The Sixth Commandment

Throughout the world and among all peoples, the murder of a person is considered a criminal offense for which strict punishment follows. In giving this commandment, the Lord very briefly declared: "You shall not murder" Ex. 20:13.

After this, other statutes appeared explaining the rules of relationships between people. Also, God's people were explained what measure of punishment should be chosen for violators of the law. The Lord is very wise and just in His statutes, and the people accepted everything that was said from above. Hardly anyone would claim that this commandment lost its force with Christ's death, and it's not worth observing, since Christ fulfilled the entire law.

Living on this earth, Jesus gave a deeper understanding of the law, revealing the spirit of the commandment. In the Sermon on the Mount, He very accessibly explained what is considered murder in Heaven's eyes, and what punishment simple words of cursing bring, which people say to each other without thinking.

The family did not become an exception. It too is a battlefield between good and evil. And on this field, love, tender attachment, kindness, respect, tenderness, care, attention and many other good qualities often perish, making a person's soul empty and unsuitable for Eternity. The judgment over weak people who, under the pressure of someone else's anger, lost their human appearance and personal self-esteem, will not be as strict as over their tormentors. But if a person became a victim of another's cruelty and rudeness, as a result of which he began to despise and hate his offender, this does not give him the right to Eternal life. With such a spirit, hardly anyone will inherit salvation, even if he was oppressed on this Earth.

Jesus taught in Matt. 5:21-22: "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire." The Lord very clearly made it understood what is murder in Heaven's eyes and what punishment all violators of this commandment deserve.

If I consider someone foolish and tell him about it, insulting his feelings, then the highest measure of punishment awaits me. My rough word is an instrument of murder. This is how God understands it.

What happens in a person's heart when he becomes angry at someone and says something rude addressed to another? He opens the way for an evil spirit, which in alliance with man's carnal nature begins to kill God's image in the speaker's heart and endow this soul with qualities of demonic forces, establishing the mind in pride and in its righteousness. As a result, the person created in the image and likeness of God perishes. Sin was born in the soul of the curser, which at first was not so big and completely unnoticeable, but like a sown seed, this sin begins to grow and bear its evil fruit in the sinner's soul.

The problem of sin is that the sinner himself cannot deliver his soul from this evil. He doesn't have such power to free himself from this authority.

Let's look at Satan's rebellion. This angel was the crown of wisdom and beauty. He lacked any defects. But he became proud of his position and envied that God's throne was higher. This caused indignation in the covering cherub, which became the seed of evil that destroyed both Lucifer himself and those who believed him and became infected with the same spirit.

The war in Heaven was ordinary polemics, as a result of which the souls of holy beings began to perish, because they became sinful and unsuitable for eternal life. Satan himself did not understand what sin leads to, and what destructive consequences evil produces in the sinner's soul. The murder of the Son of God became the culmination of the complete fall of the fallen cherub and his host. And it all began with a small word of dissatisfaction that the Son of the morning began to nurture in his heart.

Jesus did not accidentally clarify and reveal the spirit of the sixth commandment. He wants to convey to each of us that even the most harmless, in our view, insult to our neighbor is a seed of evil and an instrument of murder of our souls.

Words possess amazing power to convince the listener and influence his consciousness. I think I won't say anything new if I declare that with a word one can kill a close person. In history there are many examples when people lost the desire to live in response to rude words addressed to them and left this world by taking their own lives.

What does an evil word do in the listener's heart? It is capable of killing good feelings in him, destroying heartfelt attachment, annihilating friendliness and cooling love. One rude word spoken in an evil spirit can instantly destroy everything that was built over years. This is like an explosion of enriched uranium, which is very small in itself, but upon reaching critical mass releases colossal energy that sweeps away everything in its path. After such an explosion, it becomes impossible to restore the destruction.

Once I met a family that was engaged in guardianship of children from dysfunctional families. At that time they had a one-year-old girl. They told that when they received her at four months of age, she would shrink completely at the sounds of human speech and become hard as stone. Her parents were deprived of their rights for rude treatment of children, and this girl was given for rehabilitation. The new guardians had to spend a very long time bringing the poor child out of this pitiful condition. They gently communicated with her, caressed and kissed her, lovingly cared for her. As a result, the child came alive and began to develop normally.

If a person's soul does not have God's protection, then it is very easy to wound or kill it. But if love lives in the listener's heart and God's grace reigns, then all the evil words of the world will not harm it, although they may spoil the attitude toward the evil person. God's person will continue to love his offender and reviler as an enemy, but will not experience heartfelt attachment to him, and they will not have mutual love.

Love is capable of unilaterally continuing to treat evil people kindly, wanting to revive their hardened hearts, but it will never be mutual with another spirit. Just as the north and south poles of the earth cannot unite, so love and evil will have nothing in common.

The family is the best place for developing the closest and kindest relationships. God has everything necessary for building a happy family. If both spouses agree to communicate tenderly and react to difficult situations, not allowing any evil to manifest itself in their relationships, and take God as their helper, then they will succeed in building what God wants to see in their union.

The seed of evil, although it carries destructive power, will not gain its power in a good heart, even if it somehow tries to get there. A person who loves God will immediately discover the foreign substance and run with this in prayer to God for deliverance and cleansing. And his loving listener will understand that trouble has happened to his friend, and he needs to be supported in prayer. Then together they will celebrate victory and agree never to give place to evil.

1. Please read Lev. 19:16; Eph. 4:29-32; Ps. 30:13-15; Rom. 1:28-32; James 3:6-18; 1 Cor. 5:11; 6:10; Col. 3:8-10; Matt. 5:44-48; 1 Tim. 6:3-6; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; John 13:34-35 in light of this lesson.

2. What other verses from the Bible came to your mind?

3. What did you understand from this topic?

4. Do you understand the spirit of the sixth commandment? What else does it forbid doing?

5. Is every evil word a violation of the sixth commandment?

6. Is it possible to violate the commandment "you shall not murder" without words?

7. Is killing in computer games a sin in Heaven's eyes?

8. What and who teaches us to violate the sixth commandment?

9. Does secular authority's loyalty to spiritual violation of the sixth commandment mean that it can be violated and go unpunished?

10. Why did Jesus teach that we will be condemned by our words or justified by them? Matt. 12:37.

11. Is it worth watching your words when you really want to prove your point or express indignation?

12. How do you feel when people shout at you or when you are insulted?

13. Can one justify evil words by the fact that Jesus also called the Pharisees snakes and offspring of vipers? Matt. 23:33.

14. Are there substitutes for evil words in your language?

15. Will polite words spoken with an evil spirit be considered a violation of the sixth commandment?