The Commandment You Can't Keep

The Commandment You Can’t Keep

The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Collect of the Day: O God, who declarest thine almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity; Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Homily Text: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s (Exodus 20:17,  BCP, p.87).

When I was a boy our favorite Commandment to recite was the 10th – because we got to say the word “ass. Another thing I recall is the definition of coveting we learned: “Coveting is wanting something some else has enough to take it.” I figured I was OK with the 10th. I might want another guy’s baseball glove, but I wouldn’t away it from him.

If I had known better the meaning of the Commandment I wouldn’t have been so confident about not breaking it.

1.Commandment

“Thou shalt not covet” takes us to the realm of needs and desires. Is all desire wrong? Buddhism offers to get followers beyond the experience of desire so they are indifferent to needs. But need and desire aren’t evil. God made us creatures with needs and desires. Jesus, dying on the cross, expressed need, when he said, “I thirst.” We all get hungry and the desire for food leads not only to the preservation of life but also its enjoyment.

But real needs and good desires can be twisted. Because of our sinfulness, good desires can be perverted so we desire wrong things, or fulfill desires in sinful ways. Desires can take control of us, become our reason for living, and become the god we worship, trust, and serve.

The commandment says, “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”  There is no escaping the reach of the commandment – “anything that is your neighbor’s -  looks, age, health, money, job, children, vacations – anything that is your neighbor’s. Covetousness is being unhappy with what God has given you. It’s when you see what he has given another person and wish you had it, even if it meant the other person lost it.

2.Example

Let’s look for insight into covetousness by looking at some Biblical examples:

• Achan teaches us that coveting can create a desire so strong we are willing to risk destruction. When Joshua led the people across Jordan River, the first city they conquered was Jericho. The LORD told the people to take nothing. Everything in the city was devoted to the LORD either for destruction or dedication:

…keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it.  But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.”  (Joshua 6:18,19).

Jericho fell. Next, they attacked Ai. It was so small Israel believed 3000 men could take it. But Israel was defeated. The army turned and ran and 36 soldiers were killed.

Joshua asked the LORD, “Did you bring us to this land to destroy us?” The LORD rebuked Joshua: “Get up off your face. The problem is that someone took from Jericho things devoted to destruction. Because of that Israel is devoted to destruction until this sin is dealt with. Tomorrow I will show you who is guilty. The next day they cast lots until a man named Achan was singled out. Achan confessed:

“Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did:  when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

Coveting led to destruction. It risked Israel’s destruction. It ended in the destruction of Achan and all his family.

• David teaches us that coveting can quickly become so strong that we become compulsive and impulsive. We must have it and have it now.

Late one afternoon, David was walking on the roof of his palace. He looked down and saw a beautiful woman taking a bath. He lingered to look. He must find out who she was. His servants told him her name was Bathsheba, and she was married to a soldier named Uriah. David sent for her. They committed adultery. Later she sent word that she was pregnant. David had to hide his sin, so he sent word to the army to send Uriah home on leave. But Uriah was a principled soldier. He refused to sleep with his wife, while his fellow soldiers were risking their lives. So, David took the next step. He sent Uriah back to the army carrying his own death warrant. David’s ordered his general to arrange for Uriah to be killed in battle. Coveting another man’s wife led to adultery and adultery to murder. The child conceived died, and from then on there was intrigue and conflict in David’s family.

James describes the process:

… each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when It is fully grown brings forth death (1:13-15).

• Ahab teaches us that coveting makes us indifferent to others and to justice.

Right next to Ahab’s palace in Jezreel there was a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth. Ahab asked Naboth to let him have the vineyard for a vegetable garden. Ahab would give Naboth a better vineyard or to pay him for it, whichever Naboth wanted. Naboth knew the Lord had commanded each family to keep its land and pass it down to future generations. Naboth refused.

Ahab was thwarted. He pouted. At home, he went to be bed, turned his face to the wall and refused to eat. His wife Jezebel asked him what was wrong. He told her. This was no problem for Jezebel. She said, “Aren’t you the king? Cheer up. I’ll get you that vineyard.” Jezebel sent a letter with the king’s seal to the elders of the city. She told them to have a banquet with Naboth as the honoree, but to have some unprincipled stand up and accuse Naboth of cursing both God and the king. Naboth was immediately condemned and executed by stoning.

