Lesson Twelve

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT (1)

YOU SHALL NOT MURDER
(Psa. 118:22-24; Luke 24:1.7; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:I-2; Rev. 1:9)

Burden to Impart:

To murder is to violate God's absolute sovereignty over human life. This is against God, God's purpose, and God's loving nature. God created man in His image for His own pleasure and purpose. God gave man his life and existence. To murder is to completely disregard God as the Creator of every man and to act in harmony with God's enemy the Devil, who hates God and hates man, and who is a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44).

Memory Verse:

 		"You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13).

Facts to Teach:

  1. Murder is the intentional taking of a human being's life (not an animal's) out of malice. Murder is by no means accidental.
  2. To murder is against God's law because it is against God's loving nature and also violates His life-giving sovereignty. Since the Ten Commandments reveal God to us, they also show us what God likes and what He does not like, how we should behave and how we should not behave.
  3. In this lesson we will focus only on one characteristic of God as seen in the sixth commandment: God alone is the giver of human life. Therefore, He alone- can rightfully take it away.
  4. God created mankind as His last work of the creation. Man was created in a particular manner, in God's image and likeness, and with a particular purpose, to be for God (to express Him and to represent Him). Man was created for God and belongs to God (Gen. 1:26-27).
  5. God is personally and directly the source of human life (Gen. 2:7). Thus, human life is the most valuable item to God in the universe.
  6. James 3:9-10 tells us that because man has God's image and is His expression we should never curse another man, for that is to insult His Creator. From this we see that to despise human life is to despise its Creator and to respect human life is to respect its Creator, God.
  7. Although human beings possess different colors, races, languages, abilities, intelligence, etc., God is no respecter of persons. He loves all mankind and He alone is the Author of life (Acts 3:15; 17:25b-26a).
  8. Only God, the source of human life, has the right to take man's life. (However, God has committed man with the authority to execute murderers and evil doers - Gen. 9:6.)