From Sampler to Sower

Weekend Teaching Series: Write them On My Heart (A series on the 10 Commandments)

Message Title: Word Six: You Will Not Murder

Sermon in a Sentence: We must not treat life with such a casual disregard that someone else loses theirs because of it.

Text(s): Deuteronomy 5:17; Psalm 51:4; Genesis 9:6; Romans 12:19

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 5 of 10; At least from a technical standpoint it was seemingly easy (though we had no end of sound glitches), the only difficulty was preaching “You shall not murder” to a bunch of teens who assume that verse doesn’t apply to them, since they’re not murderers and all.

Message Summary: We started by looking at the form and structure of the ten commandments, noting that with the shift from first half to second comes a shift of focus on our relationships with God to our relationships with each other.  We noted how the last five appear, not as five separate commands, but as a single run-on sentence – a grammatical feature lost in most modern translations.  And they seem to be ordered in descending severity: murder, which is the destruction of someone’s body; adultery which is the violation of someone’s body; theft, the violation of someone’s property by force; false testimony, the violation of someone’s property by deceit; and covetousness, the violation of someone’s property by intent.  Yet since they are all connected, it’s not really one is worse than any of the others, instead it’s the realization that if we violate one, we violate the community they all protect.

From that overview, we began to examine the prohibition of murder.  We noted that the KJV translates the command as “Thou shalt not kill.”  But not all killing is prohibited by Torah law, which makes provisions for capital punishment, war and even self-defense in some circumstances.  “Kill” is probably too broad a term.

The NIV translates it as “You shall not murder” implying that the prohibition is against premeditated homicide.  But given the fact that the same word is used in Numbers for an accidental killing, “murder” is probably too narrow a term.

Instead, the command appears to prohibit causing any wrongful death, either by premeditated violence or by neglectful accident.  The command seems to be “You will not treat with such casual disregard that someone else loses theirs because of it.”

From then we examine what is so wrong with wrongful death.  When David confesses to the murder of Uriah, he prays “Against you [God], you only, have I sinned.” (Psalm 51:4, NIV)  It seems odd that he would understand that his crime was against God, especially since it was Uriah who was dead.  But murder is a crime against God because

• Murder attacks the image of God in which humans were created (Gen 9:6)
• Murder usurps the authority of God by taking the life of another into our own hands (Rom 12:19)

From there we examine the ways in which we may treat life with such casual disregard that someone else wrongfully loses their own because of it.  Obviously murder is out, but so is abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.  We noted the difference between choosing to take an active step to end a life and choosing not to continue taking active steps to artificially prolong life.  We addressed the issue of capital punishment — obviously God’s word states that governments hold the power of the sword to protect justice.  However, as citizens of a country governed for the people and by the people we must ask ourselves whether our current justice system which offers greater benefits to those who can afford more skillful representation can really be trusted to wield that power justly, especially in light of what the Bible says about ensuring justice for the poorest among us.  We addressed the issue of war, noting that the Bible says there are some evils which must be resisted by force, but that not every war is justified and as citizens we must ask the difficult questions about the justice of the wars into which our leaders wish us to follow them.  We also acknowledged that habits like unbridled consumerism and environmental carelessness can also cause some to lose their lives as a result of our casual disregard.

Given all these issues are matters of life and death, I challenged students to realize that the sanctity of life encompasses much more than simply protecting the life of the unborn and the terminally ill (important as those things are) and that God is calling us to protect life wherever it is found.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: ‘Bout the same as usual.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We opened with a game of “Battle of the Sexes.”  We used the question cards from the board game and called one student of each sex up to compete against each other.  You could earn a point by answering the question from the opposite sex yourself, or if, in the event you missed that question, none of the members of that sex in the audience could come up with the right answer.  So, for example, we asked a girl what the game called a “guy” question.  If she got it right, she got a point.  If she got it wrong, we asked the guy to answer.  He could consult the audience of guys for help, and if they came up with the right answer, the girl got no points.  But if they couldn’t get it right either, the girl got a point.  Three rounds, whoever had the most points wins.

Worship Set: Grace Like Rain, The Hand the Holds the World, My Glorious (a golden oldie!) and God of Wonders

Favorite Moment: Asked a Senior High Girl (who’ll remain nameless) what the final event in the decathalon is.  Her answer: Running for 100 milliliters.