Exodus 20:13: The Sixth Commandment

Pope John Paul II once said that our modern world is a “culture of death.”[1]  When you consider the disregard for human life that is expressed in our world, it’s hard to disagree with that statement.  One only needs to turn on the news to learn that human life is taken every day in this world.  Whether it is the result of gang violence, racial violence, genocide, serial killings, terrorist attacks, school shootings, or abortion (over one million abortions take place in this country every year), it’s hard to miss our culture’s disregard for human life. 

How did we get here?  Mark Rooker sees two factors responsible for the cheapening of human life in our world today.  The first is evolutionary theory, which reduces God’s image bearers to highly evolved animal life.  This view normally leads to a cheapening of human life because it reduces mankind to animal life and deems certain members of our race less “fit” and therefore expendable.  The second factor is Western entertainment. Rooker says, “By the time an average American youth has reached the age of 18, he has witnessed more than 80,000 murders via television, movies, or video games.”[2] “According to the American Psychological Association, by the time the average child finishes elementary school, he or she will have watched eight thousand televised murders and a hundred thousand acts of on-screen violence.”[3] We might do well to ask how different we are than blood thirsty Romans who used to cry out in the Coliseum.  Philip Ryken says that since we are teaching our children to kill, we should not be surprised when they do. 

God’s Word, however, does not call for a culture of death among His people, but a culture of life.  In the sixth commandment, which reads, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13), God demonstrated the sacredness of human life by commanding His people not to harm it.  In such a culture as ours, this is an area where we must let our light shine as brightly as possible.  God’s people must value the sacredness of human life and seek to preserve it.  My prayer is that God would bring us to the place where we truly treasure human life the way He does and are willing to do all we can to preserve it.

I.              The Reasoning Behind the Sixth Commandment

While the sixth commandment does not contain an explanation along with the command as some of the other commands do, we do find explanation for this command elsewhere in Scripture.  From Scripture, we first see that the sixth commandment is rooted in the sanctity of human life.  The Bible teaches that all human life is sacred because mankind was made in God’s image.  Genesis 9:6 says, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” That man bears God’s image is the theological foundation for the sixth commandment and the death penalty.  It implies that murder is not only an attack on the man who bears God’s image but also upon God Himself.  Consider what would happen to a student who desecrated the photograph of their school principal hanging in the school foyer.  The principal would rightly take offense, and there would be consequences for the student.  Likewise, “to damage a life is to deface one of God’s masterpieces.”[4]

Secondly, the sixth commandment is rooted in the sovereignty of God over life and death.  God says in Deuteronomy 32:39, “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.”  We are not to take a human life (even our own) because life and death are in God’s hands, not our own.  It is God’s prerogative to give and take away (Job 1:21) life.  Let’s now consider the meaning of this commandment.

II.            The Meaning of the Sixth Commandment

Let’s begin with the literal meaning of this command.  “Murder” is a good translation because it mainly refers to maliciously or unlawfully taking human life.  One author says that it “applies to ‘murder in cold blood, manslaughter with passionate rage, and negligent homicide resulting from recklessness or carelessness.”[5]

The reason understanding this meaning is important is because there are distinctions made in Scripture between murder and other types of killing.  First, the Bible makes a distinction between murder and accidental killing.  Exodus 21:12-14: “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.”  This passage distinguishes between murder and accidental manslaughter.  What we see is that the death penalty was not applied to accidental killings and some cases of manslaughter.  Instead, there were cities of refuge for the person to flee to (Numbers 35) for safety. 

The Bible also makes a distinction between murder and government-sanctioned killing.  What I mean by government-sanctioned killing is execution and lives that must be taken in war.  According to Paul, governmental authority is “God’s servant” for our good and does not “bear the sword in vain” but is “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:3-4).  So the Bible teaches that God has ordained the powers that be to be His servant to carry out justice in His world, and sometimes that will mean taking human life in order to promote the sanctity of human life.  The death penalty actually serves to promote life by removing someone from God’s world who has demonstrated that they have such a disregard for human life that they will take it and also by serving as a deterrent to others.  Also, the Hebrew word used in the sixth commandment is never used of taking someone’s life in war.  Again, this too would fall under government-sanctioned killing: God’s servant is deciding going to war to protect it’s citizens (which promotes life) or for some other worthy cause that will in the end promote life. 

Thirdly, the Bible also makes is between murder and self-defense. Exodus 22:2-3 says that if a thief breaks into someone’s home and is struck so that he dies, the person who struck him is not be guilty of his blood (unless the sun rises on him). When Sanballat and Tobiah gathered forces to attack Israel and stop them from rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah instructed God’s people to fight and defend themselves (Nehemiah 4:11-14).