The prophet Micah describes what Ahab and those like him do:

They covet fields and seize them,
     and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
    a man and his inheritance. (2:2)

Ahab coveted a vineyard so much that he and his wife arranged for men to bear false witness against their neighbor which led to judicial murder. Ahab cared noting for the rights or life of Naboth.

• The rich fool teaches us that covetousness focuses us on this life so much we give no attention to the life to come.

A man asked Jesus to tell his brother to divide the inheritance with him. Jesus took the occasion to issue a warning:

Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:16)

Then Jesus told a story. A rich man’s land produced so plentifully that he had a problem. He thought to himself:

What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’  And he said, I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry (Luke 12:17-19).

But God had a different plan. He said:

Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? (Luke 12:20)

Jesus drove home the point:

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Covetousness focuses our thoughts, purposes, and lives on money and things, perhaps thinking that when we have enough and have lived our lived we will pay attention to God and our souls. Usually that day never comes.

The 10th Commandment is the commandment we cannot keep. That seems to have been St. Paul’s experience:

For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness (Romans 7:7,8).

There was a time when Paul was satisfied with himself regarding his keeping the law and having a righteousness that God approved. But then he thought more deeply about the 10th, and he realized coveting does not have to do with what you do in your external life but what goes on in your heart.

Paul discovered what Jesus had taught:

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. (Mark 7:21,22).

We might get away with saying: “I don’t worship idols. I have never murdered anyone, or robbed a bank, or committed the act of adultery.” But then the 10th Commandment focuses on our hearts, and we cannot honestly say, “I don’t covet.” The 10th Commandment convinces us that we cannot save ourselves by keeping the Law. We need a Savior, Jesus Christ the righteous, who never coveted and then offered his life as the sacrifice for our coveting. Here at this Table he offers us his sacrificed body and shed blood for our salvation.

Trust: the Glue of Community

Trust: The Glue of Community

Tenth Sunday after Trinity

Collect of the Day: Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Homily Text: Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Exodus 20:15,16 (BCP, p. 87)

Suppose that we are not only members of the same church, but  all also neighbors. What is the glue that holds both communities together? Trust. Trust, that if I leave my garage door open in the neighborhood, you will not steal what’s mine. Trust, that when you say something to me or about me at church, I know you will tell the truth.

The two commandments we consider today address both those issues which are necessary for true community to exist, whether our families, our church, our neighborhoods, our towns and cities, our states, or the nation. When these commandments break down, the community starts to fall apart.

1.Thou shalt not steal.

The commandment, “Thou shalt no steal” assumes that we have a right to own personal property and that ordinarily it may not be taken from us. The Declaration of Independence does not list all the inalienable rights, but says among them are these three: “life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.” Many think there is a fourth right of freedom - ownership of property. In America, the government does not own your property; it only records and protects your ownership.

You have stuff - perhaps a house, a car, furniture, jewelry, cash, a bank account, stock investments. Those things are yours, and I may not take them from you. The government may take some of what you own but only as allowed by strict legal procedures. There are: (1) eminent domain laws that allow the government to take your land for public use at a fair price; (2) tax laws that require you to render to the government a certain percentage of your income and the value of your property; and (3) bankruptcy laws that allow courts to transfer ownership of some of your assets to pay some of your debts.

One of the most important Biblical principles of ownership that Christians need to remember is that God owns everything: “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein…” (Ps. 24:1). Whatever we have, we hold in trust for God. As God made Adam the steward of creation at the beginning, so he makes us stewards of whatever he lets us possess. This principle contrasts with two attitudes: (1) “I have a right to some or all of what you have; I will take it if I can,” or (2) “What’s mine is mine, and I will use it as I please.” God’s principle calls us to say, “What’s mine is God’s, and I will use it for him.” The way we use our earthly treasure has a direct connection to how we will be rewarded with heavenly treasure.

There are many forms of theft that God forbids in the 8th commandment:

·        Burglary in which a thief goes into a house and takes some of what belongs to the owner.

·        Extortion when a criminal uses force or the threat of force to take another person’s money or property.

