Thou Shalt Not Murder

Murder feels like a commandment for “other people” until we let Jesus define what’s really happening underneath it. We sit down with Pastor Perry and walk through the Sixth Commandment, “You shall not murder,” and it gets personal fast: the Bible doesn’t just confront physical violence, it confronts the anger, hatred, and contempt that can live in a normal-looking life.

We dig into why human life is sacred in a Christian worldview, starting with the image of God. If every person is an image bearer with a soul, it changes how we treat the stranger, the enemy, the annoying person in our way, and the vulnerable people our culture can treat like burdens. We also talk about how easily we get desensitized through media and entertainment, and why what we consume can quietly train us to downplay evil and devalue life.

From there we tackle hard conversations many Christians avoid: abortion, euthanasia, and suicide, plus the common “what about war” and “what about capital punishment” detours that can distract from the heart of the command. Throughout it all, we keep coming back to this anchor: God is the author of life, and He doesn’t need an editor.

The strongest hope is at the cross. Jesus willingly gave His life and innocent blood was shed so guilty people could be forgiven, including murderers. If grace can reach that far, it can reach any of us. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review. What part of this conversation challenged you most?

Transcript

Welcome And A Heavy Commandment

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is the Kenneth First Podcast. Life built on truth.

SPEAKER_05 0:10

What's up, guys? How are we doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Doing fantastic all four here today.

SPEAKER_05 0:14

We're all back together for the first time in what feels like forever. It is. Cool, cool. So, Pastor Perry, continuing on with the Ten Commandments, we get to a fun one this week. Fun's probably not a good word. But we're talking about murder, right? So there's not really a fun question for just like, hey, uh, what's your craziest murder story, guys? You know what I'm saying? But uh, but so as we kind of get the ball rolling uh today, I do want to ask the question of when we approach hard topics like this, like things that that can border on the uncomfortable, right? What are some ways that maybe you approach it to help keep you grounded, right? To help keep it from getting heavier than what it necessarily needs to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

I don't know. Did you hear the Sherman?

SPEAKER_05 1:17

That's why the question is just thinking frame the whole episode. And then we're gonna talk about this stuff and it's gonna get a little heavy for a minute, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

You know, it is it is true that when you get and you read the Bible and you say, I'm gonna go through the Bible verse to verse to verse to verse, you can't come across a lot of uncomfortable conversations. And I think you just often just have to pause and say, I'm gonna go with it. I mean, people do that. I mean, Chaston was talking about his wife today, is all about watching murder mysteries. And uh some of them are unfinished, you know, and how uncomfortable that is that you might even have a show that leaves you with a cliffhanger, but yet you just go with it.

SPEAKER_05 2:15

Nothing helps you sleep at night, like knowing there's a serial killer on the wall.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yeah, I was telling them before we started how she'll watch them right before bed and then wake up the next morning and be like, I had a bad dream. You know, you were trying to murder me. And I was like, maybe let's think about this, might have something to do with the show you're watching

How We Talk About Hard Truths

SPEAKER_00 2:35

right before bed.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

Right before bedtime. Yeah, no, I'm gonna veto this question to uh the pastoral staff.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

So I would say when we're having this as a conversation, understand where the other person is coming from. Uh, when you get into these uncomfortable conversations, they they're normally uncomfortable because they are are emotionally charged. And the the person that you're having this uh conversation with is coming with some sort of baggage and already some sort of stance. So um you do have to be careful, uh, you have to be graceful and kind and compassionate, but you also do have to speak the truth and and like the Bible says, hey, speak the truth in love and uh have compassion for that other person, um, but also know the truth and and speak it to them. And at the end of the conversation, you might get to a point, hey, let's disagree to disagree or agree to disagree. Disagree to disagree. Let's agree to disagree here. Um let's keep our our things uh that need to be close-handed uh conversations, close-handed and and keep the truth, the truth. And those open-handed things, let's let's be kind to one another, let's take grace, uh, but let's have a stance.

SPEAKER_05 3:58

Yeah, I think that's super important. Um, you know, it really makes me think of 1 Peter 3, uh, 15, where uh, you know, we're told to be ready to give a defense at any time, but to do it with gentleness and respect. You know, just how how we talk about it does matter. Um, we're not gonna apologize for the truth, right? But just like you said, Chaston, people approach these things with baggage, people approach these things with life experience that has shaped their perspective. Our perspectives can be wrong. That's why we have to go to God's word, right? That's why we hear truth uh preached in sermons like this one, uh, that that can create a rub in our life, but knowing Pastor Perry's heart and delivering the message, but any of these conversations that that as believers we may find ourselves having, we remember, hey, that that's a person that's made in God's image that needs this truth, and I need them to receive it.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Yeah, and that's one of the proofs that God's word is God's word, not our word. Because if we were writing a book, we would definitely bypass some conversations and some stories. Yeah. And especially when you get into the Old Testament and you look at some of this, and we have this big conversation in the staff all the time because I do preach verse to verse to verse, and sometimes there are some conversational things.

