The Ten Commandments

You Shall Not Kill

The sixth commandment, in three short words, protects the sacredness of human life: Thou shalt not kill. The Hebrew word points to the unlawful taking of innocent life, what we call murder. Because every human being is made in the image of God, no one may destroy that image at will. But as Jesus showed, the command guards more than the body. It reaches to the anger and contempt in the heart that would wound and destroy if it could.

“Thou shalt not kill.”Exodus 20:13

What it meant to Israel

The commandment rests on a truth God gave long before Sinai, in the days after the flood: Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. Human life is sacred not because it is useful or strong, but because every person bears the image of the Maker. To murder is to assault God’s own likeness.

The word here does not forbid every taking of life, for the same law provided for justice and, in Israel’s setting, for war and lawful punishment. It forbids murder, the unlawful and malicious killing of the innocent. To protect it Israel was given cities of refuge, so that even one who killed by accident would not be slain in blind vengeance. The whole arrangement declared that human blood is precious to God, and that a society is measured by how it guards the lives of the weak.

This reverence for life set Israel apart in a world that often held human life cheap. Where other peoples might sacrifice children to their gods or spill blood without a thought, Israel was taught that every life was precious to the LORD because it bore His image. The cities of refuge, the careful distinction between murder and accident, and the demand for a fair trial before any life was taken all declared that human blood was not to be shed lightly, for it belonged to God.

What it forbids and what it requires

On its face the commandment forbids murder. But Scripture will not let us keep it so narrowly, for the same God who forbids killing also warns against the hatred that breeds it and the neglect that lets others perish. To forbid the act while excusing the malice is to keep only the shell of the command.

Positively, this commandment requires that we protect and cherish life, our own and our neighbour’s. It asks not only that we refrain from harm but that we do good, that we defend the vulnerable, care for the sick and the poor, and refuse the contempt that treats any person as disposable. If murder is the utter denial that my neighbour bears God’s image, then keeping this command means honouring that image in everyone, especially the weak, the unborn, the stranger, the aged, and the enemy.

How Jesus deepened it

No commandment shows more clearly how Jesus goes to the root. Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not kill, He taught; but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. He traced murder back to its source, the anger and contempt that call a brother worthless, and He named that inner hatred as itself a breaking of the sixth commandment.

The apostle John drew the line plainly: Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. By this measure the command indicts us all, for who has never nursed contempt or wished another ill. Yet Jesus did not only expose the sin; He commanded its opposite, telling us to be reconciled to our brother, to love our enemies, and to bless those that curse us. The command against killing becomes, in His hands, a call to a heart cleansed of hatred and filled with active love.

How we fall short, and are met by grace

Measured by Jesus’ words, none of us is innocent. We may never have taken a life, but we have harboured the anger, the grudges, the contempt, and the cold indifference to suffering that are murder’s kin. The commandment strips away our self-righteousness and shows us hearts more violent than we knew.

And so it drives us to grace. The blood we could not stop shedding, in deed or in wish, is answered by the blood of Christ, which speaketh better things, a blood shed not in murder but in mercy, to cover ours. God does not meet our hatred with the death we deserve but with the life His Son laid down. The law that convicts the murderer in every heart drives that heart to the Saviour who forgives it.

How to live it today

To keep the sixth commandment is to become a person of life in a world quick to destroy. It begins in the heart, refusing to feed anger, letting go of grudges, and seeking reconciliation rather than nursing wounds. Be angry, and sin not, Scripture says; let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

It moves outward into how we speak, for words can wound and words can heal, and the tongue that curses a person made in God’s image joins the spirit this command forbids. And it reaches into how we act, toward defending the defenceless, caring for the sick and the hungry, honouring life at its beginning and its end, and loving even our enemies. To live this command is not merely to avoid taking life but to spend our lives protecting and blessing others.

It is worth remembering that this command is kept as much by what we build as by what we refuse. To make peace where there is strife, to visit the sick, to feed the hungry, and to speak gently to the person the world overlooks, is to honour the image of God in them. The opposite of murder is not merely restraint but active love, a life spent guarding and gladdening the lives of others, especially the ones least able to guard their own.