·        Blackmail when someone threatens to ruin a person’s reputation if they do not surrender some of their money or property.

·        Embezzlement in which an employee or trustee secretly takes money or materials entrusted to him.

 An employee’s not giving a full day’s work for a day’s pay or an employer’s not paying a fair wage in a timely manner to those they employ.

·        Price gouging when businesses take advantage of situations like natural disasters to drive up prices.

·        Looting when mobs take advantage of civil unrest to steal from retail businesses.

·        Cheating on tests; plagiarizing another’s work.

·        Stealing utilities. Jackson, MS, has a great problem with people who have tapped into the water system and pay nothing; and many think nothing of tapping into a cable TV line.

·        Not paying debts. I understand the credit card industry can encourage misuse of credit, but it still strikes me as wrong when I hear the commercials that say they will “reveal” the secret that credit care companies don’t want you to know - that though you borrowed it, you don’t have to pay it all back.

The New Testament congregations included people who had lived their lives as pagans who had no contact with the Old Testament moral code. We find St. Paul writing to the Corinthians and Thessalonians to tell them to stop engaging in sexual immorality. He also told the Ephesians, “Let the thief no longer steal.” 

Faith in Christ requires and produces change. When Zacchaeus, who had used his position as a tax collector to extort lots of money received the grace of Jesus, he promised he would return 4 times what he had stolen. In Belfast during the early 1920s there was a work of the Holy Spirit in which many unbelievers became Christians. One result was that shipyard workers filled sheds with tools and equipment they had stolen.

But St. Paul doesn’t stop with telling us to stop stealing. There are two more steps.  Paul goes on to day that the former thief must do “honest work…so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” Paul says “Stop stealing. Then, support yourself by working. Then become a giver not a taker. Be generous with those who really are in need.”  Christians don’t work just to have enough for themselves but to have enough to give. The result in the early Jerusalem church was that “there was not a needy person among them.”

God says, “Don’t steal; work and give.”

2. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

Susan doesn’t like bargaining. She thinks, if you want to buy something, the seller ought to tell you the price, and you decide whether you can afford it. That’s the way it works at the grocery and department stores and the gas station.

But some things like cars and houses require negotiation and bargaining. We visited Turkey for a missionary conference. On the streets of the towns we visited, we encountered everywhere sellers of Oriental rugs. We resisted till the last day when I determined we weren’t going home without a rug. I understood the stated price of a rug meant nothing. So, I began to bargain with the merchant. We haggled back and forth, until at last we agreed on a price. I felt triumphant. I got the rug for much below the price he quoted. But I expect the merchant was thinking, “Another dumb American I tricked into thinking he got a deal.” (This is a little bit of a sore spot with me; when Susan asked the kids if they wanted some of our rugs, one said he wanted my rug, but I really liked that rug and thought it was mine.)

I am not sure what I think about the morality of bargaining. It feels like neither side in truthful and sincere. These situations make me think about what it means to be honest.

The 9th Commandment says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” The context is a trial. The Commandment means “Thou shalt not bear false testimony against thy neighbor.” This is where it is most critical to tell the truth. In a trial a person’s life, freedom, or property is at stake. If you lie, the person could lose his property, his freedom, or even his life.

But, why would you lie? You might be a cynic who cares nothing about truth or justice. Or, maybe you know the person is not guilty of this crime, but is guilty of other crimes, so you figure in the end your lie will mean he gets justice. Or, it could be that this person is your enemy, so you lie against him and are glad he suffers punishment. God warns us, “When you are called into court to give testimony, tell the truth no matter who is on trial or what the truth may cost you.”

If this command forbids us to lie in court, it has implications for all our lies: (1) lies to make ourselves look good, especially in comparison to others; (2) lies to make others look bad because we do not like them or because by making them look bad we make ourselves look good; (3) lies to keep ourselves out of trouble; (4) lies to give us an advantage over others.

We tell outright lies – things we tell for the truth but know are lies. We tell half-truths when we tell the truth, but what we leave out makes what we say a lie. We lie when we withhold information to which others have a right. The trouble is that we lie so much, we no longer know when we are lying.

We are not required to say everything we know, think, or feel – sometimes silence is the way of love. But, if we speak, we must speak the truth.

