Thou Shalt Not Kill or The Sanctity of Life

I. The Definition

A. It forbids homicide or murder

1. Hebrew word for “kill” is tirtzach and means “murder”

2. Distinctions are made in killing:

a) Murder

b) Manslaughter

c) Negligence

d) Accident

e) Capital punishment

f) War

g) The difference is in the pre-meditation, the motive or lack there-of and the amount of negligence.

B. It forbids abortion

C. It forbids suicide

1. Prohibition against suicide as well as murder

2. It is not your life

3. There are difficulties

“The physical and emotional condition of terminally ill people. Like those suffering from the advanced stages of AIDS challenges the compassion of a no-suicide policy, but the theological difficulties of establishing acceptable criteria for suicide are too problematic.”

4. Note: Suicide is not the unpardonable sin

a) Most suicides happen when a person is in a state of depression and often not in their “right mind”

b) Just as murder can be forgiven, so too, suicide can

D. It forbids euthanasia

1. Note difference between active and passive euthanasia

2. The weak need their lives protected, not disposed

II. The Exceptions

A. Capital Punishment

1. The verses

(Lev. 24:17) "And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death."

(Ro.13:4) "For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."

(Eccl. 8:11) "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."

(Nu. 35:16) "And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death."

2. Reasons for capital punishment

a) It is a deterrent (Deut. 17:12)

b) It is an act of justice apart from being a deterrent

(1) It recognizes the value of an innocent life

(2) It provides some means of justice for the family of the victim

c) It is commanded in all five books of the Law (the only command with this distinction)

d) It gives value to life

(1) Richard G. Durant “What a society does to one who murders an innocent person proclaims quite clearly to one and all how much it values the life of that innocent person. A truly civilized society has not other choice than to demand the ultimate punishment. Anything less demeans the society¾and life.”

(2) When we allow murder, we devalue life

B. Self-defense

1. You have the right, even the obligation to defend yourself

(Ex. 22:2) "If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him."

(2 Sam. 2:22-23) Abner slays Asahel after Asahel continued to pursue him.

2. What about turning the other cheek?

a) This does not prevent us from protecting ourselves

(1) Especially when we are also the primary protectors of others in our family or in society

(2) We have a duty to protect ourselves & others in war also

b) This refers to the attitude we ought to have in dealing with others when we are wronged

(1) There are times that we are to allow ourselves to be wronged even when we are in the right

(2) There are times when we are being persecuted and we cannot fight back. Jesus turned the other cheek.

C. War

1. The case for war

a) Israel was commanded by God to go to war against the nations they were conquering

(1) Many secularists have used this as an occasion to say that God is a tyrant or that He does not exist

(2) This was God’s way of both judging those nations for their sins and giving Israel the land

b) National obligations are different from personal ones

(1) There will be wars during the tribulation

(2) “There will be wars and rumors…”

(Eccl. 3:8) "A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."

2. Two questions:

a) How do you determine a just war?

(1) There are many so-called “holy wars” being fought today that are nothing but a lust for power and hatred for other races

(2) There are wars that are obligatory where one cannot in good conscience sit on the sidelines like Switzerland

b) What about fighting a war that may be unjust but it is your civil duty to fight?

(1) You can refuse to fight if you feel it is immoral

(2) I think the personal responsibility for fighting in a war that may not be “holy” is lessened if not negated by the fact that we are obligated to be good citizens

D. Defense of the innocent

1. Jews during the holocaust

2. The unborn

3. Verses

a) Lev. 19:16

b) Cain asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

4. We are our brother’s keeper

a) Illus. Kitty Genovese in NYC

b) People today feel like they are not responsible as long as it doesn’t involve them

c) Illus. Jewish tradition teaches that if you save a life you save the world. The thought is that when you lose a family member, it is if you have lost the world. The rest of the world doesn’t matter at the moment that you lose a child to murder. You have lost the world.

