As a fellowship, we have been studying through the Ten Commandments and today’s article focuses on the sixth commandment: “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13). The sixth commandment fundamentally teaches the dignity of human life. We are prohibited from taking another human’s life. We didn’t give that life and have no right to take it.
Human life is precious. Every individual human life carries dignity. However, this dignity is not intrinsic. It is extrinsic. We are imago Dei—image-bearers of God (Genesis 1:26-27). As image-bearers of God, therefore, none has more dignity than the other. The golden rule, the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbour as ourselves (Matthew 22:40). We must all uphold the dignity and sanctity of human life.
The dignity and sanctity of human life, therefore, demands we protect and preserve human life as individuals and society. This presents us with a responsibility of good towards one another. This commandment is a command to help the helpless. We must be involved in the well-being of others. Killing is not only taking human life. But hatred, insults and despising one another is akin to murder (1John 3:15, Matthew 5:22).
Finally, the clear teaching of the commandment is against murder: “thou shalt not kill.” There is no going around this. It is straight to the point: don’t take another human life. John Calvin sums the sixth commandment saying
The purport of this commandment is, that since the Lord has bound the whole human race by a kind of unity, the safety of all ought to be considered as entrusted to each. In general, therefore, all violence and injustice, and every kind of harm from which our neighbor’s body suffer, is prohibited. Accordingly, we are required faithfully to do what in us lies to defend the life of our neighbor; to promote whatever tends to his tranquility, to be vigilant in warding off harm, and, when danger comes, to assist in removing it.¹
Notes
- John Calvin, Institutes Of The Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Peabody: Massachusetts, 2008), 256
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