How to Be a Human Being - Grace and MURDER!

Most of us coast through life on the idea that we might not be perfect but we’re not as bad as that other guy. “I might not be an Angel but I’ve never killed anyone.” When we look at the Ten Commandments, that murder one is the one most of us use to hang our white hat on. That’s the one we feel pretty confident we haven’t broken.

What’s the point of even doing a sermon on the fifth Commandment? It’s not like this is the Sons Of Anarchy Motorcycle Club. “Now come on guys, let’s do better this week—let’s not murder as many people as last week. Okay?”

Exodus 20:13 “You Shall Not Murder.”

In Genesis 9:6 it says,

“Anyone who murders a fellow human must die. If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.”

Which means murder isn’t the same thing as killing. If someone murders, they are to be killed.

I don’t want to get sidetracked on capital punishment but this isn’t only an Old Testament idea, in the New Testament in Romans 13:4 St Paul says of the civil government,

“If you do wrong, be afraid, for (the government) does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”

But that’s the government. That’s their job. Our job is to be peacemakers. To show grace and mercy. Jesus said,

“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9).

Sons of God. Not the Sons of Anarchy. Jesus also said

“if you live by the sword you will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52)

And He said that when Peter tried to cut off the head of one of the men sent to kidnap Jesus and murder Him.

John Wick is fun and all but followers of Jesus aren’t supposed to be fixated on revenge. We’re supposed to be fixated on forgiveness and grace—which are completely foreign concepts to the world. Someone kills our dog, we’re not supposed to hunt them down and kill them—as satisfying as that seems like it would be—we’re supposed to offer them mercy. Which will blow their mind. They won’t see that coming.

So don’t murder. Okay?

Seems simple enough. Unless you’re Jeffrey Dahmer or Adolf Hitler, most of us think we got this one in the bag.

Then Jesus goes and ruins everything. 

In Matthew chapter 5:21-22 He says,

“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.”

A little later in chapter 15:18-20 He says,

“The words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you.”

You might have noticed that verse covers the rest of the commandments, I should have given a spoiler warning. We’ll be coming back to this verse a few more times in this series.

So you might feel pretty good about yourself because you’ve never taken a hammer and bashed someone’s head in but Jesus says you’ve probably thought about it. You’ve probably let the anger in your heart boil up to the point that you have said things you shouldn’t have said. Attacking people. Either to their face or behind their back.

These days this particular commandment is easier to break than ever. 

Every time we hear an opinion from a politician that we don’t agree with, and rather than countering the argument we just get mad and say, “That person’s an idiot.” Murder.

Every time we get deep satisfaction and joy from listening to news commentators or radio talk show hosts rip into people we disagree with—assassinating their character. Murder.

Every time we like or share some post on social media that attacks someone, we’re an accomplice. To murder.

And yeah, when we lash out at people in anger—in person or online or on the phone or in a text message—when our goal becomes expressing our rage, hurting the other person, knocking them down a notch—Jesus says you’re in danger of the fires of hell. His words, not mine.

It’s easier to break this commandment these days than it ever has been in the history of the world. People didn’t used to have the news and people’s opinions bombarding them all day and all night every day. People didn’t used to have daily access to the internal thoughts of every person they’ve ever met, gone to school with, worked with, friends of friends, grandma, uncle Joe, social media trolls, and internet robots throwing information at them every time they turn around. Add all those shiny metal boxes that are lined up in front of us on the freeway, and I think we have a pretty good recipe for a daily struggle with murderous rage.

But God says we are not to be the kind of people who go around wanting to murder everyone.

Every day I get up from my desk arguing with people in my head. I turn off the news with deep sighs of frustration wondering why everyone’s so stupid. I fantasize about having a bazooka installed on top of my car—you know, for traffic. But that’s not the kind of person Jesus saved me to be. He said “You shall not be the kind of person who wants to murder everyone.”

Luther said this commandment means we should fear and love God that we may not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, that we shouldn’t say or do anything to destroy their life, shorten their life—not even hold bitterness or anger or hatred against people in our hearts. Instead, we should make friends of people. We should look for ways to help them with their basic needs—their health, hunger and thirst. We should be the kind of people who want to give comfort, mercy, and forgiveness. 

Jesus made this pretty clear when He explained what “love your neighbor as yourself” means. Someone asked “but who is my neighbor?” Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan. You know that story? Luke chapter 10. You can read it later. The Samaritans were the political and religious enemies of the Jews. This is the opposite of “Do not murder” looks like. It looks like risking your life and reputation, even spending you money, to help your enemy rather than harming them. “Love your enemy,” He’s also the one who said that.

We have a whole Bible full of verses that talk about God’s desire for His people to be generous and kind and forgiving. Isaiah 58:7 says God’s will for all of us is to

“Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.”

That last verse seems like Isaiah’s been checking my phone records and noticed all the times I let it go to voicemail when that one person calls. “Do not hide from relatives who need your help.” Yikes. We’re supposed to take care of each other.

In Deuteronomy, when Moses is giving a sermon on how to apply the Ten Commandments, one of the examples he gives for “Do not murder” is to build a parapet around your roof. 

Deuteronomy 22:8 “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that way you will not be considered guilty of murder if someone falls from it.” 

