Question 74: What is required in the sixth commandment?

Answer: The sixth commandment requires all lawful efforts to preserve our own life and the life of others.

DAY 1:

The focus of our attention in the previous lesson focused upon what the sixth commandment forbids. This week we will look at what the sixth commandment requires. What are the positive aspects of this negative command? As with each of the commands, practical application may take various forms, but each application should be viewed as to how it relates to the command itself.

First let’s take a look at life itself. We know that man was created in the image of God and for His glory. We also see the hand of God in pro-creation. For instance, David speaks of God’s working in his mother’s womb and even being the one that brings about and sustains that life. For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them (Psalm 139:13-16). Life is a gift from God and should not be taken lightly. God’s wonderful work is on display in a mother’s womb. His decree to bring life about in the womb is an eternal decision, not a trivial one (vs. 16). Also Moses gave us the words, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11). We can be sure that life begins at conception and that God is the One who has ordained that life.

So we see that life is precious. Therefore, we can see that as stewards of what God has entrusted to us we should have great care and compassion for all human life, even our own. I often hear from some people who have been “psycologized” that people don’t love themselves. You hear this over and over again in our society. Well, what should be our response as believers to such assertions? Should we just go along with that mentality or should we say what the Scriptures say? I believe we should address this issue because it leads to other things that we will discuss. First let’s look at the words of Jesus Christ. In Mark 12:31 Jesus is speaking of the greatest commandment, that being to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then He gives the second greatest commandment and that is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. The word “as” is the Greek word hos (hoce). It carries behind it the idea that man already loves himself. As a matter of fact, in man’s case his sin is a preoccupation with self-love.

You might be asking the question, “What does this have to do with the sixth commandment?” It has everything to do with it because murder, suicide, abortion, euthanasia and hatred within one’s heart have a basic root and that is a sinful self-love. Don’t get me wrong, there is a love of self that is natural and is part of the nature that God gave Adam in righteousness and holiness. For instance, we have a natural and right love of self to eat, clothe our bodies and take care of ourselves. This is the very things Jesus spoke of. This is how we are to care for others. We are to care for them just as we care for ourselves. Ephesians 5:29 tells us that no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, just like the Lord does His church. Now the context here is about husbands loving their wives, which are their flesh (Gen. 2:23-24). The previous verse, verse 28, tells us that the man who loves his wife loves himself. Does that mean that if a man doesn’t love his wife, he doesn’t love himself? No. It simply means that he has a love of himself that is sinful. This is why we have the instruction in this passage. Husbands are to love their wives like they love themselves because it glorifies God as a picture of the way the Lord Jesus love His church. The word nourishes in the Greek is ektrepho (ek-tref’-o). It means, “nourish up to maturity, to nourish; to nurture, bring up”. The Greek word for cherishes is thalpo (thal’-po). It means, “to warm, keep warm; to cherish with tender love, to foster with tender care”. Therefore, we can see that people care for themselves. They feed themselves and they keep themselves protected and clothed. This is a natural response in life. An unnatural response would be like the demon possessed man in Luke chapter eight.

So, as we look at the requirements of the sixth commandment, let us see life as precious and requires that we love all men as we love ourselves. Jesus gave a tremendous picture of this kind of love (the love for one’s neighbor) in Luke 10:30-37. In this famous parable Jesus answers the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Now we know that the Jews and the Samaritans were rivals. They despised one another and were bitter enemies. As a matter of fact, the Jews would refer to the Samaritans as dogs. However, when it came to someone offering help to sustain the life of the injured Jewish merchant, it wasn’t the Levite or the priest that helped him. Rather, it was his arch enemy who came and showed compassion towards him. He was the one who took time away from the priorities that he had the moment before he saw the injured man, and cared for his wounds, even sat him upon his own beast and took him to a place for care and paid for it. Wow! That is true love for one’s neighbor. He would later come back and pay anything that the one who was watching after the injured man would incur.

Did the Samaritan seem to care about the color of the man’s skin, his religion, nationality, or anything else? It doesn’t seem so. What he seemed most concerned about was preserving the life of a man made in the image of God. This is the positive assertion of the sixth commandment.

Have you shown love for others? Your enemies? Have you had the kind of compassion and concern for human life as the Samaritan? The midwives of Egypt? Are there opportunities that God has given you to be engaged in to obey the sixth commandment in a positive fashion? Pray and ask God for opportunities to be of service to our fellow man in the preservation of life.

DAY 2:

Proverbs 24:11-12 speaks to man’s responsibility towards his fellow man in aiding him in times of need that may claim his life unjustly. Notice what verse 11 says, “Deliver those who are drawn toward death.” First, this phrase is an imperative and carries the idea of delivering, or we might best understand this as rescuing those who are taken for death. The idea behind this is that if we see someone become entangled in a snare innocently, then we should give our aid to help that person. For instance, we mentioned in the previous lesson the parable of the good Samaritan, in which the Samaritan gave aid to the wounded man who was his enemy. However, he was only able to aid after the fact. The second phrase, “And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter” speaks of helping someone who is about to be executed because of false accusations and false testimony. The Greek Septuagint reads this way, “and redeem them that are appointed to be slain; spare not thy help.” There should be no cost spared and no time wasted in helping those that we know are innocent, yet condemned.

