Liberating Truths About the Ten Commandments
The issue in the Sixth Commandment is one of choice. It’s specifically addressing premeditated murder. Unlike our enemy, Satan, who is a murderer and a thief seeking only to kill and destroy life, God desires for His people to choose life. Obeying the Sixth Commandment involves three significant choices about life:
- Choose to honor the sacredness and value of every human life. Even before you were born, God considers your life sacred in Psalm 139:13-16.
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 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.”
- Choose forgiveness over hatred and bitterness. Holding on to hate only hurts you, and bitterness blocks God’s blessings in your life. Before you think you’re not guilty of the Sixth Commandment because you’ve never killed anyone, listen to what Jesus said about it in His Sermon on the Mount. “You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.’” Matthew 5:21-22 (MSG)
The only antidote to hatred and bitterness is forgiveness. The Bible teaches us to “… forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:13.
- Choose to care for the poor and the powerless. Neglecting the plight of the poor and the powerless is contributing to their suffering and death. The Bible teaches Christ followers that the “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress ….”James 1:27 (NIV).
I want to challenge you with a commitment that has changed my life and how I view the lives of others. It’s time to act on what we believe and use our lives to make a difference that values the sanctity of every human life. Thousands have accepted this challenge already and are making a huge difference with intentional efforts to rescue the lives of others from poverty, sickness, and oppression. Would you join them by making the same choice for life today? I encourage you to download the form below, sign the commitment, and keep it in your Bible or place it where it will remind you daily of your choice to use your one-and-only life to make a difference.
