The Ten Commandments – Six

A couple of years ago, there was a facial tissue commercial on television that promoted a new tissue that had a chemical embedded that would kill germs. In the commercial, a religious man refused to use the tissue because he remembered the commandment “thou shalt not kill,” and didn't want to kill the germs. I thought this was a perfect example of how ignorant people are of Scripture and its meaning.

Any modern translation clears this up. In the New International Version, it says, “You shall not murder.” This commandment sets the stage for human rights, human dignity, human protection and the first charge of any government. Life is precious and only God should take it, unless it is taken by a fair and sanctioned body with just cause. In other words, we are not to take innocent human life.

If we are not careful, life can become so cheap. Governments murder their people in our world today for nothing more than having opposing political views, criminals murder people to take their cars or shoes or the change in their pockets, and mothers murder their unborn children because they are inconvenient or unwanted. Life is not cheap, it is precious and it belongs to God.

But what about war? It depends. If we go to war to protect freedom or stop oppression or defend our own people, it is justified, but if we go to war to expand our territory, then not so much. And, if God tells a people to go to war, then he has a reason for it and it's justified. Again, this is why we need to study the Scripture. This commandment is talking about murdering an innocent person. This commandment is not a prohibition against capital punishment, and is not talking about killing in battle or to protect someone.

Jesus moved this commandment to its core, the human heart. He said not to even hate one another, but to love each other and pray for each other instead. Paul added that we should not seek revenge. Life is precious to God and it should be precious to us as well. The first commandment dealing with how we treat one another is to protect and defend the dignity of life itself.