What I want you to notice is that each of these distinctions center on the motive of the individual taking the life (is there malicious intent to harm?) and the preservation of human life (will this execution or war preserve and promote the value of human life?).  Issues like abortion, euthanasia, etc. should be measured from this perspective. For example, abortion, though lawful in some places, does not seek to preserve human life in most cases.

Most of us are probably feeling like we have kept this commandment up to this point, but as we read the rest of the Bible, we find that there is a deeper meaning to the sixth commandment.  The deeper meaning of the sixth commandment is that we love our neighbor with our thoughts, words, and deeds to such a degree that we would not only never hate them, curse them, or harm them, but would also show them mercy by seeking to preserve their life in any way that we could.

Let’s start with Jesus in Matthew 5:21-26.  Remember, Jesus doesn’t change the law; He interprets it.  In other words, Jesus always gives the best interpretation of any Scripture or doctrine, and in this passage, Jesus interprets the sixth commandment: [21] “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ [22] But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. [23] So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, [24] leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. [25] Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. [26] Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. (Matthew 5:21-26 ESV)  So Jesus says the sixth commandment covers everything from murder to hating your fellow man. 

John made this same application: [7] Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. [8] Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. [9] No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. [10] By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. [11] For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. [12] We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. [13] Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. [14] We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. [15] Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (1 John 3:7-15 ESV)  John says that whoever “hates” his brother is a “murderer” and does not possess eternal life.

James also says that because mankind bears God’s image, we are not to curse other people (James 3:9).  That is because when we curse others we are expressing malice and hatred in our hearts, and that makes us guilty of breaking the sixth commandment.  Have you ever thought about just what we are saying when we say something like, “Damn you”?  In our anger we have just stated that we desire this person be damned in hell for all eternity.  So according to the sixth commandment, is seems that looks can kill and words can hurt. 

Another sense in which the sixth commandment is either kept or broken is in whether or not we seek to preserve human life in appropriate ways.  See, whatever a commandment prohibits; the opposite is normally being prescribed.  For example, the prohibition against harming human life implies that we should be good Samaritans and seek to preserve human life.  This commandment calls us to love our neighbor and to show them mercy. Romans 13:8-10 says, “[8] Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. [9] For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [10] Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

One pastor said that sometimes all it takes to break this commandment is to do nothing.  Luther said: “This commandment is violated not only when a person actually does evil, but also when he fails to do good to his neighbor, or, though he has the opportunity, fails to prevent, protect, and save him from suffering bodily harm or injury.  If you send a person away naked when you could clothe him, you have let him freeze to death.  If you see anyone suffer hunger and do not feed him, you have let him starve.  Likewise, if you see anyone condemned to death or in similar peril and do not save him although you know ways and means to do so, you have killed him.  It will do you no good to plead that you did not contribute to his death by word or deed, for you have withheld your love from him and robbed him of the service by which his life might have been saved.”[6]

Listen to the application the Heidelberg Catechism gives this commandment.  It asks the question, “Is it enough then, if we do not kill our neighbor in any such way?”  It then answers, “No; for when God condemns envy, hatred, and anger, he requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to show patience, gentleness, mercy, and friendliness toward him, to prevent injury to him as much as we can, and also to do good to our enemies” (A. 107).[7] 

When we see just what the sixth commandment prohibits and requires, we are all in trouble.  We’re all murderers to some degree.  But there is good news.  God has made a way for murders to be forgiven and adopted into His family.  He has made a way to give eternal life to those who disregard life.  His way was to send His only Son, Jesus Christ, who kept this command to the very core and was Himself murdered in our place.  The blood that should be required from our hands, God has allowed to be paid by His.  In the crucifixion of Christ, we see Jesus forgiving the very people who were taking His life.  If His forgiveness is that great, then there is no reason that you cannot be forgiven for all the sins you have committed either.  But you must turn to Him in faith and full surrender today in order to receive this forgiveness.  Will you do so today?

