Keep a Close Watch – The Sixth Commandment

Keep a Close Watch

The sixth commandment

Exodus 20.13; Deuteronomy 5.17

“You shall not murder.”

Leviticus 19.17

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.”

Psalm 66.18

“If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened”

Once more, with emphasis!

Yesterday we urged the maintenance of a close watch over every occurrence of anger in our hearts. Anger could signal that hate for a neighbor is growing, and hate, unchecked, can lead to murder in one form or another. The psalmist gives us yet another reason to keep a close watch on the affections that find a home in our hearts (cf. Prov. 4.23). We may feel as though holding a grudge against someone, being angry toward or even hating another in our hearts, is strictly a personal matter, or even a personal privilege. We think we can control our anger; we may even think our hate is justified. We’re sure it will never break out into violence of any kind. Perhaps. But the very presence of such affections in our hearts is an offense to God. He sees our hearts and sets our secret sins before His own presence (Ps. 90.8), where they drip with the blood of His Son. If we are determined to cherish hate and anger in our souls, then we need to make up our minds that our prayer life is going to suffer. God will not listen to us; He will not receive our prayers, as long as we continue to allow murder to fester in our souls.

Have you ever felt like your prayers just “weren’t getting through”? Could it be that some sin in your heart was blocking your communication with the Lord?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.