Ninety percent of all communication is non-verbal.  No matter what you say, others hear what you convey.  And while non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, posture, gestures, and use of space, eye-contact is the most powerful.  For most people, the visual sense is dominant.  Consequently, the way you look at someone will communicate interest, affection, and even hostility.  We are all familiar with the expression, “if looks could kill.”

Every small child understands this phrase well.   As children when we were not walking in prompt and total obedience, we could feel our mothers’ laser like gaze burning holes in our tiny consciences.  And even though we never saw the ‘eyes in the back of mama’s head,’ we knew she had them.   Like an answer in the children’s catechism, “we could not see them, but they always saw us.”   Just when we thought we were under the radar and outside maternal surveillance, we were called to account.  Mama definitely had “looks that could kill.”

And while we understand the phrase as a metaphor for intensity, it makes an interesting point.  Murder is no mere work of our hands.  It begins in the heart.  It expresses itself in thought and word before it moves to deed.   And biblically, speaking murder does not strictly require the actual taking of a life.   It includes both the failure to protect and preserve life as well as any thought or word which tends to the unjust “taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbor.”

Jesus equated anger and hatred of our brother with murder.

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. Matthew 5:21-22

 Matthew 5:21-22

And Jesus’ beloved disciple John wrote, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:15)

Murder rankles around in our hearts, minds, and souls long before it finds its way into our hands.  Jesus noted this clearly. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” Matthew 15:19

Perhaps you have never murdered anyone. But have you had thoughts, words, or looks that could kill?   The Sixth Commandment, “Do not murder” seems the easiest to keep.  That is, until we consider all the Bible says about obeying with our thoughts, words, and deeds.  The Heidelberg Catechism expresses nicely the dos and don’ts of the Sixth Commandment.

What doth God require in the sixth commandment? That neither in thoughts, nor words, nor gestures, much less in deeds, I dishonor, hate, wound, or kill my neighbor, by myself or by another; but that I lay aside all desire of revenge; also, that I hurt not myself, nor willfully expose myself to any danger. Wherefore also the magistrate is armed with the sword to prevent murder.

But this commandment seems only to speak of murder? In forbidding murder, God teaches us that He abhors the causes thereof, such as envy, hatred, anger, and desire of revenge; and that He accounts all these as murder.

But is it enough that we do not kill any man in the manner mentioned above? No, for when God forbids envy, hatred, and anger, He commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves; to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness towards him, and prevent his hurt as much as in us lies; and that we do good, even to our enemies.

Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 40

Are you a murderer?  Is there blood on your hands? Or hatred in your heart?  Do you avoid and abhor things that lead to murder?  Envy, hatred, anger, and a desire for revenge?  Is it your desire, as our Shorter Catechism says, to “use all lawful means to preserve our lives and the lives of others?”   Do we “love our neighbor as ourselves; show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness towards him, and prevent his hurt as much as in us lies; and do good, even to our enemies?”

The Sixth Commandment is the shortest of the Ten, only two words in Hebrew, but its implications are deep and wide.   Join us as we examine Exodus 20:13 and consider its implications of the Sixth Commandment for our thoughts, words, and deeds. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.