The Scriptures give us many instances of intervention where those who intervened on behalf of the innocent even put their own lives in danger by standing up for them. For instance, in Genesis 37 Joseph has been marked out by his brothers because they perceive that he thinks that he is better than them and that their father loves Joseph more than them. Now all these brothers began to conspire against Joseph will he was coming towards them at Dothan (vss.18-20). Their plan was to kill him and then cover it up by telling their father that a wild beast had killed him. Joseph’s brothers were planning a wicked thing against him and notice that it came out of hearts that hated (vs.8). However, in the midst of the hatred and the conspiracy to do away with the “dreamer”, there was some sanity. Joseph’s brother Reuben heard what was going on and evidently did not approve of such action. Therefore, Reuben sought to deal shrewdly with his brothers. In verse 22 we see that Reuben specifically told them not to kill him, but to simply cast him into a pit in the wilderness. It seems that he wanted them to think he was on their side. However, Reuben’s plan was to come back and deliver Joseph out of their hands and bring him back to his father.

Now here is Joseph totally unaware of all that is going on and by definition he was totally defenseless against his brothers, but God had moved upon his brother’s heart in order to spare him, that God may use him to deliver the nations in the future. However, things did not work out as Reuben had planned and Joseph was sold to the Midianite traders (vs. 28). But we see that Reuben did really want to save Joseph (vs. 29). His desire was fulfilled in the fact that Joseph lived, but Reuben helped to cover up what really happened to Joseph and kept silent when his brothers lied to their father about Joseph’s fate.

Another example of this kind of deliverance is found in the life of Jonathan. We made mention of it the other week when we discussed the fifth commandment. In 1 Samuel 19:1-7 we see that Jonathan speaks with his father on behalf of David in order to convince him not to seek to kill David. In this passage Saul listens to his son and swears that he will not kill him. However, it becomes much worse later on. In 2 Samuel 20 things did not go as well for Jonathan. In speaking to his father on David’s behalf, his father was filled with anger and rose and cast a javelin at him to kill him. So unlike before, Jonathan had placed himself in a dangerous situation with his own father for the sake of his friend David who was unjustly hated. Here we also see choosing what is right even over the affections that we have for those of our own household. Family should always come in at a distant second when righteousness and justice are at stake.

Today is no different than in days past. Not only are there those who want to kill other people unjustly, but there are always those who want to slay themselves. In Acts 16:28 we see that though there was an earthquake and the prison doors of the jail had been opened and the jailer assumed that all the prisoners had escaped, no one had left. But, the jailer’s assumption led him to take up his sword to slay himself (vs. 27). This was because a jailer in those days who lost prisoners paid for it with his own life. Paul and Silas could have just let him kill himself and then fled quickly to freedom. However, they called out to him and assured him that everything was ok and were immediately given opportunity to preach the gospel to him and to his family and God showed mercy to this jailer. Though in our day signs leading up to suicide may not be as vivid as someone actually pulling out a sword and preparing to thrust themselves through, the principle is that we should make an effort to stop such actions and save the person especially in helping to put things in perspective for them. Often suicide is the result of errant thinking about one’s self and about the world around them. However, the root of suicide is sin. I know that may seem hard to hear, but ultimately suicide says that God is not in control. Therefore, if we have those that we sense are suicidal, drugs are not the answer. Communication is the answer and that communication must have the goal of presenting the glorious God of the Bible to men and women who are on the verge of destruction. If possible in all these cases, maybe God would use our actions and our words to bring about the salvation of those whose lives we intercede on.

Is there someone that you know who may be suicidal? Engage them in conversation. Listen well and pray that God would help you to put things in a proper perspective for them and pray that He would be merciful. Children may hear some of the things from the first section of today’s lesson and wonder if they will ever be called on to save someone in danger of losing their life unjustly. Remind them that the kind of character that seeks to preserve the life of those who are sought to murdered unjustly starts with simple actions to intervene on the part of someone who is unjustly made fun of. Remind them that standing up for someone when they are unjustly spoken of is a precursor to standing up for those whose life may be taken unjustly. Remember, if we fail to do these things, whether because of laziness or anything else other than truly not knowing Proverbs 24:12 tells us that God is watching and that we will give account of our deed and be rewarded according to our works. Therefore, let us seek to not spare our own lives at the cost of another’s life.

Scripture: Ephesians 5:29,30; Psalm 82:3,4; Proverbs 24:11,12; Acts 16:28.