Different Life: 5th CommandmentNäide

Here’s how Martin Luther explains the fifth commandment: “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” (Small Catechism). Later in his Large Catechism, he’ll say: “We are forbidden to kill with our hands, in our hearts, by word, sign, or gesture, or by giving aid or offering counsel to a killer.” Both explanations go well beyond murder.

Remember that the 10 Commandments function like a table of contents. They’re 10 statements about how to do life with God and each other. Each command works like a header in that it represents all sorts of related ideas about how God wants us to do life with him and each other. This one is about a person’s physical well-being. It’s about preserving life.

This is why Jesus, when commenting on the fifth commandment, goes so far as to say that even when we’re angry with someone, we’re flirting with murder in our heart. That’s not all. Jesus teaches it’s not just enough to avoid taking a life. God wants us to nurture the physical well-being of others too. Jesus’ life proves it by the way He feeds, heals, and protects the lives of others. Murder may be a sin of commission (as in something we commit). But how often do we omit that which God would have us do for another’s well-being?

Maybe you’ve killed someone. Maybe you’ve wanted to kill someone. Maybe God has protected you from circumstances and situations where you could have killed someone. Who might you be guilty of killing – literally, or deep in the recesses of your heart? Who might you be guilty of killing – with outright anger, or with apathy or contempt towards their physical well-being? Repent, and bring that to God today.