THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

"Thou shalt do no murder."-Exodus 20:13.

 

This second commandment in the second table of the Decalogue is the first that deals purely and simply with the relation of man to man. So closely allied is human interrelation to the relation existing between God and man, that this first word conditioning the former is based upon the latter. At the very foundation of the social fabric lies the fact of the sovereignty of God over every individual life. Before defining the laws which are to condition the well-being of society, the realm in which there may be no action based only on human will is clearly defined. Human life is emphatically declared to be sacred. It is a Divine creation, mysterious and magnificent in its genesis and possibility, utterly beyond the control or comprehension of any human being. It is, therefore, never to be taken at the will of one, who can by no means know the full meaning of its being. The revelation of God made to man proves that He has purposes for every individual and for the race, stretching far beyond the present moment or manifestation; and to terminate a single life is to set up the humor and wisdom of man as superior to that of God. The immensity of the issues of death is so great that there can be no sin against humanity, and, therefore, against God, greater than that of taking life. In this brief commandment, therefore, is contained a statement of the first principle of human life, so clear and so vital as to demand the closest attention. Notice, then, first, the command; secondly, the application of the principle it contains to the present day; and lastly, its application in the Kingdom of God.

The Command

Man's first relationship is to God. He is His offspring. He is, and he is what he is, by Divine volition and power. All other relationships grow out of this first one, and are, therefore, subservient to it. Subsequent commandments dealing with blood, social, and civic ties, are all binding upon men, because they are included within this first and highest relationship of life. The sacredness of marriage, the right of property, the importance of reputation, and the supremacy of character, all gain their force and value from the nature of life. They mark, in fact, the unfolding of life in its varied possibilities. The giving of life includes all. The cessation of life ends all. Every power of the individual is due to the power of God, and all the possibilities of the race are to be traced to the same original source. It follows, then, of necessity, that life, being a gift of God, is in itself the most wonderful relationship, that of man to God. This commandment, therefore, in simplest words, and yet in sternest manner, flings a fiery law around the life of every human being, reserving to Him Who first bestowed it the right to end it.

The change in translation which the Revised Version has given is significant and important. Instead of "Thou shalt not kill," it reads "Thou shalt do no murder," and there is a difference in the thought suggested. It is possible to kill and yet not to murder; it is necessary, therefore, to have a clear understanding of what murder really is. Under the old economy, cities of refuge were provided, into which a homicidal criminal might pass and find protection from the avenger of blood. A careful perusal of the account of the institution of these cities in Num. 35:9-34 will throw light upon the difference that may exist between killing and murder. All murder is, of course, killing, but all killing is not necessarily murder. In the passage referred to, the word "unwittingly" (R.V.), "unawares" (A.V.), reveals the difference. The man who, through error, unintentionally took the life of his fellow-man was allowed to take refuge within one of these cities. It is, however, explicitly stated that if the deed were done intentionally the city of refuge itself did not offer sanctuary.

Here, then, is the difference between killing and murder. Killing is unwitting and unintentional taking of life; murder consists in the intentional taking of human life on the alone responsibility of human will.

Let it be clearly noticed in passing that killing unwittingly was not looked upon as a light offence. The man who took life in this way was denied his liberty for an indefinite term. His safety was to be conditioned in his abiding in the city of refuge until the death of the High Priest. If he ventured from the safety of those protecting walls he also might pay the penalty of death at the hands of the avenger of blood. For the murderer, however, the man who of malicious intention took the life of his fellow-man, no sanctuary was to be found on the face of the earth.

The simplicity of the commandment reveals its far-reaching application. Whoever is murdered, and whomsoever by, the law of God is against the act. This, in common with every utterance of Divine government, is no piece of class legislation; but human life is of value because it is human life, whether its days are being passed in the purple of the court, or in the rags of the dump; and the claim of man to safety from death at the hands of his fellowman is based upon the life he has received from God, not upon the accidental circumstances that are so largely the outcome of human arrangement.

In the same way the person taking the life of another is a murderer, whatever the social position may be. Taking human life is never made legal by the privilege of power, or plea of poverty. God clearly declares life, thinking, and acting life, to be outside the realm where the will of man has any right to act as to its continuance or cessation.

This at once marks as murder the intentional taking of human life, whether by the individual, by society, or by the nation; and brands as a breaking of the commandment the act of killing, capital punishment, and all war, except where such act, such punishment, such war, immediately and unequivocally follow the clearly-expressed commandment of God. (The death penalty legally sanctioned by a society or government for extremely serious offenses. Capital punishment was legislated in ancient Israel and appears to be divinely ordered. OT passage which instituted this penalty is Gen 9:6. New Testament passages which substantiate present day government responsibilities is Acts 25:11; Rom. 13:4.)

In the history of the ancient Hebrew people God delegated His right to men for the maintenance of a social order based upon righteousness. (Gen. 9:6) The death penalty was visited at His express command upon certain forms of sin, and wherever the hand of man took the life of his fellow-man under the clearly-marked conditions of the Divine economy, killing was not murder, but the carrying out of the Divine will through a human instrument. Achan, stoned to death, did not lose his life by the volition of his fellow-men. It was forfeited by the will of God at the hands of men. The executioners were but carrying out the express order of heaven. No leader of the old time, whether he were judge, king, or prophet, had any right of his own will, even in the interest of the nation, to take human life. The matter was very different when God made man the agent of His act. That the death sentence was never passed at the caprice of human will is most certainly proved by a careful study of the Mosaic economy, in which the sins which were punishable by death are minutely described, and the laws of their detection and judgment carefully expressed.

