Thou Shalt Not Kill…

DMLJ: But, as long as one did not actually commit murder, all was well, and he could face the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill’ with equanimity and say to himself, ‘I have kept and fulfilled the law.’

‘No, no,’ says the Lord Jesus Christ in effect.

This was the righteousness of the Pharisees; they kept the letter of the law, but not the spirit.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol.2 - The Sermon on the Mount, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

Matthew 5: 21-26 Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Lloyd-Jones offers, regarding the opening sentence of this passage, that the teachers combined two statements into one, and by doing so they weakened the entire construct.  ‘Thou shalt not kill’ is certainly a commandment.  What of ‘…and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment’?  Lloyd-Jones finds this in the book of Numbers:

Numbers 35: 30-31 Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die.  Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.

Similar passages can be found in Exodus, Leviticus, and elsewhere in this same chapter of Numbers.

MHA: Based on this, we can assume that the words “be in danger of the judgment” refers not so much to the judicial process as such as to the death sentence as a result of the judicial process in the case of murder.

By combing these two into one commandment, the Pharisees and scribes reduced the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ into just the question of actually committing a murder.  Further reducing it to punishment at the hands of the civil magistrate: judgment based on the testimony of witnesses. 

Yes, it was this – but it was not only this.  There was no mention of the judgment of God.  The entire conception of righteousness and the law was turned into merely law – civil law.

DMLJ: It is possible for us to face the law of God as we find it in the Bible, but so to interpret and define it, as to make it something which we can keep very easily because we only keep it negatively.  So we may persuade ourselves that all is well.

In this, we see the difference of the Silver Rule and the Golden Rule, the same difference we see in the non-aggression principle and a natural law ethic, the same difference we see in “Thou shalt not” and Thou shalt.”

The issue is not just the act of murder; even causeless anger is of issue: you are exposed to the same punishment as the murderer. 

MHA: The general idea of the entire admonition is that it is not enough simply to punish a person for a crime; one must fight against the reasons for evil that are rooted in the soul.

The anger of a human being is more often than not motivated by a desire for revenge and is an emotional reaction to evil.

With reference to human beings, the concept of anger is used to describe the emotional state that may lead to injustice, insults, and murder.

Does this mean we are never to hold anger, or express it?  No.  Jesus demonstrates anger at hypocrisy and false religion; He shows anger against anything evil – not the individual, but the evil.  God’s anger comes from a motivation to correct a person and save him, even if this comes with a heavy punishment.

DMLJ: The holier we become, the more anger we shall feel against sin.

Apparently, the qualifier “without a cause” is omitted in some manuscripts.  Lloyd-Jones offers that it is impossible at this point to know which version is most authoritative.  He concludes, however, that even the version with the qualifier is both a higher hurdle than simply a command against the physical act of murder and also more than difficult enough for us keep.  In other words, climb this hill first.

MHA: Many ancient manuscripts of the Gospel of Mattew, the Codex Sinaiticus in particular, do not contain the Greek word for “without a cause” (eikē) in Mt 5:22. …Whatever the case, a literal reading of Jesus’ words in either version leads first of all to the conclusion that anger is inadmissible as an unjust reaction to a neighbor’s conduct.

Jesus offers more: we are to avoid expressions of contempt: “Raca,” meaning to be empty; or “Thou fool.”  Scorn and derision are to be avoided – at minimum, it is a murdering in the heart and in the mind; it destroys the spirit and the soul.

MHA: This is about a person’s responsibility for his or her own feelings and words: he or she answers for them not before a human court, but before the court of God’s justice.

With all this said, our attitude is to be positive, not negative.  We are to reconcile with our brother before we bring our gift to the alter.  And this is another very striking statement:

DMLJ: …we should, in a sense, even keep God waiting rather than stay.  We must get right with our brother and then come back and offer the gift.  In the sight of God there is no value whatsoever in an act of worship if we harbor a known sin.

When in remaining in conflict with our brother, our worship is useless; when harboring unkind thoughts, there is no value in our attempts at offering worship to God.

1 Samuel 15: 22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

Jesus is making just this point.

MHA: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists that a person must not offer a sacrifice to God until he is reconciled with his neighbor.  To God, what is valuable is not the sacrifice in itself, but the disposition of heart with which the sacrifice is offered and the good works toward one’s neighbor that accompany the sacrifice.

Conclusion

DMLJ: Let me impress on you the urgency of all this because of our relationship to God. … Yes, says Christ, it is as urgent and as desperate as that.  You must do it at once; delay not a moment…

The condition of our horizontal relationships says everything about the condition of our vertical relationship.  And because of what God demands in our vertical relationship, we must repair and maintain our horizontal relationships. 

MHA: Jesus makes reconciliation with one’s brother a condition for a person’s reconciliation with God and a forgiveness of sins.

It’s as simple and as complicated as that.