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[1] http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-03-31/news/9503310188_1_encyclical-abortion-and-euthanasia-pope-john-paul-ii

[2] Rooker, Mark (2010-04-29). The Ten Commandments (New American Commentary Studies in Bible and Theology) (Kindle Locations 3398-3399). B&H Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[3] Philip Ryken, Written in Stone, 139-140

[4] Philip Ryken, Written in Stone, 138

[5] Philip Ryken, Written in Stone, 136

[6] Martin Luther, quoted by Philip Ryken, Written in Stone, 143-144

[7] Quoted by Philip Ryken, Written in Stone, 145

Exodus 20:12: The Fifth Commandment

Let’s begin with a little review today.  We are currently studying the Ten Commandments that God gave to His people in Exodus 20:1-17, which we said summarize God’s moral standards for humanity.  Jesus said that the point of these Ten Commandments, as well as the rest of the Law and the Prophets, is to call God’s people to love God and to love their neighbor (Matthew 22:40).  So far we have mainly seen what I’ll call God-ward commandments (those that call us to love God), but today we are going to begin looking at man-ward commandments (those that call us to love our neighbor).  That does not mean that commandments five through ten are not God-ward.  All of these commandments are God-ward because God is giving them!  However, the first four commandments are exclusively vertical, while the last six are also horizontal, dealing with how we treat others. 

This brings us to the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12), where God commanded His people to honor their parents.  It is no accident that this is the first horizontal commandment that we have.  It’s placement shows us is that the home is the basic social and spiritual unit of any society.  Dysfunctional homes will result in a dysfunctional country and world.  Therefore, God’s people must take this commandment seriously to honor their parents (and others in authority as well) throughout their lives.  My prayer is that we would take this commandment so seriously that we are led to look to Jesus Christ as our model, substitute, and source of empowerment to honor those in authority. 

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”  (Exodus 20:12 ESV)  As we have done with the other commandments, we want to examine what this commandment requires and why God says to obey it here. 

I.              The Meaning of the Fifth Commandment (20:12a)

a.     This Commandment is an Issue of Honor

We are to “HONOR” our father and our mother (20:12).  The Hebrew root for the word, “honor,” here literally means “heavy” or “weighty.”  In other words, honoring our parents means that we should give them their due weight throughout all of our life in appropriate ways.  Our parent’s positions, reputation, counsel, commands, expectations, etc. should carry a great deal of weight with us.  At a very basic level, it means that we should obey them (we should do our chores, keep our curfews, etc.), but it also means that more than mere obedience, because we can obey in ways that are not honorable.  Honoring our parents also means showing them respect and seeking not to dishonor them in any way with our words or with our actions. 

Also, this command spans all of our lives: it’s not just for children (note that the word “children” is not found in the command).  We are still to honor our parents as grown ups, especially by providing for them later in life.  Both Jesus and Paul made this application: [1] Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, [2] “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” [3] He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? [4] For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ [5] But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” [6] he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. [7] You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: [8] “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; [9] in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matthew 15:1-9 ESV)  The apostle Paul also said that we should provide for widows in our family as they get older (1 Timothy 5:4,8) and that we are actually worse than an unbeliever if we don’t. 

b.    This Commandment is an Issue of Authority

All of us are creatures under authority.  Scripture teaches that all authority comes from God and is ordained by God (Romans 13:1-2; 1 Peter 2:13).  If we do not learn how to submit to authority, we cannot be happy, healthy creatures in God’s world.  The home is the first place we learn to live as creatures under authority.

Let me point out two things about the fact that all authority comes from God and is ordained by Him.  This first means that submission to any horizontal authority is ultimately a vertical issue.  Honoring mother and father is ultimately a matter of honoring God (Colossians 3:20).  We should honor our parents because we want to honor and obey God, not because our parents are always honorable.  Sometimes it is hard to honor our parents, not just because we are sinners, but because they are too!  The answer to questions 104 in the Heidelberg Catechism says that the fifth commandment requires “that I show honor, love, and faithfulness to my father and mother and to all those who are set in authority over me; that I submit myself with respectful obedience to all their careful instruction and discipline; and that I also bear patiently their failures, since it is God’s will to govern us by their hand.”[1] Remember that you are always ultimately honoring your Heavenly Father in honoring your earthly father and mother. 

The second thing all authority coming from God teaches us is that God’s authority is always ultimate.  This is important to understand because there may be times where honoring your parent’s wishes is not possible.  If your parents tell you to disobey God, then you are no longer obligated to obey them.  Also, honoring your parents does not mean that you subject yourself to physical abuse (in such a situation, you must honor your Heavenly Father and uphold the sanctity of life).  Also, sometimes following Jesus will cause tension between children and parents who are not Christians and parents who are phony Christians.  Whether you are someone without godly parents or whether you are someone without parents at all, let the words of Psalm 27:10 be an encouragement to you if you are a Christian: “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.”

c.     This Commandment is an Issue of Love

This commandment is not only an issue of honor and authority; it is also an issue of love.  Remember that the point of the Ten Commandments is call God’s people to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love their neighbor as their selves.  Maybe you’ve never thought about this, but loving your neighbor starts at home!  Actually, if you can’t love your parents, how are you going to love your neighbor?  This is why Augustine said, “If anyone fails to honor his parents, is there anyone he will spare?”  If you really want to love your parents, honor them and be a joy to them.  Proverbs 10:1 says, “A wise sons makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.”  Or consider the words of Proverbs 23:22-25: [22] Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.  [23] Buy truth, and do not sell it; but wisdom, instruction, and understanding. [24] The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him. [25] Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.”  Listen to what the apostle John said in 3 John 4: I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.  Love your parents and be joy to them by honoring and obeying them!

