Exodus 20:13

Fifth Commandment

Thou Shalt not Kill

Luther's explanation of the Fifth Commandment is "We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need." Now this commandment is easy enough. Christ himself explains it and sums it up. He says we must not kill, neither with hand, heart, or mouth. This commandment forbids everyone to hate another. If forbids us to be angry, except those who are in the place of God, that is, parents, pastors, employers, teachers and the government. For it is proper for those who sit in a divine estate to rebuke and to punish those very persons who transgress this and the other commandments.

The need for this commandment is that God well knows that the world is evil, and that this life has much unhappiness. He has set up this and the other commandments between the good people and the evil. For example, when your neighbor sees that you have a better house and home, greater possessions and fortune from God than he does, he gets in a bad mood, envies you, and speaks no good of you. The commandment has its goal that no one would offend his neighbor because of any evil deed, even though the neighbor might fully deserve it. For where murder is forbidden, all causes from which murder may spring are also forbidden. Many people, although they do not kill, they may hate the person, or they curse the person or wish that the person were dead. In this commandment God — like a father — steps in, intervenes, and wishes to have the quarrel settled, so that no misfortune comes from it and no one destroys another person. In this way he would protect, set free, and keep in peace everyone against the crime and violence of everyone else.

Therefore, the entire essence of what it means not to murder is to be impressed upon us. We must harm no one, either with our hand or by deed or by thought or by word. We must not use our tongue to instigate harm. We must not use nor agree to use any means or methods by which another person may be injured. Finally, not even the heart may be ill disposed toward anyone or wish another person ill in anger and hatred.

However, the person who does evil to his neighbor is not the only one guilty under this commandment. It also applies to anyone who can do his neighbor good, prevent or resist evil against his neighbor, or defend and save his neighbor so that no bodily harm or hurt happen to him, but who does not do it. If you see someone suffer hunger and do not give him food, you have caused him to starve. If you see someone suffer sickness or poverty or need and do not help him, you are guilty of this commandment. In fact, it is far more difficult to obey this commend in the positive sense of helping someone in need than it is to restrain ourselves from injuring or harming our neighbor. Every Sunday we confess that we have sinned by what we have done and what we have left undone. We confess, "We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves." We have loved ourselves first and foremost and unfailingly. What have we ever really sacrificed for the sake of others in need?

Jesus himself spells this out in his discussion with the rich young man (Matthew 19). The man came to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" (v 16). Jesus replied, "Keep the commandments. . . . You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, and so forth. The man replied, "All these I have kept" (v 20). He was looking at the negative side of the commandments. Sure, he hadn't murdered anyone or stolen anything. But Jesus pushed him further: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me" (v 21). Jesus spelled out clearly what it means to fulfill the commandments. The Holy Spirit tells in the Book of James, " If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." And Jesus spells it out even more clearly what he is talking about Judgment Day and tells of those who were condemned to eternal fire because, "I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me; sick and in prison and you did not visit me." Notice, they were not condemned to eternal punishment in hell for doing bad things, they were condemned for not doing good things to help a neighbor in need.

The commandments tell us what God requires of us. Disobedience to the commandments results in death and eternal punishment. Jesus took the Fifth Commandment and pointed out that it means more than not killing or hurting. It means going out and helping. It means sacrificing for the sake of others' welfare. It means thinking of others' needs, not just your own. It means "count[ing] others more significant than yourselves" (Phil 2:3). It means "look[ing] not only to one's own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Phil 2:4). The commandments of God demand love for our neighbor rather than self-love. The will of God is that we serve our neighbor, not ourselves. Just as Jesus came, "Not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many." That's hard. That's demanding. That's impossible.

But to the person who is redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, who repents of his sin, who has been called to faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit, such obedience and sacrificial love is pure joy. It's a pleasure and honor to do what God demands and it fills us with joy to do God's will. For the believer in Christ is a new person; he is being restored to the image of God; he is empowered with a new heart and renewed love for his neighbor. The law is no longer our taskmaster but our guide and light. It shows us the joys of pleasing God and doing his will. It promises the blessing of God upon those who help the needy, feed the poor, and clothe the naked, for that is what God commands us in the Fifth Commandment.

Moreover, the greatest love we can give to our neighbor is to share the message of Christ with him; invite him to repent and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. To love your neighbor means to serve him with the Gospel so that he too may live. The believer whose heart if transformed by the Spirit of God desires to spread the word and share the joyous message of forgiveness and life with all the world.

