Murder Is More Than an External Act

The following are some of my notes from Butch’s sermon this past Sunday. We are currently going through the Ten Commandments.

Texts for study:

You shall not murder. – Ex. 20:13

You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. 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. – Matt. 5:21-22

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. – 1 John 3:10

• We are to preserve life: Man is created in the image/likeness of God – Eccl. 3:11

Image of God

• This is not something we are given when we  are born again
• Every person possesses this divine dignity
  • “people…are made in the likeness of God” – James 3:9

What does it mean to be made in the image of God?

• Broad sense: Every human being
• Narrow sense: Each person is to live in holiness and righteousness
  • “You shall be holy, for I am holy, for I am holy” – Lev. 11:45
  • “He who called you is holy, so you also be holy” – 1 Pet. 1:15
    • We are to reflect God’s image
  • Adam lost this in the fall in the narrow sense
    • Col. 3:9-10
      • Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
        • Salvation restores to us what Adam lost in the narrow sense
        • The unsaved cannot respond to the command to be holy…but we can.

•  The Second Adam reflected God before the world
  • He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. – Col. 1:15
  • He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature – Heb. 1:3

•  We are called to faithfully reflect God in all we do.
  • Are YOU doing this?

Law of Opposites/Two-Sided Rule (every comm. has a positive & negative aspect):

• Opposite of the Commandment, do not murder  is  you shall love
  • For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 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. – 1 John 3:11-12

•  It is the intentions of the heart that make us guilty
  • For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. – Matt. 15:19

Law of Categories (each commandment stands for a whole category of sins):

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. – Matt. 5:22

• Anger is in the murder category
• “fool” means empty-headed
  • an abusive insult carries the same moral guilt as does murder

NOTE: This shatters any thought of self-righteousness

• You cannot justify yourselves because you haven’t committed the actual external act of murder
  • It begins in the heart
  • Even the best people (in their heart) are sinful and in desperate need of God’s grace

QUESTION: What is the state of your  heart?

• Forget your external condition…what about your heart ?
  • For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. – Rom. 2:28-29
  • And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. – Acts 15:8-9
  • And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. – Ezek. 36:26-27

QUESTION: Are you born again? Do you have love for the brothers?

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him – 1 John 3:14-15

You shall not murder = Love…love for one another

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. – John 13:34-35

• Jesus’ death models how we should love
• Jesus’ death purchases for us the very transformation that empowers us to love