God is a God of truth whose words can be counted on as true. We can count on what God says in the Bible without reservations. God wants us to be like him. The Old Testament law says, “You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God; I am the LORD.” In the New Testament, St. Paul tells us, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth to his neighbor, for we are members of one another.”

What holds a community together? Trust. Trust is based on respecting one another’s property and respecting the truth. Don’t take what is not yours, whether it’s your neighbor’s axe or a tax refund. Don’t lie. Let others trust what you say.

The good news for us all is that Jesus died to save thieves and liars such as we are. He took all our thieving and lying on himself as his own guilt, and he suffered what we deserve to suffer for these sins. By faith we receive Jesus and the grace he offers.  Our guilt is removed. Our condemnation is no more. Our consciences no longer accuse us. God’s grace begins to transform us into trustworthy disciples of Jesus.

Grace comes into our lives by Word and Sacrament.

The Undefiled Bed

The Undefiled Bed

Ninth after Trinity

Collect of the Day: Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Homily Text: Thou shalt not commit adultery. BCP, p.87.

I believe that we are living in an age of sexual crisis which may determine if western civilization will survive.

Sexual activity is now a matter of personal rights. The only rule is that anyone may do anything sexually he or she wishes so long as there is consent, if another person is involved. Law enforcement still tries to suppress prostitution. The law still forbids having more than one legal spouse at a time, but does not limit the number of sexual partners a married person may have.  Beyond prostitution and polygamy, the cultural consensus is that very few things are wrong: bestiality, pedophilia, and coercive sex.

Heterosexual marriage is optional; conceiving children without marriage is acceptable; homosexual practice is not only tolerated but approved; there is no difference between homosexual and heterosexual marriage; free pornography is available with a click on the internet; gender identity is fluid.

The church is under great pressure to conform to the culture’s consensus. This is a time when the church in the west greatly needs to hear and heed the seventh commandment: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

1.The Origin of Sex

How did human sex come about? It was a part of God’s good purpose when he created humans. Genesis 1 tells us: “…God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” God created two sexes both in his image. He blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply.”

Genesis 2 tells us about the creation of woman. God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make a helper fit for him.” God made the woman from the man, and brought her to Adam. Adam immediately realized that, while he could relate to animals as fellow creatures, this was the creature he needed to experience a human connection. Adam said, “This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” God said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” The account concludes with the observation: “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

The basics about sex are found in creation story. God made two sexes, male and female. God blessed them and charged them to have children. God made them to complement and complete each other. He meant for them to have a one-flesh relationship. And they felt no shame being together and naked.

2. The Purposes of Sex

If God created humans as sexual beings, what were the purposes of sex?

First, sex has a procreative purpose. God clearly intended that man and woman would bring children into the world – “Be fruitful and multiply.” It is a tragedy for couples when they want but cannot have children. They need our understanding and support. There are legitimate reasons to limit the number of children we have. But we must also challenge the reasoning that, “If we have children or more than 1 or 2 children, we will not be able to have  or do the things we want.” God made us to bring children into the world. It is not having children that must be justified but the decision not to have children.

The U.S. birthrate is the lowest it has ever been. In 2016 there were 62 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44. This is below the replacement rate. If it were not for immigrants, the U.S. population would be declining. At the same time, because of the baby boom following WW II, we have a growing senior population many of whom are dependent upon Social Security and Medicare. Our society is likely going to face very hard decisions as the disparity between those working and those not working grows. There are social consequences to not having children.

But there are also spiritual consequences. How are most Christians made? By birth, baptism, and Christian nurture. If Christians continue not to have children, the Christian population of our country will decline, and that could have grave moral consequences for both church and country.  

Second, God created sex for expressing and deepening the whole person oneness of a married couple. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” By the joining of two bodies there is a joining of two persons. Even though the term “making love” has been debased by using it for any sexual activity involving two persons, in marriage sex is meant to be a “making of love.”

There can be reasons why it is difficult for couples to achieve this. A person’s sexuality can be so twisted as to make it very difficult for a couple to achieve oneness through sex. Or, past experiences of abuse may make it difficult for one or the other fully to give their selves to the other. Or, sometimes a false guilt, caused by the family environment or even the teaching of the church, can make it hard to experience this oneness.