Sixth Commandment

So, just as God's commands are all to do good to our neighbor and to avoid doing harm to our neighbor, he then adds the Sixth Commandment. Just as the Fifth Commandment protects our neighbor in his person, so the Sixty Commandment protects the person nearest our neighbor, namely his wife. "You shall not commit adultery," prohibits us from harming our neighbor by harming our neighbor's husband or wife. His spouse is one flesh with him and so there is no higher injury we can inflict than this. Therefore it is clearly forbidden here to bring any disgrace upon neighbor regarding his wife.

Adultery is having sex with anyone other than your marriage partner. Before marriage, even as children and teens we are called to be faithful to our spouse—even though we don't know yet who he or she is. Your virginity is a gift you can give only once." Therefore, even pre-marital sex is a sin against your future spouse; not to mention it is a sin against God.

Obviously, adultery is rampant in our society, along with the diseases that go with it. This moral and physical decay of rampant homosexuality, adultery and promiscuousness will doom our society, as it has every sexually decadent society before us.

But not only is the outward act of adultery forbidden, also every kind of motive and means of adultery. This commandment governs the heart, the lips the thoughts, and the whole body. Not only this, but we must also resist temptation, offer protection, and rescue honor wherever there is danger and need. We must give help and counsel so as to maintain our neighbor's honor. To say it briefly; everyone must live chastely himself and help his neighbor to do the same.

Therefore, from this commandment we see that the estate of marriage is a most honorable and richly blessed estate above all others. God has bestowed on it and wrapped up in it everything in the world, so that this estate might be well and richly provided for. Married life is no joke or presumption. It is an excellent thing and a matter of divine seriousness. For marriage has the highest importance to God so that people are raised up who may serve the world and promote the knowledge of God, godly living, and all virtues.

Obviously, disrespect of the marriage estate between one man and one woman as God instituted it is disrespect for the creation of God. In the beginning, God created them male and female (Gen 1:27). It was not good for them to be alone, so he joined man and woman together when he said, "A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." Then he charged them to multiply and fill the earth, bearing fruit after their own kind. Therefore the biblical view of marriage and sexuality is the most lofty and honorable view there is. It is God's creation and as such is to be honored. Human sexuality is a gift from God. But the current view, the naturalist view, proclaims that we were created to enjoy sex, so let's do it. One is free to do it any time and in any way with any person as long as it makes you feel good. That is our rebellious, sinful nature talking to us. That's what King David's heart told him too. "It's just a one night stand. No one will get hurt."

But God will be hurt. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It was not made for immorality, but for the Lord. You too will be hurt, because every sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body." The other person will be hurt. How can you lead him or her into sin as well? "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Cor 6:19–20).

In addition, the heart hardens. It goes from one rebellion to another, from one defiance of God's commandment to another. David didn't stop at adultery with Bathsheba, but went on to have Uriah killed.

But when David was confronted with his sin, he repented. He loved his Lord and confessed his sin. He prayed, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. . . . Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. . . . Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. . . . Restore to me the joy of your salvation" (Ps 51:1, 4, 10, 12).

That's the assurance for us as well. Sin against the Sixth Commandment—no matter what it is—is not the unforgivable sin. Jesus died for the homosexual, the sexually immoral, and the unfaithful spouse. Jesus was the "friend of tax collectors and sinners" (Mt 11:19).

There will be consequences, as with all sin—in our body, in our heart, in our self-respect, in our relationships. But if we turn it over to God, he will take it as he has time and time again—whatever our sin. When we repent as King David did and pray for a new heart, we will receive it. Your sweet Savior Jesus took that sin with him to the cross. And the Holy Spirit when he gives us the gift of faith transforms our sinful hearts to desire and do the will of God and remain steadfast in his commands.

When We Repent and Pray for a New Heart, Our Lord Jesus Hears Our Prayer.

That's also why we boldly and devoutly cling to Christ: "For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us." Jesus came to bring us that perfect, eternal mercy from God. He was the perfect sacrifice for sin in our place. Now we just exult in his total, free acceptance. Because Christ Fulfills the Law for Us, We Can Love Our Neighbor with His Perfect Love.

In spite of all our sin and rebellion and weakness, we are accepted on the merits of Christ. We are welcomed into his presence because Christ paid our debt for sin. God's wrath and anger have been pacified because Christ died and paid the price of death that he exacts from us on account of our sin. Because of Christ's substitution on the cross, God calls us his own, rebels though we are. And then he sends us out to spread his kingdom of love. He sends us to be his arms of mercy in a hurting world. He teaches us to pray, "Our Father, . . . give us this day our daily bread." We pray not just for our own needs but for the needs of all God's children, of all our brothers and sisters around the world, especially the poor. We look for ways to help and befriend our poor brothers in all their bodily need. And we keep the sanctity of matrimony holy and pure in all that we do, say and think. Amen.