Thou Shall Not Kill

It is always amazes me how we find ways to qualify direct commands. Your boss tells you to meet a deadline and you find yourself perplexed when he gets angry because your two days late. You get stopped for speeding and immediately you offer up the excuse that you are in a hurry. The bible tells us we are not to kill and straight away someone claims exceptions such as war and capital punishment. So, are we or arent we to kill; and exactly what does the word kill imply? To add to this confusion we can throw in left verse right politics. The leftist are against war and capital punishment, yet they are pro abortioni. The rightist are hawks on war and capital punishment, yet they are pro life. But shouldnt it be reasonable to believe any right thinking person who has been a witness to war would be against it. But the same could be said of any right thinking person who witnesses an abortion would be against it. Is this confusing or not?

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The answer should we or shouldnt we take a life is not an easy yes or no answer. The command has more to do with the sanctity of life than it does with retribution for taking a life. But it should be noted justice is implied in the command when a life is taken. To make this all the more confusing the word not is a total negation of the

noun. Thus we are right back where we started; we are never to kill unless we have a good reason for killing. The obvious question is what constitutes a good reason. Deuteronomy 19:16-21 can help us work through this conundrum. Deuteronomy 19:16-21 (NKJV) 16 If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17 then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days. 18 And the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother, 19 then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so you shall put away the evil from among you. 20 And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. The scenario in the passage involves someone being tried for a crime. The crime could be anything illegal but for our argument the defendant is on trial for murder. There are two witnesses (as required by law) but both are false; they have lied about the defendant. This is discovered and the two witnesses are found guilty. Their punishment is now to be the punishment the original defendant would have received if he had been found guilty. In our case the false witnesses would have received capital punishment; a death sentence. The case law would read thusly, the false witnesses lie would have resulted in the death of the defendant if he had been found guilty. Since all lies are intentional they are found to be guilty of intentional murder. Their sentence is just because of the intentionality of their lie and because the punishment fits the crime. Their crime would have resulted falsely in the death of another; therefore their death is just retribution. So, if someone intentionally murders another with malice and forethought their life taken is just retribution. The overriding issue is not justice for sake of justice; rather it is punishment befitting the crime so as to be an appropriate determent. This not only put emphasis on prevention of intentional murder; but also speaks to any activity which is dangerous enough to cause the death of another. Scripture draws upon my last conclusion in Deuteronomy 22:8 (NKJV) "When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it. This verse tells we are to build a railing around our roof so that when we are on the roof we don t accidentally fall off and hurt or kill ourselves. The point of this and the command thou shall not kill is we are to take measures to protect and preserve life. When we dont, we then become liable when someone dies as a result of our negligence.

What are some of our parapets today; any dangerous activity which may cause the death of a human being? So the next time you get behind the wheel drunk or you are driving and texting, think about the consequences of your actions; not just your liability but the possibility of the death of another. The above commands plainly state we are doing the right thing when we protect our lives; but we are also to be about the business of protecting those who dont have the power or ability to protect themselves. What we have been discussing is the preservation of physical life; but there is a strong parallel to be made here with the preservation of our spiritual life through the gospel of Christ. This ties in with the gospel in that the greatest and ultimate life preserving act was the cross. Therefore, while we are obligated to do all we can to preserve physical life we are also commanded to spread the gospel with the intent to preserve spiritual life. It is difficult if not impossible to tell yourself you are concerned with the life of others if you are not concerned with their eternal life.

Knowledge, like air, is vital to life. Like air, no one should be denied it.
Gregg
I would like to thank Dr. Dan Doriani and Covenant Theological Seminary for making the course, Christian Ethics, freely available at: http://www.covenantseminary.edu/resources/courses/christian-ethics-doriani/

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I will deal with abortion as a single issue in greater depth at a later time. All comics can be found at http://www.gocomics.com