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Do Not Kill
October 27, 2018

For more than a month we have been looking at how the ten commandments apply in our life, most recently studying the fifth commandment to honor our parents. It is through our parents that we access physical life and close family and interpersonal relationships. It is through biological parents that we get that DNA spark for the origin of physical life. Sometimes it is the passions and frustrations of family and close relationships that give some thought to kill. The very first murder was an act of family violence; it is natural to consider what we must do to protect the relationships we have in our life by understanding what we should and should not do. Killing is something we should not do.

Exodus 20:13
Thou shalt not kill.

Instead of killing a person who has wronged us, Paul mentions a different strategy to consider. Instead of using our own methods to take vengeance on another, Paul said to give place to wrath. Many think we need to avoid wrath; Paul says wrath is something to be allowed in our life instead of vengeance. Because of action movies using wrath in the title, we often think of wrath as a vengeful act. The Greek word for wrath is transliterated as orge, and can mean justifiable anger. The Greek word that Paul used for vengeance is transliterated as ekdidkos, and can mean vindication, punishment, and revenge. Paul tells us instead of seeking to get even, to simply be justifiably angry, and to overcome acts of evil not by committing an equal or greater act of evil, but by doing good and even being charitable to those who harm us so much we would think of them as our enemy.

Romans 12:19-21
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Cain, the first murderer, who took the life of his brother Abel because his brother excelled when he did not, would have done well to heed the writing of Paul, had he had access to these; Paul would live thousands of years later. John writes that we are to love one another, and that anyone who hates a brother is already a murderer, because murder is a physical act of hate.

1 John 3:11-15
For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

John further reminds us that no murderer has eternal life within him. We are commanded do not kill and instead of seeking revenge, understand that we can be justifiably angry, and should use this type of anger to overcome evil with good.

All verses are from the King James Version.
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