Looking into the Mirror: The Sin Behind Murder

You shall not murder (Exodus 20:13).

Like many of the Ten Commandments, most people know (or think they know) what murder is and how it applies to their life. (And most would say it doesn’t, since they have never killed anyone.) However, like all the Commandments, Jesus has a different idea of what murder entails and from where it comes. As we will see with this commandment (and the rest of the commandments), Jesus sets the bar much higher, going to the very heart.

The Act of Murder

First, we need to take a look at the very word itself to get an understanding of what it means. The Hebrew word in Ex. 20:13 is ratsach, which denotes “to murder, slay, kill (either premeditated or by negligence).” The root form of the word means “to dash in pieces” (which has implications for our study, but more on that later).

We see in the Old Testament that God prescribes death for anyone who takes a human life with premeditation. The first such mention of this is right after the flood, when God makes a covenant with Noah. We read there:

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 the commands in this verse were given well before the Law was given to Israel (beginning with the Ten Commandments), it is reasonable to conclude that they are universal principles and apply to all people. Thus, the punishment for murder is not simply a matter of the “Old Covenant,” as some might claim.

Having said that, we should be quick to point out the Lord did differentiate between the crime of premeditated murder and what we might call negligent homicide or manslaughter. In Exodus 21, the Lord tells Moses:

Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die (Ex. 21:12-14).

Notice that the Lord says anyone who kills another in premeditation is to die. Plain and simple. The fact that many judicial systems are limiting or doing away with the death penalty for premeditated murder does not change the standard God sets. However, notice also that the Lord speaks of one who “did not lie in wait . . . but God let him fall into [the killer’s] hand.” In such cases, the Lord provided a place (“a city of refuge”) where the killer might go and be spared from the “avenger of blood” (a relative of the victim). The killer had to remain there until the High Priest died, and then he would be free. 

In this same section, we find that other crimes were to be punished by death: striking father or mother (v. 15); kidnapping (with the intent to sell into slavery), and anyone in possession of the kidnapped victim (v. 16); cursing father or mother (v. 17); hitting a pregnant woman so as to cause the death of unborn children (vv. 22-25). Why is the penalty so often death? Recall God’s words to Noah: “for God made man in his own image.” An attack on a human is an attack on the very image of God. 

The Roots of Murder

Fast forward now to the time of Jesus and His words on the subject of murder. In the discourse often known as the Sermon the Mount, Jesus declared,

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matt. 5:21-24).

In this passage, Jesus is giving us a hint about where murder begins. While the act of murder (killing another person) will subject the offender to criminal penalties, to have hatred in the heart for a brother will subect one to eternal judgement. In another discourse, Jesus was even more explicit:

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone (Matt. 15:19-20).

Murder, according to Jesus, goes much deeper than the outward act. It starts in the heart with hatred. So, even if one has not physically killed another person, if he harbors hatred in the heart, that hatred is the seed of murder–and equivalent to the act itself. John agrees with this thought when he writes, 

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. . . . Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (1 John 3:11-12, 15).

What we learn from Cain is he murdered Abel in his heart long before the blow was struck. Like all of the Commandments, this commandment goes to the very heart of the matter. As we grow in Christ, we must be willing to look beyond the outward behavior and ask the Lord to search the deepest part of our hearts, so that we may “not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18).