The Sanctity of Life

The sixth word in the Ten Commandments is, "You shall not kill." As we study this commandment we must understand why life is so important to God that He forbids everyone to take the life of another human being.

The reason life is so important to God and that life is sacred is because He is the only one who gives life, sustains life and takes life. Passages such as Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 2:7 and Psalm 139:13-16 clearly inform us of God's role in giving life. It is our responsibility to do everything we can to protect the life that the Lord has given to us and to others. This is seen in Deuteronomy 22:8 how we are to keep our homes safe and as free as possible from people hurting or losing their lives while in our homes.

The next issue to examine is the origin of murder. In Genesis 4:1-10 we see that Cain was envious of Abel due to God accepting Abel's offering and rejecting his own. This envy in Cain's heart eventually led to Cain murdering his brother. 1 John 3:15 outright teaches that if we hate our brothers we are a murderer. And Jesus teaches in Matthew 5:21-22 that we are not to be angry with our brother. Envy, Hatred and Anger in our hearts, being unchecked, would cause us to murder someone in our hearts but not necessarily in the flesh. But Jesus states it is still murder.

God has given us instructions in dealing with murder. First of all, if someone does murder another person they are to lose their life, Genesis 9:5-6. This is to be carried out since God sees murder as an attack on Himself in the individual. It does not matter if it is abortion, euthanasia or any other reason, God sees this as murder. Secondly, we should guard our own hearts of envy, hatred and anger. In Genesis 4:7 God warned Cain of the sin in his heart and told him "to rule over it."
In Matthew 5:23-24 Jesus instructs us that if come to worship and realize our brother has something against us we must be reconciled before we worship. We are not to let relationships go unreconciled. However, if the person refuses to be reconciled then the sin is in their heart. In John 8:34 Jesus warns us that the one who commits sin is a slave of sin. We must be careful to not allow sin to enslave us lest we harden our hearts toward one another and the Lord. Finally, whatever sin is in our lives that could cause us to murder someone in our heart, if we confess the sin we will be forgiven, 1 John 1:9.

Murder is a very serous sin and many of us are guilty in the heart even though we have never physically taken the life of another person. The Lord sees both as an attack on Him. Therefore, let us be so careful that we are not guilty of murdering someone in our hearts which may possibly lead to the actual murder of another person.