October 29, 2006

The Sixth Word ? Do Not Kill
Exodus 20:13
Eric A. Seibert

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to ‘honor’ thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, ‘Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?’ Without missing a beat one little boy . . . answered, ‘Thou shall not kill.’1 While I doubt this application of the command was foremost in the minds of most Israelites, it certainly fits.

At first glance, the sixth commandment seems relatively easy to understand and obey. From time to time, I have had the opportunity to teach a course at Messiah College on the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. When we get to the book of Exodus and deal with the Ten Commandments, one of things I ask students to do is to write each of the commandments in their own words. They are then to comment on which commandments they find easiest and most difficult to keep and to explain why. The responses I receive indicate that the more difficult commands for my students involve things like honoring parents and not coveting. As I recall, no one ever indicated that keeping the sixth commandment was particularly difficult for them. I suspect the same is true for most of us here this morning. But if that’s the case, then why devote an entire message to a seemingly unambiguous command which most of us are unlikely to break?

I suppose the easiest answer to that question is that when you do a sermon series on the Ten Commandments you can’t just skip over one. But the more significant reason is that this commandment, like all the rest, is not quite as simplistic as it first appears. There is more here than meets the eye.

TRANSLATION
Part of the challenge of dealing with this particular commandment is related to the way it is translated. Traditionally, in translations like the time honored King James Version and the Revised Standard Version, Exod. 20:13 has been translated as "You shall not kill." Yet something rather peculiar has happened in the last fifty years. Nearly every major translation produced in the second half of the 20th century, including the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version, have rendered this verse as "You shall not murder." Why this change? That is the question Wilma Ann Bailey set out to answer in her recent book, aptly titled, You Shall Not Kill or You Shall Not Murder?2

Initially you might think, "What’s the big deal? To kill, to murder, it’s virtually the same thing." But there is actually a significant difference between these two words. Murder is a much narrower term that includes only certain kinds of lethal activity. Killing, on the other hand, is much broader, including things like abortion, capital punishment, and killing enemy combatants in war. So then why this linguistic shift from not killing to not murdering?

One of numerous reasons Bailey gives is that this change reflects the Church’s attempt to accommodate the biblical text to its acceptance of practices like war and capital punishment.3 As many sectors of the Church have grown to accept and even strongly support this kind of state sponsored killing, the translation "do not kill" became problematic. Changing the translation to only prohibit murder eliminated this problem. According to Bailey, "Interpreters narrow the prohibition to what relatively few people do, a criminal act–a person illegally killing another person–while allowing for the bulk of killing that takes place in the world to continue."4 At least at some level then, this change in translation has made for "pragmatic" reasons.5 "People want to kill people," writes Bailey, "and they want biblical permission to do so. The translators of the NRSV and other translations of the late twentieth century gave them that permission."6

Yet despite this trend in modern translations, a study of the Hebrew verb in question reveals that murder is too narrow a translation. Instead, as numerous interpreters have argued, the traditional translation, "You shall not kill," is actually more accurate. Since the commandment is a command against killing, more generally speaking, we need to think broadly about the meaning and application of the sixth commandment. To do that, I want to describe several different kinds of killing in order to see the far reaching implications this command has for us. Doing this will also help us determine how this command might be applied in our lives today. Admittedly, many of the categories I am about to describe go beyond the way ancient Israelites would have understood this command. Still, following the example of Jesus in the sermon on the Mount, it seems reasonable to reflect on this command more broadly than it might have been understood in ancient times.

FOUR KINDS OF KILLING
1. Actual killing
The first and most obvious kind of killing is what I would call "actual killing," the terrible act of ending someone’s life. Murder, of course, is one of the most obvious examples of this kind of killing. But there are many other forms as well such as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, and war, to name just a few. What makes taking another person’s life so horrific is that it is an irreversible act of violence. There is no way to undo the damage done. There is no way to redeem a relationship with someone who is dead. It does irreparable harm to the victim. Yet God has created us to be in community, in relationship with one another. Taking another person’s life completely eliminates that possibility.

