Protecting Innocent Life

Having considered the fifth commandment, which is the first rule in what has often been called the second table of the law, we come today to the sixth commandment (Ex. 20:13). This law is one of the best known of the Ten Commandments, and most people would probably name it if they were asked to list these foundational laws. In keeping with the great influence of the King James Version of the Bible on English-speaking peoples, many individuals know this commandment as “Thou shalt not kill.”

The King James translation of this commandment, while justifiable in light of English usage during the 1600s, runs the risk today of introducing a misunderstanding. “Thou shalt not kill” suggests a blanket prohibition on the taking of human life under any circumstance. Yet this is not what the commandment is actually advocating. The Hebrew word translated “kill” in the King James Version is better translated as “murder,” which is how the English Standard Version renders it, for the term refers to the unlawful taking of innocent life. It also has connotations of taking life through negligence. Thus, the sixth commandment does not forbid all killing.

All murder is killing, but not all killing is murder. The Bible recognizes that in some cases, the proper authorities have a duty to end a human life. As we will see in the next few days, Scripture gives the state the power and authority to execute certain lawbreakers (see Rom. 13:1–7) and grants to us the right to use lethal force in self-defense if there is no other way to protect ourselves or our loved ones from harm or loss (see Ex. 22:2–3). These are forms of lawful killing. But killing innocent people, those who have committed no capital crime, is strictly forbidden. This includes suicide and euthanasia.

Limitations on our right to take human life are rooted in the fact that God is the self-existent source of life who alone has the absolute authority to kill and to make alive (Deut. 32:39). He delegates that authority to people in limited circumstances but never grants to human beings the right to take life whenever they want to or for reasons of convenience. Consequently, legalized abortion on demand and the encouragement of direct and active so-called mercy killings are a great affront to justice and can never be acceptable to Christians. If accidental killings of unborn people or of those who are perceived to not have life worth living deserve punishment (e.g., Ex. 21:22–25), how much more their deliberate murder?