III. The Explanation For the Command

A. We are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26)

1. This gives man dignity and value

2. This gives life purpose and meaning

B. Human life is sacred, valuable

C. God is sovereign over life and death (Job 1:21; Deut. 32:39; Ps. 139:16)

D. Our body as well as our spirit belongs to God (1 Co. 6:19-20)

E. God has a purpose for everything even when we don’t understand that purpose

F. As a result of the fall, death is inevitable, but it is God’s prerogative

G. Prevent the slippery slope

Dr. Leo Alexander on the “why” of the Holocaust “Whatever proportions these crimes finally assumed, it became evident to all who investigated them that they had started from small beginnings. The beginnings at first were merely a subtle shift in emphasis in the basic attitudes of the physicians. It started with the acceptance of the attitude, basic to the euthanasia movement, that there is such a thing as a life not worthy to be lived. This attitude in its early stages concerned itself merely with the severely and chronically sick. Gradually the sphere of those to be included in this category was enlarged to encompass the socially unproductive, the ideologically unwanted, the racially unwanted and finally all non-Germans.”[i]

“In regard to selective euthanasia, we must be concerned with what the next step is likely to be. Societies always tend to expand the number of conditions and groups targeted for this ‘special treatment’ or ‘final solution,’ and I agree with the concerns…about the impact of medically sanctioned suicide on the poor and handicapped.”[ii]

“Moreover, euthanasia and assisted suicide are socially disastrous. They are not containable by placing legal limits on their practice. Arguments to the contrary, the ‘slippery slope’ is an inescapable logical, psychological, historical, and empirical reality.”[iii]

1. We will rationalize the taking of life

a) Thus abortion and euthanasia can be “good” things

b) We will devalue life

2. Right to die will become the duty to die

Professor Margaret P. Battin: “It is not at all difficult to imagine the development of social expectations around the notion that there is a time to die, or, indeed, that it is a matter of virtue or obligation to choose to die.” It should not be “viewed as a violation of rights. In an age-rationing society there is no right to live maximally on.”[iv]

Derek Humphrey: “Aid to the elderly in dying [will] by sheer force of public opinion [be] addressed ethically and legally”[v] once PAS is legalized.

Richard Lamm former Gov. of Colorado: old people “have a duty to die and get out of the way.” “We must ask ourselves, in a world of limited resources, does it make sense to spend ten thousand dollars a year to educate a child to roll over?”[vi]

“The manufacture of a ‘right-to-die,’ ostensibly a gift to those not dying fast enough, is, in fact, the state’s abdication of its duty to protect innocent life and its abandonment especially of the old, the weak, and the poor.”[vii]

“Requests will be engineered and choices manipulated by those who control the information, and, manipulation aside, many elderly and incurable people will experience a right to choose death as their duty to do so.”[viii]

H. Prevent the abuse of others

Holocaust: If you carted off every fan at a Yankee or Oriole game and gassed them afterwards for a whole season, you still wouldn’t kill as many Jews as were killed during the holocaust.

I. Prevent life from being valued based on quality

Without a Divine “Thou shalt not kill” you are left with people deciding when it is OK. Enter abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide. Newsweek recently ran an article in which they admitted that life begins at conception. They then proceeded to talk about the difficulty in deciding when it is OK to terminate the life as weighed against the happiness and well-being of the mother. The underlying insinuation is that it is OK to kill for happiness or for your well-being. Thought hey did not intend it to be taken this far, that type of logic opens the door wide to murder.

IV. The Application

A. We should respect our own life.

1. Life is a gift from God, and we should be careful how we treat that gift.

2. God has provided us with all we need to sustain us in this life, and He has provided us with all we need for eternity.

(Ro. 6:23) "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

3. He created us and gave us physical life, and He redeems us and gives us eternal life when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior.

4. To believers, Paul writes:

(1 Co. 6:19-20) "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? {20} For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

5. Some think that they should control whether they live or die, but that is not up to us.

(Ro. 14:7) "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself."

B. We should respect the life of others.

1. We have already looked at the Scriptures concerning how God feels about the taking of a life.

2. We need to have a positive impact on the lives of those around us.

3. Our responsibility is to live for the Glory of God and be a witness for the Lord to this sin darkened world around us.

C. Watch out for the things that lead up to murder

Illus. The first murder was Cain over Abel.

1. Caused by jealousy. Why people murder:

a) Jealousy

b) Anger

c) Intoxication

D. We should address the attitudes in our heart.

1. Jesus showed us that it isn’t just the outward act, but also the inward attitude

2. Jesus explained that it was from the heart that murder takes seed

(Mark 7:20-21) "And he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. {21} For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,"

(Matt. 5:21-22a) "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: {22a} but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment..."