Introduction
Christ Jesus
did not seem to spend a lot of his time preaching “Thou shalt not
kill.”
Instead, he went right to the root of the problem and pulled
it out of the soil of material
thinking. We read in his Sermon on
the Mount:
“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou
shalt not kill; and
whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the
judgment: But I say unto you,
That whosoever is angry with his brother
without a cause shall be in danger
of the judgment: and whosoever
shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in
danger of the council:
but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger
of hell fire.”
(Matthew 5:21-22)
Self-righteousness, self-will, self-love, anger,
and prejudice are what Jesus condemned.
These loveless, unspiritual
attitudes toward God’s children – our brothers and sisters –
are the
killers. An outward murder is the result of an inner motive, as our
courts of law
recognize. It is the inner motive, the heart of man,
that breaks the Sixth Commandment.
Murder is the unrestrained physical
expression of qualities such as hate, fear, envy,
jealousy, lust,
or greed. In the textbook of Christian Science,
Science and Health
with
Key to the Scriptures, the author,
Mary Baker Eddy, writes:
“Our
courts recognize evidence to prove the motive as well as the
commission
of a crime. Is it not clear that the human mind must move the
body
to a wicked act? Is not mortal mind the murderer? The hands, without
mortal
mind to direct them, could not commit a murder.
“Courts and juries
judge and sentence mortals in order to restrain crime,
to prevent
deeds of violence or to punish them. To say that these tribunals
have
no jurisdiction over the carnal or mortal mind, would be to contradict
precedent and to admit that the power of human law is restricted to
matter,
while mortal mind, evil, which is the real outlaw, defies
justice and is
recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime?
Can matter be
punished? Can you separate the mentality from the body
over which courts
hold jurisdiction? Mortal mind, not matter, is the
criminal in every case; and
human law rightly estimates crime, and
courts reasonably pass sentence,
according to the motive.” (S&H
105:3-15)
The term “mortal mind” is meant to convey what the Apostle
Paul called the “carnal
mind.” In Christian Science, it is the term
for the beliefs of material sense as opposed
to the spiritual sense
of man bestowed by his Creator. Mortal mind is not part of God’s
creation
– His spiritual ideas – but is a false negative sense of what is divinely
real and
positive. It is the source of evil motives as opposed to
the natural graces of love that
spring from man’s spiritual identity.
Mrs. Eddy writes:
“As of old, evil still charges the spiritual idea
with error's own nature and
methods. This malicious animal instinct,
of which the dragon is the type,
incites mortals to kill morally and
physically even their fellow-mortals, and
worse still, to charge the
innocent with the crime. This last infirmity of sin
will sink its
perpetrator into a night without a star.” (S&H 563:3-9)
Biblical
Background:
The Commandment “Thou shalt not kill,” has evolved in
its meaning over the centuries.
As civilized society has developed
morally and spiritually, it has gained new perspectives
of this Law
that were not necessarily shared by the nation of Israel at the time
of Moses.
One Bible commentary describes what the Sixth Commandment
meant to the early
Hebrews:
“The commandment is concerned with the
protection of human life within
the community of Israel, against destruction
by fellow Israelites. The verb is
not limited to murder in the criminal
sense and may be used of unpremedi-
tated killing (Deut. 4:42). It
forbids all killing not explicitly authorized. This
means that in
Israelite society it did not forbid the slaying of animals,
capital
punishment, or the killing of enemies in war. It had no direct bearing,
either,
on suicide.” (The Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 1, pg 986)
For a commentary
on the Sixth Commandment that includes information on how the
Jewish
nation applied it to their system of justice, you might wish to read
William
Barclay’s book on “The Ten Commandments,” originally published
in 1973, and
republished in 1998 by Westminster John Knox Press. Here
are a few citations from
his 31 page essay on the Sixth Commandment:
“The Hebrew verb implies . . . ‘violent and unauthorized killing,’
not killing
in general.” (page 52)
“. . . the real reason for the commandment,
as the Bible sees it, is the story
of the words of God to Noah after
the flood: ‘Whoever sheds the blood of
man, by man shall his blood
be shed; for God made man in his own
image.’ (Gen. 9:6) Since man
is made in the image of God, then the taking
of a single life is the
destruction of the most precious and the most holy
thing in the world.”
(pg. 52)
“Within the Jewish legal system it was never even suggested
that this
commandment forbade what may be called judicial killing.”
(pg. 53)
“Jewish law made special provisions for what might be called
non-deliberate killing, killing which happened by accident, or as
the result
of a blow or an attack which was not meant to kill. For
men involved in
this, six cities of refuge were set apart to which
they might flee if they
killed ‘without intent,’ but, if the killer
was not inside one of these
cities of refuge, the avenger of blood
might take his life.
(Numbers 35:9-28)” (pg. 53)
Barclay’s essay describes
the various ways of carrying out judicial death sentences,
such as
stoning, burning, beheading, and strangling, but then notes:
“We must
go on to see how the mercy of Jewish law in fact made it
next to impossible
to carry out the death penalty at all.’ (pg. 55)
“The all-important
thing was the motive. If it was deliberate killing,
coming from acknowledged
hatred, then the killer’s life was forfeit.” (pg. 56)
“No man could
be condemned on any evidence less than that of two
eye-witnesses.