Do you have a parapet on your roof? If not, how dare you live in direct rebellion of God’s command! Pagan.

Wait. What’s a parapet? You may be wondering.

In Moses’ day, it was typical to have a flat roof that was used for hanging out with friends and family. Usually at night. Usually with adult beverages and merriment. A parapet was a small wall that worked like a safety rail to keep people from accidentally falling and breaking their neck.

What are some modern examples of things we probably ought to do to protect our neighbor from harm? Hmm. I’ll leave that to your imagination. 

The point is that when we neglect to protect our neighbor from harm, that’s another way we can be guilty of murder.

But the main way we break this command comes from how we react when people hurt us.

The Book of Romans is probably the most complete theological treatment of the Gospel we have. In chapter 12:20 it says that we aren’t supposed to take revenge on people who harm us, that’s God’s job, trust Him to do it for you—

“Instead, (he says) “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.”

1st John 3:15 says, “Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.”

That’s all pretty heavy, isn’t it? We all get mad and we all want to strike back. They hurt our feelings so we want to crush them. They disrespect us so we want to disrespect them. They get on their high horse and we want to get on a higher one.

That’s what’s wrong with the world. It’s murderous. It doesn’t know anything about grace.

Grace is a completely offensive concept to the world’s way of thinking.

In the book “Collision” by Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson—it’s a lively conversation between an atheist best selling author and a Christian pastor. Hitchens, the atheist, has a section where he mocks the idea of grace and forgiveness. He said he doesn’t want to forgive his enemy, he doesn’t want to show mercy to his enemy, he wants to destroy his enemy. 

See, that’s the difference between Christianity and the world. Grace.

Pastor Wilson responds by saying, “There’s two ways to destroy your enemy. The first way is obvious, it’s to destroy your enemy. The second way is to make them your friend.” Which is exactly what Pastor Wilson does by the end of the documentary that was made about their book tour. They became friends.

This whole “cancel culture” thing is the opposite of grace. If someone disagrees with the new cultural orthodoxy, they must be silenced. Go through their whole life’s work, find anything that doesn’t look right in the light of this new mandated wokedom—and they must be cast aside. There is no room for mercy or forgiveness or repentance. They must be silenced. Black-listed. Erased. 

The church has been guilty of this too. Still is. We need to do better.

I’ve been trying to have conversations with people without letting them go bad. People who disagree with our ideas about God’s Word and what that should mean for how to be a human being—including politics and current events and all the things that are going on in the world. It’s really hard. Nearly impossible. Everyone is so quick to get mad, resort to name calling, pigeon holing, jumping to conclusions, attacking people instead of discussing ideas. It’s exhausting. But I keep trying. I consider it a spiritual discipline. Can I have a conversation with someone I disagree with, without attacking them or responding to their attacks on me? Can I stick to the subject? Can I state their objections in a way that they would agree that I represented their side fairly? 

You know, when you get to that point in the conversation that you say, “So you’re saying such and such?” And if they don’t agree that that is the thing they are saying, you probably don’t understand them yet. Be humble. Try again. Jesus said in Matthew 5, just after the part about anger being the same thing as murder that when you have a dispute with someone to

“settle your differences quickly.”

There’s so much more I could go into about all this. It’s one of the biggest problems in the world.

Do not murder. Instead

“Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:5, 7, 9)

So, what’s the Gospel in all this? How is any of this good news? It sounds like a bunch of crushing obligations that we’ll never be able to live up to. Like we’re all doomed.

First, it’s good news because if we live this way, it will be a blessing to your life and the lives of everyone around you. This is how we love and serve and neighbor. We take care of them. We give them the benefit of the doubt. When we are kind and gracious to them. When we are patient and forgiving toward them—it’s good for them. And it’s good for us, too. Life works better when we live it the way God designed it to be lived. Relationships with people work better when we’re not constantly banging our heads together. This is how to be a human being the way God designed us to live.

But it has nothing to do with how we earn our way to heaven. You can’t impress God by making yourself a peacemaker—or by keeping any of the commandments. Besides, you break one of His commands and you’ve broken them all. You might think you haven’t murdered anyone, but you have. You’re just as guilty of murder as the most notorious killer who’s ever lived. You are guilty and you don’t deserve mercy. You don’t deserve to be called a child of God. You only deserve to hear the words, “Go away from me, you wicked, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.” 

We probably don’t talk about that enough anymore. We all deserve death. Hell is a real thing.

That’s the bad news. The Gospel is the kind of good news that only makes sense if you know the bad news first.

So here’s the good news: Jesus has decided to show you mercy. He’s decided to forgive you. You were His enemy and He decided to love you anyway. 

But not without cost. He came to earth and lived with us. He suffered our insults, our mockery, our hatred, our disrespect, our rejection—He was murdered. On a cross. He took the punishment we deserved for us. He took your punishment. He did it for you. 

And now you have been shown grace. You’re not going to go down with your sins. 

You can’t earn the grace of God. He just gives it to you. Then He turns you around, sets your feet on the right path, and tells you to start walking by faith. Not by sight. Not by anger. You are a beloved child of God. Adopted into his family. You can’t earn the grace of God but now every day of your life, everything you do—it’s all an act of thankful worship. Every day is an opportunity to live up to the grace you’ve been given.

We can start by trying to not murder each other. AMEN