MURDER
I am aware
that some killing is endorsed in the Bible. The word for “murder” in Exodus
20:13 (“You shall not murder”) is the Hebrew rahaz. It is used 43 times in the
Hebrew Old Testament. It always means violent, personal killing that is
actually murder or is accused as murder. It is never used of killing in war or
(with one possible exception, Numbers 35:27) of killing in judicial execution.
Rather a clear distinction is preserved between legal “putting to death” and
illegal “murder.” For example, Numbers 35:19 says, “The murderer shall
certainly be put to death.” The word “murderer” comes from rahaz which is forbidden in the
Ten Commandments. The word “put to death” is a general word that can describe
legal executions.
John
Piper
Ten Reasons Why it is Wrong to Take the Life of
Unborn Children, Sermon: April 7, 1989, www.DesiringGod.org. Used by
Permission.
God has
commanded us in his word, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). And He told us
why. He said in Genesis 9:6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his
blood be shed, for
God made man in his own image.” In other words, when you murder a human, you
attack God who makes every human in his image.
John
Piper
Love Your Unborn Neighbor, Sermon: January 22, 2006,
www.DesiringGod.org. Used by Permission.
Scripture
does give three valid bases for taking the life of another [which cannot] be construed
as [murder]. Man may take
another’s life in the case of just warfare; man may take another’s life when
acting on behalf of the civil magistrate to execute a person guilty of a
capital crime; or man may take another’s life as an act of self-defense, or in
defense of others where there is a significant and immediate threat to life
best remedied with a lethal response.
Douglas W. Phillips
Why the
Life of the Mother is Not a Valid Exception for Abortion, December 16, 2002, www.visionforumministries.org,
Used by Permission.
To take
the life of a fellow human being is to assault the sacredness of the image of
God (see Gen. 6:9).
John MacArthur
Matthew 1-7, Moody, 1985, p. 290.