Circumstantial evidence was not valid in a Jewish court.” (pg. 56)
The rest of Barclay’s essay offers information, history, and opinion
on such subjects
as capital punishment, euthanasia, suicide, and “just
wars,” all of which he personally
renounces as anti-Christian.
The
Old Testament offers a number of stories and lessons on the consequences
of
breaking the Sixth Commandment. A good one to study is the life
of David. Here is
a man who killed for both “just” reasons and very
wrong reasons, yet at times showed
great mercy when others might have
taken revenge. You can read about David in the
books of I and II Samuel,
I and II Kings, and I and II Chronicles. Other suggestions for
Bible
stories to study relating to “Thou shalt not kill,” will be found
in the section on
Teaching the Sixth Commandment to Children.
Jesus
and the Sixth Commandment:
Jesus brought fresh inspiration and spiritual
insight to the all of the Ten Command-
ments, which, over the centuries,
had become weighed down with burdensome
and endless rules. Harsh punishments
were meted out by hypocritical Pharisees
and others authorized to
administer the Jewish law. As we read at the opening of
this essay,
Jesus warned his followers not of killing, but of anger and self-righteous-
ness.
But that did not mean Jesus was going to let people ignore the original
intent
of the Commandments. Jesus said: “Think not that I am come
to destroy the
law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfil.” (Matt. 5:17)
As with all his teachings, Jesus demonstrated
these laws of God for his followers. With
gentle exhortations, as
well as strong rebukes, he set forth the requirements for those
who
would be called Christians. These included the qualities and actions
that would
prevent killing.
In the
Beatitudes from the Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus taught us to be merciful and
to be peacemakers, promising
the rewards of mercy for ourselves, and the honor of
being called
God’s child. He also said in the Sermon:
“Ye have heard that it hath
been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for
a tooth: But I say unto
you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall
smite thee on thy
right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:38-39)
“Ye have
heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and
hate
thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that
curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully
use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of
your Father
which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil
and
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
(Matthew
5:43-45)
In the
Lord’s Prayer, he urged us to pray daily to forgive
those who may owe us some-
thing, and to pray to be delivered from
the temptations of evil. By forgiving others,
rather than seeking
so-called justice for “debts” not paid, and by turning away from the
temptations of human will, we can help put out the fires of anger,
greed, or fear that
would burst into acts of murder – physical or
mental.
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and
to destroy: I am come
that they might have life, and that they might
have it more abundantly.”
(John 10:10)
Could not the “thief” be the
carnal, or mortal, mind that Paul spoke of, which seems to
be the
avenue for evil thoughts and motives? Jesus is here telling us he
has brought
the good news that it is not God’s will that anyone should
have their life destroyed or
depleted.
In spite of his divine source,
Jesus had a human side which also struggled briefly with
a personal
will. Self-will is often the engine that drives us to murder, and
it needs to
be challenged and subdued. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
where Jesus had his
greatest war to wage with self-will on the night
of his arrest, Jesus asked God to
“remove this cup.” Mrs. Eddy comments
on his victory over self:
“When the human element in him struggled
with the divine, our great
Teacher said: ‘Not my will, but Thine,
be done!’ — that is, Let not the flesh,
but the Spirit, be represented
in me. This is the new understanding of
spiritual Love. It gives all
for Christ, or Truth. It blesses its enemies, heals
the sick, casts
out error, raises the dead from trespasses and sins, and
preaches
the gospel to the poor, the meek in heart.” (S&H 18)
This “new
understanding of spiritual Love” is what will eventually dissolve
all desire to
murder, to hate, to be angry, and to be unforgiving.
Love will destroy the fear that
others might harm us. Mrs. Eddy writes: “Clad
in the panoply of Love, human
hatred cannot reach you.” (S&H 571:18-19)
Following
our Master, Christ Jesus, we will see that Truth, God, is all we need,
whether to defend ourselves from others, or to prevent ourselves from
acting
aggressively or violently:
“Judas had the world's weapons.
Jesus had not one of them, and
chose not the world's means of defence.
‘He opened not his mouth.’
The great demonstrator of Truth and Love
was silent before envy and
hate. Peter would have smitten the enemies
of his Master, but Jesus
forbade him, thus rebuking resentment or
animal courage. He said: 'Put
up thy sword.'" (S&H 48:17)
What
gave Jesus such courage? Why did he not take revenge on those who
would
harm him? Jesus knew that life is eternal, that it can never
be destroyed, no matter
what the material senses, or mortal mind,
would claim.
“‘This is life eternal,’ says Jesus, — is, not shall
be; and then he defines
everlasting life as a present knowledge of
his Father and of himself, —
the knowledge of Love, Truth, and Life.
‘This is life eternal, that they might
know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.’
The Scriptures say, ‘Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of
the mouth of God,’ showing that Truth is the actual