II.            The Promise of the Fifth Commandment (20:12b)

a.     This Commandment Promises Blessing to Those Who Obey

God says the reason people should honor their parents is so “THAT your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (12b).  Deuteronomy’s version of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:16 adds, “that it may go well with you.”  This is Old Testament language for an abundant life, a life of blessing in the land.  The point is that those who honor their parents will have an abundant and blessed life.  That doesn’t mean that God will never take someone home early who has honored their mother and father, but I think it does mean that they will experience a long and abundant life either in this life or the next.  Paul actually reaffirms this promise in Ephesians 6:1-4: [1] Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. [2] “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), [3] “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” [4] Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  I could show you this in the Old Testament too, but I want to you notice that this commandment assumes that the parents being honored will teach their children about the Lord.  That’s why I can say that this is a promise of eternally long life to those who honor their parents.  I don’t mean that we get to heaven by honoring our parents.  What I mean is that honoring parents as they teach us about God and Jesus’ work on the cross for our salvation will lead to eternal life as we learn to trust Christ ourselves.  So this is not just a promise of temporally long life in the land, but of eternally long life in heaven!

b.    This Commandment Promises Cursing to Those Who Disobey

This promise is also a veiled threat.  In other words, if one does not honor their parents, they will NOT live long in the land, and things will NOT go well with them.  Did you know that there were some pretty serious consequences to breaking this command in the Old Testament?  Deuteronomy 21:18-21: [18] “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, [19] then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, [20] and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ [21] Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.  I hope you see that it is a big deal to God for you to dishonor and disobey your parents.  In two lists of wicked behavior in the New Testament, we find people who are “disobedient to their parents” (Romans 1:30; 2 Timothy 3:2).  The point is that this is how people who don’t know God live.

Let’s close with a few introspective questions today: Does our relationship with our parents bring glory to God?  Do you talk back to your parents?  Do you speak well of them to your friends?  Are you hiding anything from them?  Do you ever silently curse them?  Are you giving them the care they need?  Do you really want to love them and bring them joy? 

Also, this sermon would not be fitting without a closing word to parents.  Your children are commanded to honor you at all times, so BE HONORABLE.  Again, the big idea in this command is that the parents being honored and obeyed are instructing their children about God (Deuteronomy 6).  That’s one of the biggest reasons they are supposed to listen to you: because you are supposed to be showing them God and the way to eternal life!

I want you to know that there is good news for those of us who have failed to honor our parents as we should, and there is good news for those of us who have failed to be the kinds of parents that we should be.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that Jesus, the perfect child, is our model, our substitute, and our source of empowerment in honoring our parents.  “When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the penalty for our breaking the fifth commandment as much as for any other sin.  But Jesus has done more than that: He has also kept the fifth commandment in our behalf.  It was not enough for Jesus to pay the price for our sin; he also had to offer God the obedience that his law demands.  And Jesus did that.  He honored his parents.  The Bible says explicitly that Jesus ‘went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them’ (Luke 2:51a).  The only times their relationship was strained were when Jesus stayed behind at the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2:41-50) and when he kept preaching instead of stopping to visit with his family (Luke 8:19-21), but even then he kept the fifth commandment by honoring his higher commitment to his Father in heaven.  And Jesus honored his earthly parents right to the very end of his life.  He was not able personally to care for his mother in her old age, but he provided for her in his dying moments by asking his friend John to be like a son to her (John 19:26-27). 

From the manger to the cross, Jesus was an obedient son who brought honor to his earthly parents and his heavenly Father.  In respecting his parents’ authority he is more than our example: He is the perfect child God demands that we should be.  Everyone who trusts in Jesus has offered perfect obedience to the fifth commandment, because when Jesus obeyed his parents, he was keeping God’s law on our behalf…One of the reasons he was the perfect Savior is because he was the perfect child.”[2] Will you look to Him today as your example, as your substitute, and as your grace to keep this command now?

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[1] Quoted by Philip Ryken, Written in Stone, 124

[2] Philip Ryken, Written in Stone, 131-132