “You shall not commit murder” and “Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, “Raca,” shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, “You fool,” shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell (Matthew 5:21-22).

Jesus says that everyday contempt and abuse toward others are just as wicked as murder. He warns against anger without cause. He invokes “raca” (Aramaic for “empty-head” or “worthless”) and “fool” to represent the terms of derision people use to demean one another. He shows that if this is how we treat one another, we do no better than if we were murderers.

Anger is not necessarily evil. Jesus got angry (cf. John 2:14-17). God is angry over sin (Psalm 7:11). Anger isn’t necessarily evil, but it is dangerous. “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity” (Ephesians 4:26-27). We should be slow to anger, “for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (James 2:19-20). Anger is easily hijacked by the evil one and used for his ends. It can cloud our judgment, distort our perceptions, and make us say and do evil things.

Paul expressed concern that he would find at Corinth “strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances” (2 Corinthians 12:20). Notice that all of these are far short of violence, yet they are spiritually destructive. We may not be killers, but contemptuous treatment of one another is just as deadly. “But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another” (Galatians 5:15).

John presses the point even further. “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer…But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:15,17). True faith seeks to meet the needs of others (see James 2:15-16). To close our hearts to the needs of men made in God’s image makes us as guilty before God as if we murdered them.

In conclusion, hear these words of Paul:

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 is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:18-21).