The 6th Commandment
“You shall not murder.” – Exodus 20:13. This is the 6th Commandment in the list
of 10 that God gave to mankind through his servant, Moses.
Man’s greatest possession is his life. Jesus asked, “What would a man give in
exchange for his life?” It is sacred. After a storm or natural catastrophe it is
not uncommon to hear a survivor of the event say, “Thank God, we are alive. We
can rebuild what was destroyed.” Possessions mean little when life is the
central issue. Where there is life there is hope. Houses can be rebuilt, but a
life lost is lost.
In America the liberty of self actualization, not life itself, has become the
most important right to many individuals. Many mothers-to-be consider their own
personal freedom – “ the right to choose “ – to be much more important that the
right of the child in her womb to live; hence they will see no shame or feel any
quilt in destroying the baby so that they are free to live without being
encumbered by raising a child.
In 1973 the Supreme Court legalized abortion with the Roe vs Wade decision.
Since that terrible decision nearly 50 million pregnancies have been terminated
by killing the fetus. 3 out of every 10 possible high school graduates never
have the opportunity to attend high school because they were aborted in the
womb.
We fuss about the mass slaughter of the Jews by Hitler, the mass killings of
Russians by Stalin and the mass murder of Iraqis by Hussain but the greatest
mass murder campaign in all of history is occurring on American soil – the
brutal murder of innocent babies.
The riddance of the elderly is next on the agenda of the secularists. They
surname it “assisted suicide “or “euthanasia “but it is nothing less than murder
of the elderly. They stress the “quality” of life as being more important than
life itself. It is a violation of the 6th Commandment – “You shall not murder.”
This commandment is a blessing to all of us. If enforced properly it safe guards
a society from another holocaust, another Idi Amin slaughter, another Stalin –
led slaughter, etc. If the offender is severely punished it is a deterrent to
would-be killers. In a society where life is not considered to be sacred and the
laws to protect life are relaxed the society becomes a killing jungle.
Enforcement of this commandment really protects all of us from others who hate
us because of our religion, nationality, income level or skin color. When life
becomes cheap and punishment is weak you will find a drastic rise in hate
crimes, angry outbursts that end in murder, homicides during robberies, etc.
The school shootings, the slaughter of 6 family members in Lancaster County by a
young angry man, etc are the results of a relaxed teaching of the 6th
Commandment – thou shalt not kill other human beings. This commandment has
nothing to do with killing of animals for food, mice for lab experimentation to
find cures for disease, etc. It deals with humans being murdered.