DEVOTED FOR LIFE
The Good Life #6
Pastor Dennis Clanton
Woodland Church
February 18, 2024
(Exodus 20:13, NLT) “You must not murder.”
This commandment does not prohibit killing animals for food, capital punishment, self-defense, or war.
(Genesis 9:3, NLT) “I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables.”
(Romans 13:4, CEV) “They are God’s servants who punish criminals to show how angry God is.”
(Exodus 22:2–3, NLT) “If a thief is caught in the act of breaking into a house and is struck and killed in the process, the person who killed the thief is not guilty of murder. But if it happens in daylight, the one who killed the thief is guilty of murder. “A thief who is caught must pay in full for everything he stole. If he cannot pay, he must be sold as a slave to pay for his theft.”
(Luke 3:14, Message) “Soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He told them, “No shakedowns, no blackmail—and be content with your rations.”
The Commandment Forbids
(John 8:44, NLT) “[Satan] was a murderer from the beginning.”
1. Murder.
(Genesis 9:6, NLT) “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.”
2. Suicide.
(Job 14:5, CEV) “Our time on earth is brief; the number of our days is already decided by you.”
“Suicide is not a genetic trait nor is it a family curse. Suicide is a sinful choice made by an individual. This statement is neither unloving nor disrespectful. It is the truth. I dearly loved my family members that committed suicide, but their choices were sinful and not righteous.” – Julie Gossack, January 2, 2006, Journal of Biblical Counseling, Vol 24 #1
(Romans 14:7–8, AMP) “None of us lives to himself [but to the Lord], and none of us dies to himself [but to the Lord, for] If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or we die, we belong to the Lord.”
3. Euthanasia.
(Job 12:10, GW) “The life of every living creature and the spirit in every human body are in his hands. ”
4. Abortion.
“As genetic science shows the fetus is from the moment of conception a human being in process of arriving. The fact that for several months it cannot survive outside the womb does not affect its right to the same protection that other human beings merit, and that it will itself merit after birth. Abortion can only ever be justified (and then only as a necessary evil) when the pregnancy genuinely endangers the mother’s life—and as doctors know, there are few such cases today. Legalizing abortions on social grounds is a social evil, whatever arguments of convenience are invoked.” – J. I. Packer
(Psalm 139:16–17, NLT) “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!”
The Commandment says every human life is sacred.
(Genesis 9:5–6, NLT) “I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And 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.”
1. The commandment reveals the mercy and compassion of God.
“[God] will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a … dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less.” – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
(Colossians 1:15, NLT) “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.”
(Ephesians 4:22–24, GN) “Get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to—the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on the new self, which is created in God’s likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.”
“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor.
The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.” – C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
“We are accordingly commanded, if we find anything of use to us in saving our neighbors’ lives, faithfully to employ it; if there is anything that makes for their peace, to see to it; if anything harmful, to ward it off; if they are in any danger, to lend a helping hand.” – John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
2. The commandment mercifully deals with the anger in heart.
(1 John 3:15, NLT) “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.”
How to deal with my anger.
a. Confrontation—express anger in an appropriate way.
b. Contemplation—examine why I am angry.
c. Confession—ask God for His help in dealing with my anger.
d. Condemnation—change my unrealistic expectation that lead to anger.
3. The commandment reveals my need for a new relationship with God, …
(Galatians 3:26–27, CEV) “All of you are God’s children because of your faith in Christ Jesus. And when you were baptized, it was as though you had put on Christ in the same way you put on new clothes.”
a. Myself.
B. Others.