"You shall not murder." (Exodus 20:13)
After a thorough study of the scriptures, the Reformers summarized what the fifth commandment means in this way:
"We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need."
On one level, this commandment is very simple. But our questions tend to make it complicated. Let's start with the part that's simple: When God made the world in the beginning, there was no death. Death was not part of the "very good" creation that God made. (Death entered the world with sin. Romans 5:12) Therefore, whether directly or indirectly, all death is the result of sin. And anything we do to urge, encourage of promote death is contrary to good and gracious God's will as revealed in HIs original creation.
It only gets complicated when we try to quibble about words. For example: If we narrowly focus on the text of Exodus 20:13, we might say "murder is a very narrow form of killing, so other forms of killing are okay, right?" In truth, the Hebrew word behind "murder" in Exodus 20:13 very clearly and obviously covers cases of causing human death through carelessness and negligence as well. So this commandment is definitely not as simple as just "do not commit pre-meditated murder." There's more to keeping this commandment than a simple word-study on Exodus 20:13 can support.
The right way with this commandment is to look to God's good and gracious will and do all we can to promote THAT and not to violate it. Our God desires life! So instead of making a move that will hurt or harm a person in his body, we make every effort to help and support him in every physical need.
I am not trying to over-simplify the discussion about issues such as euthanasia (so-called "mercy killing") or life-support decisions. These are far more complicated and require far greater discernment than a brief discussion of Exodus 20:13 can support. If you are faced with these kinds of decisions (or fear that you might be), see your pastor privately. Otherwise, you can wait for the subject to come up in a sermon or an adult Bible class near you!
ReplyDeleteBen: How come God commands other people to kill? Example: When God sent The Angel of Death to the Egyptians? Or when God turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt? So since I know that God can't sin, why is it okay for God to kill?
ReplyDeleteThe short answer is that God is God and we are not. He is not bound by the commandments any more than He is bound by the laws of physics. The commandments are for creatures, not the Creator. And when He commands a human to be the agent of His action, it's helpful to remember it's His action. Fortunately, though, God is just and merciful. When He "kills," it is just (although it doesn't always look that way to us); He does not desire the death of sinners, but that we turn from our sin and live. (1 Timothy 2:4)
Delete