What is sometimes not recognized is that killing affects both the victim and the one who kills. When God created people, God did not design them to kill one another. We have not been wired that way. Killing is an unnatural behavior. One way this is evident is by the low firing rate among soldiers in wars prior to the 1950's. In World War II, for example, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman notes that "only 15 to 20 percent of the American riflemen in combat . . . would fire at the enemy."7 In his book On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, Grossman gives the reason. He writes, "There is within most men an intense resistance to killing their fellow man. A resistance so strong that, in many circumstances, soldiers on the battlefield will die before they can overcome it."8 This is why drill sergeants today work so hard to condition people to kill. Killing does not come naturally to normal, healthy human beings.

Since people were not created to be killers, when they do take the life of another person, particular in war, it takes a devastating toll on them. Killing has long?term psychological affects. Those who kill often experience guilt, remorse, anxiety, and depression. Many suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Those who kill are changed forever, and it is not for the better.

2. Non?physical killing
There are other forms of killing that do not involve actually taking another person’s life. For example, the emotional and psychological harm that one person inflicts upon another can also bring death in a certain sense. This represents a second kind of killing that, for lack of a better term, let’s call non?physical killing. This kind of killing is sometimes reflected in the language we use about certain behaviors. A person who spreads malicious rumors and lies about someone else, for example, is said to be guilty of character assassination. They kill with words rather than with weapons.

It’s obvious that our words and deeds can have devastating consequences on the lives of those around us, consequences that can bring death to people even while they live. In his award winning book Engaging the Powers, Walter Wink recalls a painful personal episode that poignantly illustrates this.
When I was a child, [writes Wink,] I lied quite often out of fear of my father’s wrath. One day when he came home from work he asked me if I had put my bike in the garage. I answered yes, and ran out to the front yard to put it away. It was gone. I ran into the house shouting that my bike had been stolen. "Where was it?" Dad asked. "In the front yard," I naively replied. "I thought you said it was in the garage," he said. It was entrapment; he had himself hidden it. After dinner that night, he and my mother convened a trial at the kitchen table while I stood before the bar of justice, being judged. They found me guilty of being a liar, and gave me two choices: to leave home for good, or to spend the night in the "brig" (a garage storeroom). Sensing that my life in my family was over, I opted to leave. I was nine years old. They asked me to whom I planned to go. Every time I suggested someone they said, "Oh, no, they wouldn’t want a liar living with them." There appeared to be no alternative to the brig. That night in a very profound sense I "died" emotionally.9

That is a heartbreaking story, one that tragically illustrates the reality of non?physical killing, our ability to bring death to someone even though they live.

3. Virtual killing
A third kind of killing is what I refer to as virtual killing. Like the previous category, virtual killing does not actually end someone’s life, but it is lethal nevertheless. One form of virtual killing involves nurturing deadly attitudes. If we harbor hate in our hearts toward others, we violate the spirit of the sixth command. Listen to how the writer of 1 John puts it, in chapter three verse 15a, "All who hate a brother or sister are murderers."10 That is rather strong language. This same idea seems to be what Jesus had in mind when he says in Matt 5:21?22a,
You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, "You shall not murder"; and "whoever murders shall be liable to judgment." But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment.
Jesus regarded anger as a potentially lethal emotion. As one New Testament scholar puts it, "According to Jesus, anger alone–what may perhaps be described as murdering your brother in your heart . . . – is a violation of God’s law."11 To be sure, not all anger is wrong. We ought to be angry when we hear about children being abused, political prisoners being tortured, and people starving to death. But sometimes our anger is motivated by a desire for revenge or a desire to hurt someone who has hurt us. In these instances, it is crucial we deal with our attitudes since hostile attitudes toward others can be a form of virtual killing.