The same line of argument applies to the question of war under the old economy. The only justifiable wars in human history have been those undertaken immediately and directly in obedience to a definitely express Divine command. In such cases God chose to make man, instead of plague or of famine, the agent of His act of judgment. The history of the ancient people proves that when wars were undertaken only under these conditions the loss of life was almost entirely upon the side of those against whom God sent His hosts. When, as was often the case, God's people entered into war upon their own initiative, they were routed with slaughter. The whole history of the Hebrew people proves that the 6th commandment was of abiding importance. Human life in every divine economy has been held sacred from the attack of man upon his own initiative.

The Application of the Principle to the Present Day

(New Testament passages which substantiate present day government responsibilities is Acts 25:11; Rom. 13:4.)

There are other forms of murder in these latter days, which are peculiarly the product of the age, and which are hardly ever named murder, because it is difficult sometimes to detect the hand that strikes the deadly blow. The oppression of masses of people in the hunt for wealth is murder, and though our laws are so feeble that they are unable to detect the wrong-doers and punish them, this keen, swift word of God traces every murderer to his home, and the God Who hears the cry of His suffering people will call all such to account. The victims of lead-poisoning in the potteries and now in the drinking water due to old piping in Michigan, and of "pliossy-jaw" in the match factories, are murdered by the men who, claiming to be free from all blame, too often desecrate the tabernacle of God by unholy gifts. The death of the little child in the over-crowded hells of the slums is murder by the man who gathers his wealth from the rack-rented houses, without a care for those who perish that he may gain. "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen. 4:9) is a very popular sentiment even today; but men seem to forget that the lips that first uttered the words do not recommend the sentiment.

The Infinite Love has found its fullest expression in this Christian age, and therefore human life is more than ever sacred. God has not for the last two thousand years delegated to a nation His own right over human life, for among the records there is none proving that He has ordained war, since His Son declined the use of the sword for the winning of His victories.

The Application in the Kingdom of God

So far the subject of the application of the law to the whole age has been under consideration. In conclusion it may be asked in what sense the commandment is binding upon those who are actually within the kingdom, claiming that Christ is absolute Ruler in their lives.

In the law of the Kingdom enunciated upon the mount of old, He said, "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire." (Matt. 5:22) Here murder is tracked to its nest, anger; and the King declares that if anger be in the life of one of His subjects, such subject is in danger of judgment; that if anger find an expression in contempt, "Raca," such subject shall be "in danger of the council," that is, of discipline. And if such subject shall say "Thou fool," that is an expression that marks condemnation; such subject shall be "in danger of the hell of fire."

There is no room here for a question as to whether a man in the Kingdom may take the life of another. He is not to be even angry with his brother. The Revised Version has omitted the words "without a cause," for while many ancient authorities insert it, the weight of opinion is in favor of the view that Jesus did not use these words. Anger itself in the heart against a man is contrary to the genius and spirit of Jesus. Anger there will be, and must be, against sin; but, as in the case of the Lord Himself, anger against sin is not anger against the sinner. All the aggressive force of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is to be directed against sin, and none of it against the men who are in the grip of sin. The Church of Christ has always been renegade from the Spirit of Christ when she has attempted to carry on His warfare with the weapons that are carnal; and when in the name of the Prince of Life, life has been destroyed, He has been insulted, and this 6th commandment has been broken. Under the kingship of Jesus, if the possibility of murder lurks within the heart of man, it is counted as murder. Whenever He triumphs in human life He creates the man, in dealing with whom all other human life is reckoned sacred.

The nation, the society, the individual which takes life of set purpose is guilty of murder. This is hardly the age in which such a sentiment will be popular, but it is getting to be time that the Church cease debating the dishonesties of the age, and find her way back to bedrock principles, refusing absolutely to be frightened or cajoled into complicity with movements that are in their very nature contradictory to, and subversive of, the teaching and the Spirit of Christ. As yet there has been no answer to the philosophy of Russell Lowell's satire:

Ez fer war, I call it murder,

There you hey it plain and flat; I don't want to go no furder
Than my Testyment fer that.
God hez sed so plump an' fairly,
It's ez long ez it is broad,
An' you've gut to git up airly
Ef you want to take in God.
'Taint your eppyletts an' fethers
Make the thing a grain more right;
'Taint affollerin' your bellwethers Will excuse ye in His sight.
Ef you take a sword an' dror it,
An' go stick a feller thru,
Guy'ment aint to answer for it,
God'll send the bill to you.

There is a vast amount of highly respectable, cultured, and most interesting paganism abroad in the world; and it is, after all, much to be preferred to the barbarism of the past; but, in the name of God and Christ, let the line of demarcation between this paganism and Christianity is clear and distinct. The Divine word was given on Sinai, amid the thunder and the lightning, "Thou shalt do no murder." That word in gentle speech, far more searching and binding, is breathed through the Christian era, from the lips of Him Who died to save life; and whenever a human life is slain upon the field of battle, or taken in the name of society, or murdered in the interests of the wealthy, His wounding is repeated, and His teaching trampled underfoot. The simple facts should be kept in mind. Life is of God. To take it, as to give it, is His prerogative. Man has no right to do so, except where immediately delegated to the work by the express command of the Most High. In this dispensation of grace, God never delegates this right to man. Those, then, who are His, must decline to have any complicity with war, raise their protest against punishment which takes life, refuse to have profit or pleasure at the cost of human life, and so live in communion with Him, that anger shall be destroyed within, except as it moves in the power of His infinite love against evil in every form.