The Sacredness of Life – The Sixth Commandment

The Sacredness of Life

Exodus 20:13

“You shall not murder.”

We may be tempted to think that this is the one commandment we’ll never have to worry about breaking.  Murderers, after all, tend to comprise a sizable minority in any society. So maybe we don’t spend much time thinking about how, apart from the obvious, this commandment might apply to us, if only in less violent and extraordinary ways.

But it does. And so we should.  For there are many ways in which we might be guilty of offending the righteousness of God and the dignity of our neighbors through acts of violence and murder.  At least, that’s what Jesus thought.

All of life is sacred, even in our attitudes toward it. Murder begins in the heart, and we must learn to recognize the sacredness of others’ lives–even in our attitudes toward them–lest we fall through temptation into sin.

Jesus taught that if we hate our neighbor we are guilty of breaking the sixth commandment (Matt. 5:21, 22).  In what way is hatred a form of murder?  Have you ever been guilty of hating your neighbor?

Daily meditation in the Law of God helps us along the path of holiness, righteousness, and goodness (Rom. 7:12). Order your copy of The Law of God, a compilation of the Mosaic Law for contemporary believers, by going to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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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.