But there is another form of virtual killing that should also be noted here. This form involves participation in the imaginary homicides that take place in film, novels, and video games. Our culture seems especially attracted to blood and guts. We are fascinated by it. You don’t need me to tell you that violence and killing are an integral part of the entertainment industry, whether it be in horror films like Nightmare on Elm Street (or any one of its six sequels) or in popular video games like Grand Theft Auto or Doom. I realize that Christians differ over the appropriateness of certain expressions of virtual killing and the extent to which we may enjoy or participate in it. Still, as followers of Jesus, the one who calls us to treat others as we want to be treated, and who commands us to love our enemies, it seems we need to exercise great care in exposing ourselves to forms of entertainment that capitalize on killing. Moreover, despite what some may think, engaging in virtual killing is not just "harmless fun." Numerous studies have demonstrated a connection between playing violent video games, for example, and increased aggression. Unfortunately, what we fantasize about in the virtual world can spill over into reality with drastic consequences.

4. Negligent Killing
The fourth and final kind of killing I will describe is rather different from all the rest. It is what we might negligent killing. In a certain sense, this kind of killing happens by doing nothing! The person guilty of negligent killing is the one who has the means and ability to save someone’s life but who fails to act. This is one of the ways Martin Luther, the great German Reformer of the 16th century, understood the sixth command. In his comments on this commandment Luther wrote, "If . . . you send away one that is naked when you could clothe him, you have caused him to freeze to death; if you see one suffer hunger and do not give him food, you have caused him to starve. So also, if you see any one innocently sentenced to death or in like distress, and do not save him, although you know ways and means to do so, you have killed him."12 We run the risk of violating the sixth commandment when we fail to care for those who are at risk in our community.

That puts the sixth commandment in a rather different light and raises some very disturbing questions. It forces us to grapple with the question, who is my brother and sister? For whom am I responsible? If tens of thousands of people die each day of preventable diseases–which they do–and I do absolutely nothing to prevent them, am I in some way responsible for their deaths? Or if my country is engaged in a war that results in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, mostly innocent civilians, and I do nothing to stop it, do I have blood on my hands as well? I ask these questions not to increase our collective guilt, but to raise our awareness of the breadth and depth of the applicability of this command when it is taken seriously by followers of Jesus.

Each of the four kinds of killing we have explored, actual, non?physical, virtual, and negligent extend the reach of the sixth commandment in different directions. So how should we as Christians respond to this commandment today? How can we apply the message of this command to our own lives? To answer these questions, it may be helpful to begin by restating the commandment positively.

STATING THE COMMANDMENT POSITIVELY
If we rewrote the sixth commandment, changing it from a "You shall not" to a "You shall," how would it read? As it now stands, this commandment forbids us from taking life. Stated positively, this commandment might read, "You shall protect life." At the heart of the sixth commandment is a recognition of the sanctity of human life. It is a recognition that, as one scholar has noted, "life belongs to God" and is not ours to take. Rather, it is ours to protect. As Brethren in Christ we understand the importance of emphasizing the sanctity of life. One of our ten core values states that, "We value all human life and promote forgiveness, understanding, reconciliation, and nonviolent resolution of conflict." As members of the BIC Church and as followers of Jesus we are called to reject killing and protect life. As Glen Stassen and David Gushee write in their recent book Kingdom Ethics, "The good news of the gospel brings life and invites us to participate in bringing life and resisting death."13

Yet sometimes as Christians we send mixed messages in this regard. We might protect life when it comes to an issue like abortion, yet abandon that principle when it comes to the death penalty. We may object to physician assisted suicide but support killing in warfare. Such inconsistencies in our witness about the sanctity of life must surely seem curious and confusing to those outside the Church. As followers of Jesus, we are called to promote life in every arena.