But, all who are married should seek by God’s help to experience the oneness God intends sex to enhance.

Third, God made sex for legitimate pleasure. The church has sometimes taught otherwise, but the Bible is clear that there is a pleasure that is good in the married sexual experience, and God meant for that to be.

If you doubt that, read the Song of Solomon. For now, just consider these words from the Proverbs. A father, warning his son, against prostitutes, points him to the God-intended pleasure of sex with his wife:

Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
    a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;
   be intoxicated always in her love (Proverbs 5:18,19).

Recently I came across these insightful words about sex within marriage:

God created sex to be a bond between a husband and wife that strengthens over time. Married couples make love on their honeymoon and after a miscarriage. They make love to conceive children and after they bury them. They make love when bodies are healthy and during battles against cancer. As a husband and wife pursue each other through intimate service, sacrifice, and struggle, God blesses them in a way the world can never know… 

…God designed sex to be best enjoyed when it is based on something other than appearance or performance. He bases it on committed love that reflects the unending love he has for all those who trust in Christ. (Good Love Making Is About God – Garrett Kell, Desiring God, July 11, 2017).

The Bible teaches that sex within marriage has these three purposes: bringing children into the world, developing oneness between a husband and wife, and giving and receiving God-approved pleasure.

3. Seventh Commandment

If God made us sexual beings and intended sex to be a blessing, why this negative command, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”? The answer requires little reflection. With sex sin has corrupted both the heart and body.

What does command require? Chastity before marriage. Faithfulness in marriage. The marriage of a man and woman, who intend to make a lifelong commitment to each other, is the only context for God pleasing sex. This command protects the marriage commitment and intimacy.

Within marriage God wants us to be generous to one another. St Paul says:

The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another… (1 Corinthians 7:3-5).

What does this command forbid? Everything that is contrary to chastity and faithfulness. Jesus and the Apostles give us very strong warnings about sexual immorality.

Jesus taught:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell (Matthew 5:27-30).

St Paul warned:

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body…Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!  Or do you not know that he who is joined^] to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”  But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.  Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:12-20).

The writer of Hebrews exhorts us:

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous (Hebrews 13:4).  

What’s the answer for those who in one way or another broken this commandment? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness… If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.” The sacrificed body and shed blood of Jesus atones for all our sins.

 

The Least Broken Commandment?

The Least Broken Commandment?

The Eighth Sunday after Trinity

The Transfiguration of Christ

Collect for the Eighth after Trinity: O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Collect for the Transfiguration of Christ: O God, who on the mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thine only-begotten Son wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening; Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may be permitted to behold the King in his beauty, who with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen

Homily Text: Thou shalt do no murder. Exodus 20:13 (BCP, p. 87)

A young man, who was rich and the lay leader of the local synagogue, asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” The man asked, “Which ones?” Jesus replied, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,  Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  The man replied, “All these I have kept from my youth.” He was confident he had lived by all the Commandments.

You and I know ourselves better. But, if we were asked to pick just one commandment we have not broken, which would it be? I expect the one most of us would name is the 6^th, “Thou shalt not kill.”

1.  Thou Shalt Not Murder

·        The commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” is based on the uniqueness of human life. Many deny that there is anything unique about human life that sets it apart from other forms of life, especially the higher primates. We are just a little higher on the evolutionary chain of development.

But God puts an absolute line of distinction between humans and all other forms of life. Genesis 1 tells us:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

                                    So God created man in his own image                                            in the image of God he created him;
                                   male and female he created them.

             

              Genesis 2 tells us about the special creation of man:

                         … the Lord God formed the man of dust from the                              ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of                          life, and the man became a living creature. 

Human life is unique] because God made humans in his own image by an act of special creation and gave them rule over the rest of creation.

