For the last couple of weeks we have been looking carefully at the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue–“You shall not murder”–Exodus 20:13. And having explored its Old Covenant significance, we have started moving forward in an attempt to comprehend how this prohibition of murder is more fully expressed in the New Covenant. Is it enough to claim that we have not violated this sacred Word as long as we have not actually murdered anyone? Last week, as you remember, we answered this question in the negative. According to Jesus, we ‘kill’ one another when there is unjustified anger in our hearts and slanderous words on our lips–Matthew 5:21-22. We are all guilty of murder, many times over!

But as we look at the way the New Testament appeals to and applies the Sixth Commandment, we also need to examine what John–‘the beloved Disciple’–has to say about it. Consider these words from 1 John 3:10-16:

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. 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. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 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. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

This coming Lord’s Day we will prayerfully explore this rich passage from the New Testament. But let me warn you, John gives us no middle ground upon which to stand. As he applies the Sixth Commandment to his readers–and to each of us–he sets forth the radical contrast between love and murder, and between spiritual life and spiritual death. As we immerse our hearts and minds in this amazing passage we will learn that either one hates, or one loves. Either one takes a life, or gives away their own. One is either spiritually alive, and therefore loves, or one is spiritually dead, and therefore hates and murders. What a powerful and convicting Word this is!