"You Shall Not Murder"
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November 16, 2014 |
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 "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
In the Ten Commandments, God commands His children not to murder. It doesn't simply mean we must not take the lives of others but also it prohibits spiritual murder as well. Unless people know about spiritual murder, they might think they have never committed murder and confidently believe they are abiding by the command. Is the command really being kept? Let's now delve into three meanings of 'murder' in the sixth command, "You shall not murder".
1. Taking somebody's life
Everybody considers committing murder by taking somebody's life to be a grave crime. But we must remember one more thing here—killing oneself, i.e. suicide, is also a murder.
The authority over life and death strictly belongs to God, so we cannot just take our own life just because it's our life. That is why suicide also falls under the sin of murder, as does the act of abortion.
Parents cannot just kill even a fetus in the womb. Murder itself is a great sin, and by extension the act of taking away a child's life as a parent is a sinful act that must be made perfectly clear.
2. Hating your brothers
1 John 3:15 reads, "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." It is just hating somebody in one's heart, yet God says it is also murder. It's because a murder is basically caused by hatred, that is, hatred is the root of murder. As hatred in heart develops, one may do evil in action and finally may even commit murder.
As recorded in Genesis 4, Cain was the first to commit murder in human history. Its root was his hatred. God did not accept his offerings given in disobedience, but joyfully accepted Abel's offering that was given in obedience. Seeing this, Cain's hatred against Abel became so intense that he ended up killing his own brother, Abel.
Some with hatred against a brother may get angry, curse at him, fight with him, be jealous of him, judge and condemn him, and spread his shortcomings to others. They might cause damage to him by cheating him. Sometimes, they have enmity with him and do not interact with him at all. All these evil deeds that come from hatred are spiritual murder (Matthew 5:21-22).
In the Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit had not yet come, so it was not easy for people to circumcise their hearts and become sanctified. But in the New Testament times, we have the Holy Spirit in our heart and He gives us strength to cast off even the sinful natures of our hearts. So we can completely remove the root of 'hatred' and 'murder' at the same time, of course. As we cast away sins and evil and replace them completely with love, we can receive God's love and blessings.
3. Causing somebody to stumble
'To stumble' means to miss one's step in walking or running, trip, and almost fall. Spiritually, to 'cause someone to stumble' is to cause harm to others by leading them to stray from the truth.
Suppose a member asked her group leader saying, "I have a very important family occasion on Sunday. Is it all right I miss the Sunday Service?" Now if the leader answers, "If it's that important, you have no choice but to violate the Lord's Day." In this case the leader is leading her to the way of death, and therefore it is spiritual murder. Let's say another member in need of money asks a leader, "I need some money for a short while and I can pay it back soon, so can I just borrow some of the church's finance for a personal reason?" Now, if the leader teaches him that it will be all right if only he pays it back, it is also directly against the will of God, and thus, it is also causing him to stumble.
In other words, it is spiritual murder to teach untruth to somebody and leads the person away from the way of life. Sometimes we might give wrong advice to a member and thereby put him under greater hardship. This is never acceptable, and when we are not sure about right answer or advice, we can just tell that person we will get the answer and let him know later. And then we can pray about it or ask somebody who is more likely to know the answer. Even by doing so, we must give correct answers.
It is also spiritual murder to judge and condemn others with evil words and to make a synagogue of Satan, slander, or alienate others from one another. This can make brother hate brother and act in evil toward one another. More importantly, if one spreads slanderous words about a particular pastor or a church, God will certainly hold him accountable for it. But some people stumble all by themselves because of their own evil. Jesus acted only in truth, but by their own evil, wicked Jews and Judas Iscariot stumbled. If one says he won't go to church because of other persons' shortcomings, it is not that he is made to stumble by anybody else, but he stumbles due to his own evil.
There are some people who leave God because a person whom they thought was worthy of trust broke the trust in something untruthful. For example, out of trust they become a surety for another person. Later they came to suffer because of it. But it shows that their faith was not true faith. The Bible tells us not to be a guarantor for debts, and they were taught in church not to lend and borrow money among believers. But they failed to discern in the truth and disobeyed. Thus, rather than turning from God they ought to repent.
Also, if some judge and condemn another person and stumble, there is the possibility they will cause other people to stumble because of their evil. If they have a truly good heart and true faith, even if they see some shortcomings of other people, they will only have compassion on them and pray for them.
Some people stumble because of the Word of God preached. When the preacher talks about the tithe and says we will be blessed when we give proper tithes, they may feel uncomfortable thinking the church is always emphasizing money. When the preacher talks about God's powerful works, some people do not believe in fleshly thoughts and have uncomfortable feelings in their heart. If they have goodness in heart to accept truth, they won't stumble because of God's Word. However, since they dwell in darkness they stumble by the Word of God that is Light (Matthew 11:6; John 11:10).
One stumbles because of weak faith and evil in the heart. Nevertheless, the one who causes a brother to stumble also has the responsibility for it. When we teach the truth, we should be wise to teach according to the listener's measure of faith. If you say to a new believer who has just accepted the Lord and received the Holy Spirit, "Quit drinking and smoking and you must not open your shop on Sundays." It is just like feeding a newborn baby a chunk of meat. Even if they may obey by being forced, they will feel burdened by it and they may even give up attending church.
If we truly love the Lord and souls, we will be very careful about even a single word spoken so that we won't cause anybody to stumble, but give him grace and edification. We should teach them giving hope and strength to practice the Word, not offending and burdening the person.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if you love a person, his faults or spots may not be clearly visible to you (1 John 4:11). Even if you find a great transgression in him, you will have compassion on him, and you will try to strengthen him looking at him with faith so that he will change. I hope you will cast off hatred completely and love everybody with the love of the Lord who loved even His enemies. I pray in the name of the Lord by doing so you will dwell in the glory shining like the sun in Heaven.
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