·        That is the context for the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” But what does “Thou shall not kill mean”? Some take it as an absolute prohibition of all killing, including the hunting and slaughtering of animals for food. More take it as an absolute prohibition of all intentional taking of human life.

o   Recently we watched the movie “Hacksaw Ridge.” It is based on the true story during WW II of Desmond Doss from Lynchburg. He was the first conscientious objector to win the Medal of Honor. He was a Medic, and, when his battalion retreated, he remained alone among the wounded on Hacksaw Ridge. He is credited with rescuing 75 wounded soldiers. Doss was a patriotic man who joined the Army, but he was also a Seventh Day Adventist, and would not carry a rifle nor take any action that could kill the enemy. As he understood it, when the Bible says, “Thou shalt not kill,” it means no one could intentionally take another life, not even in war.  

o   But he was clearly wrong. After the flood, God knew that the flood had not cured the problem of sin and that violence would continue, so God himself commanded the taking of human life to protect human life from murderers:

And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
       by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.”

The Hebrew word translated “kill” is one of nine words the Hebrew language uses that means “to kill.” The translation in the Prayer Book, “Thou shalt do no murder,” is correct. The commandment does not forbid taking of human life in self-defense, nor as a soldier in war, nor as a policeman or prison official to protect the public and execute justice.

o   The commandment requires us to do everything necessary and possible to protect human life. It forbids us to do anything unjust that would lead to the taking of human life. It forbids physically attacking or murdering another person. We may not intentionally take a human life without justifiable cause, or kill a person in rage or by carelessness or recklessness.

·        The 6^th Commandment speaks to two contemporary issues?

o   Abortion and Infanticide. It is evident to anyone who believes in the sanctity of human life that actively aborting a baby in late pregnancy or passively allowing a just born baby to die. Unfortunately there are many, who in the interests of a “woman’s right to choose,” believe it is a mother’s right to end the life of her child about to be born, or even already born, for any reason she deems right.

What about early abortion? The reason we cannot approve abortion even in early pregnancy is that we cannot make any reasonable distinction between the just fertilized ovum and the full-term child. The fact that women mourn miscarriages is powerful proof that we have an intuitive sense that a baby is a human life at any stage of development.

o   Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, and Suicide. There is increasing pressure today for society, particularly the medical profession, to determine when a human life is not worth living. It is one thing artificially to prolong death when there is no hope of recovery. It is another thing to ration legitimate medical care, to withhold treatment because the person’s life is not considered of sufficient value to prolong it, or to enable a patient who does not want to live to end his or her own life.

      

To sum up: The 6^th Commandment forbids all unjust taking of human life.

2.  Thou shalt not hate.

·        We might think so far that we are in the clear. We have never murdered anyone, and we are pro-life from conception till natural death. But then we find that Jesus has something to say about the 6^th Commandment.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.  Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny (Matthew 5:21-26).

·         Jesus confronted the contemporary consensus understanding of the 6^th Commandment which was: If you do not engage in physical violence that could lead to death or unjustly cause the death of a human being you have kept the Commandment. But Jesus challenges that understanding. He does two things:(1) He deepens the Commandment by going inside to the heart, and (2) he broadens the Commandment by looking at the implications of the Commandment for daily life. He teaches 4 things:

o   Malice, hatred, and anger in our hearts break the 6^th Commandment. Yes, there is righteous hatred and anger. God has them perfectly. Sometimes we may have that kind of hatred and anger when faced with great evil such as terrorism or government corruption.  But, most of our malice, hatred, and anger are personal. We have those things in our hearts because someone has hurt and offended us in some way.

o   When we speak angry, insulting, demeaning words to another person, we break the 6^th Commandment. Murder is wrong because it is an attack on a person made in God’s image. Angry, insulting, and demeaning words are also attacks on a person made in God’s image.

o   Resolving problems you have caused with another person takes precedence over worship. If you have done something wrong that hurt and offended another person so that there is estrangement between the two of you, go fix it, then come to church.

o   When you have a dispute with another person, do all you can to resolve it quickly and informally, so that there is no permanent estrangement between you and your adversary.

·        What Jesus is doing is calling our attention to something that was already said in the Old Testament, that goes to the heart, but we tend to forget or repress. God’s Law tells you not only what you must not do, but what you must do in your relationships with others: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

I am afraid that, far from being the one Commandment we have kept, the 6^th Commandment may be the one we break most often. We’re all murderers according to Jesus. But here’s the good news: Jesus died for sinners. Even we murderers may be forgiven if we trust in the sacrificed Body and shed Blood of Jesus.