6 Ten Commandments

Happy Sunday. Today we've made it to the sixth commandment. It's found in Exodus 20:13: "Thou shalt not kill." Other translations say, "You shall not murder." It's sad to see the number of killings in our country today.

I live in Atlanta, and crime is up, and there seem to be shootings almost every night. I read about it; I don't watch TV. I quit watching the news the years ago; it's too depressing. The little town I lived in in Indiana was shocked by a murder this year.

This commandment is being broken all too often. To many, life is cheap. From womb to tomb, many just do not value life today. People are killed for sport, for initiations into gangs, for jealousy, because of road rage. The list is endless.

To many, again, life is cheap. I seriously doubt that any of you watching this have the inclination to kill someone. Therefore, today let's look at what else we can learn from this commandment. Each week we've turned to the "thou shalt not" say into positive statements.

Today this commandment translates to "Thou shalt love life." Isn't that a great command? "Thou shalt love life." Using that as our jumping off point, here are some truths we can apply to our own lives.

A great place to start is by asking the question: do you take care of yourself? First Corinthians 3:16 and 17 tells us this: "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells within you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." One way of following this commandment is by taking care of ourselves. If we love life, we should take care of the temple that God has given us.

Now, loving our own lives might be somewhat easy, but this commandment just keeps going. Just when I think that this command is a piece of cake, I read something like this from Matthew 5 and verses 21 and 22. Jesus said, "You've heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder,' and 'Whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you'll be liable to judgment, and if you insult a brother or sister, you'll be liable to the council, and if you say, 'You fool,' you'll be liable to the hell of fire."

Anger, insults, name-calling. I've been guilty of those. How about you? What's Jesus doing here? You know, when we do those types of things, we are really saying that life is cheap.

In First John chapter 3, we find these words in verses 15 and 16: "All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for one another." Love life. That is what we are to do. We're to love all life. What a different world this would be.

It's confession time. Over the years, I've dealt with my prejudices. I hope they're all gone. If one remained a few years back, it would have been toward Muslims, even though I didn't know any. After 9/11, I had feelings that were not consistent with loving everyone.

God, with his sense of humor, decided to cure me of that. It was around Christmas of 2015. I was at the local cemetery doing a graveside service. I received a call, as soon as I said amen, from a funeral director that was a bit frantic. He asked where I was.

I told him. He said, "Thank God." He needed me to do another graveside at that same cemetery in about five minutes. The officiant had not shown up, and there was a funeral that needed a pastor. He told me what section to go to.

It's a big cemetery, and I walked down the hill and saw the hearse and the crowd pulling in. I did not know if I was to bury a man or a woman, an adult or a child. I knew nothing. I went to the funeral director, and I was told that it was a woman, a Muslim woman.

Now, they had been in this country for many years, and they were Americanized. That was a word they gave me. That was the first pr— impromptu funeral I have ever done. They were kind and gracious to me, and I did the best I could with what I had.

I guess it went okay, because a year later the family called me to perform the funeral of the husband whose wife I buried on that day. I will never forget either one of them. It was as if God arranged that just for me, to deal with me. I pray my prejudices are gone and that I love all life.

Chris Carrier of Coral Gables, Florida, was abducted when he was 10 years old. His kidnapper burned him with cigarettes, stabbed him with an ice pick, and shot him, and left him to die in the Everglades. Amazingly, the boy survived. The suspect got away.

Years later, a man confessed to the crime. Chris Carrier was all grown up and was serving as a youth pastor at the time. He went to visit the man that had taken him as a boy, his kidnapper. He led David McAllister to make a profession of faith in Jesus.

In the Christian Reader, January/February of 1998, Carrier was quoted as saying, "While many people can't understand how I could forgive David McAllister, from my point of view I couldn't not forgive him. If I'd chosen to hate him all these years or spent my life looking for revenge, then I wouldn't be the man I am today, the men my wife and children love, the man God has helped me to be."

Talk about loving life. Bravo, Chris. It's my prayer that all of us can love God's creatures like that. After all, that's what Jesus did for us, dying on a cross for sinners like me and you.

Let's pray together. Lord God, thank you so much for the gift of life, and help us to be opposite of those that want to kill it. We want to give it, we want to share it, we want to celebrate it. And God, help us to deal with our thought lives and how we love the world around us.

Help us not to name call, to belittle, to do the things that make life cheap, because it is so valuable. You gave your Son for our lives, and we thank you for the gift of life. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.