In his book God’s Politics, Jim Wallis recounts the following discussion that took place while addressing a group of students at the University of Notre Dame. He writes,
One young student at Notre Dame passionately reminded the group that a legal practice that kills four thousand unborn children every day is an urgent moral imperative. But she was then reminded that nine thousand people each day now die of AIDS, thirty thousand children perish every day because of hunger and diseases mostly due to poverty, and as many as half a million are lost each year in international conflicts and wars. All agreed that a more consistent ethic of human life is sorely needed.14
That is what the sixth commandment calls us to, to develop a consistent ethic of life in which we actively do what we can to promote life and stop every kind of preventable death. We do so because we recognize that every person on the planet has been created in God’s image and is of infinite worth. Admittedly, this is sometimes difficult to remember when we think about certain people. Yet as Richard Mouw reminds us,
Every human being is a work of divine art. . . . I can learn a lot about how to treat an unlikable person with reverence if I keep reminding myself of the value the person has in the eyes of God.15
If we see people as God sees people, if we remind ourselves of the value all people have in God’s eyes, we must do all that we can to seek their well being. Each individual is a person for whom Christ died, and each one must be treated with dignity and respect.

The Church’s witness to the world should be clear and consistent when it comes to our position on killing. They should know that followers of Jesus do not kill. Rather, we live in the same spirit as the one who came that we might "have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). The world should recognize us as a community that promotes life and protects life without discrimination.

But how do we do that? What does it look like to keep the sixth command? There are many different ways of expressing our obedient to this command. Allow me to simply suggest a few examples to get you thinking. For some, keeping the sixth commandment might mean giving up violent video games. For others, obeying this command might involve taking steps to eliminate anger and hatred you’ve been harboring in your heart toward a co?worker or family member. We also keep faith with the sixth commandment when we encourage our elected officials to enact just policies that will protect lives at home and around the world. Additionally, we protect life when we become intentional about stopping hunger and addressing poverty. As we come to understand that our inactivity makes us complicate in the deaths of those who die from preventable diseases and malnutrition, we can choose to get involved with organizations like Bread for the World and Mennonite Central Committee that are already are actively engaged in these issues. We can partner with them as they work to resist death and promote life. Or perhaps your response of obedience to this command involves protecting the lives of the unborn. You may decide to volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center or may consider providing monetary contributions to organizations which provide financial assistance to women deciding to carry their baby to term. These kinds of actions–and many others–which reject killing and promote life are consistent with the spirit of the sixth command, and these kinds of actions that should be characteristic of people of faith.

RESPONSE
I’d like to give you a couple minutes to pray, asking God to show you one or two ways you might respond to this message. How will you reject killing and choose life? What specific steps will you take to protect life in your community and around the world? As you consider these questions invite God to guide your thoughts. Let’s pray silently together for a few moments.

God of life, hear our prayers. Give us the courage to reject killing and death, and the wisdom to protect and enhance all life, near and far.

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1 Original source unknown. I received this in an email from Michael Cosby dated 6/30/04.
2 Wilma Ann Bailey, "You Shall Not Kill" or "You Shall Not Murder"? The Assault on a Biblical Text (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2005).
3 Ibid., 46?47, 59. Note to reader: I may have somewhat overstated Bailey’s claims in this paragraph since she does not state this quite so baldly. See her comments in the final paragraphs on pp. 46 and 59.
4 Ibid., viii.
5 Ibid., 46.
6 Ibid., 52.
7 0. Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005), 4.
8 Ibid.
9 Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), 205.
10 All Bible translations are from the NRSV unless otherwise noted.
11 Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1?13 (WBC 33A; Dallas: Word, 1993), 116.
12 "The Ten Commandments," The Book of Concord, §190. Accessed Oct 2006 at http://www.bookofconcord.org/largecatechism/3_tencommandments.html. I am indebted to Bailey ("You Shall Not Kill" or "You Shall Not Murder"? , 49) for pointing me to Luther’s comments on this commandment.
13 Glen H. Stassen and David P. Gushee, Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context (Downers Grove: Ill.: InterVarsity, 2003), 147.
14 Jim Wallis, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It (San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco, 2005), 301.
15 Richard J. Mouw, Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World, (Downers Grove: Ill.: InterVarsity, 1992), 24?25.