SPEAKER_05 5:20

If you want to hear a sermon about sex, come on the last Sunday of the month and Sunday because it's gonna happen every time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

But but I I love it that it's God's word. God says, listen, I'm I'm out there. Yeah, I'm gonna put it right in front of you, and that's how God does it. And I think what's what we should do. We should speak the truth in love. And uh that's uh I mean, he is a God that speaks straight up, but he also is the one that went to the cross straight up for us, too. So both of those things are important in balance in talking about any issue that's questionable with uh as

Murder Versus Killing Defined

SPEAKER_02 6:00

far as controversial in uh the word.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

So when we get to this commandment, um, a lot of us think, okay, yeah, yeah, we shouldn't murder. We know that. Uh, but it goes much deeper than this. Uh it affects uh this is calling us into seeing other people the way God called us to see other people, and it's uh it's addressing something deeper. Uh so what are the applications and uh the these these three questions that you have come up with this week, Terry?

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, there were three questions that kind of ventured out of this four sent four-word sentence that that I really felt like God was leading us to look at. And the first was is what really is wrong with murder? Why is murder so wrong? Um, and there is a difference between murder and killing. Matter of fact, the Hebrew words are completely different, and this literally means thou shalt not murder. And so murdering is taking the life of a human being, uh, specifically, taking the life of a human being, and taking that life when it's shedding innocent blood. Um, and when it's often motivated honestly by anger, and that's that's that's sort of what causes us on this subject to stop and think about our enemy. Our enemy is John 10 10 says, he comes not but to kill, steal, and devour. And then in contrast, Jesus says, But I come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. So Satan is straight up about death. He loves to shed innocent blood, and God is all about giving life. So that's the first question. What is wrong with murder? We're made in the image of God, and every human being really is sacred to God because we have a soul. Inside this body, we have a soul that we have encased inside this body. And when you take the life of someone, you literally take life from them. Tomorrow won't be the next the next year, the next, you cut short something that God had planned all along. So that's that's really um where we begin in this whole message.

SPEAKER_04 8:40

So from the beginning of scripture, God is revealed as the giver of life, physical life, spiritual life, and eternal life. And Perry, you just mentioned that human life is sacred because people are created in the image of God. So, based off that belief, based off that truth, how does truly believing that change the way we view other people?

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Changes everything. I mean, you uh might look at an animal. I would hope you look at your dog and say, my dog, its life is different than the life of my daughter, Olivia, or my son, Judah, or you know, or even my children. But uh, when you when you pause and look at life, it changes when you understand that there is a soul inside of them, and every time there is a child that's conceived, that is a spiritual event. It's not just a sexual event, it is a spiritual event where God literally says he died that male and female created he them. So when that happens, that life matters. That life is a life that comes from a spark of God's creative being. And so made in the image is so different. I mean, we have um we have body, soul, and spirit. God Himself is God the Father, God Son, the God the Holy Spirit. So we're made in that image that way. There's a kingly spirit uh and a kingly nature that we have. Uh God said in Genesis 1.26, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea. So that does separate us from the other creation over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth. So we have dominion. We have a kingly position. And God immediately put Adam in that position and said, Hey, you're even going to name name all these things because of the dominion God gave. And that set us apart from any other creation of God. And uh God as well, of course, he said when all this was done, it is very good. And so I like to also just throw in this little thing. I had a man when I was pastoring in Michigan, he said, What's the last thing God created? And I had to pause and think about it. I said, Well, it was a woman. He said, When he got the perfect maid, he quit. And I'm like, man, you're you're you're pulling up. I I didn't argue with him because I would have to say, yeah, I agree. Uh the the most wonderful, most beautiful creation he made had to happen to be uh Eve. So so with that, every single life matters. And the life that God gives us is to reflect something. It's the mirror of his goodness and his grace and who he is.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Yeah, and when we start seeing other people as image bearers of God, it changes how we treat them. It changes how we treat ourselves. Um, so you know, when uh someone wrongs you, when uh when something happens, when um, you know, when you see the the person out on the corner, like that's an image bearer of God. When you see someone arrested on the news, that's an image bearer of God. Um the guy at Walmart that's checking your receipt that you get so annoyed with. I'm preaching to myself right here. That you get so annoyed. That I get very annoyed with it. I think we've discussed this before, don't we? At the end of the day, these are all image bearers of God, and therefore we should err on the side of compassion

Image Of God Changes Everything

SPEAKER_00 12:40

for people. Um, we do also believe in uh in God's justice, um, but you know, we are all image bearers, we are all walking mirror images of the creator of the universe.

SPEAKER_04 12:55

So let's talk about anger and the culture of anger. Um, Perry, you mentioned that uh violence and hatred is becoming more uh it's becoming more normalized in today's society. So why do you think anger has become such a defining characteristic in so many people today? And how should we Christians respond differently?

SPEAKER_02 13:18

I think it really reflects instead of the reflection of God, it's Satan's attempt to try to um put his template of who he is over who we are. I've often said this God uh knows this. Jesus and Satan have the same desire, but it has two outcomes. Jesus wants us to be more like him. Satan wants us to be more like him. And anger, hatred, and murder, the kill, steal, and destroy part of Satan is is he knows we're made in God's image. And we are to be image bearers of God, but he loves to distort, distract that, use his own selfishness to try to create a heart of selfishness in us. You know, all this all this really comes from the heart. Murder begins in the heart. And Jesus dealt with that. He said, if you say to your brother Raka, you know, and uh or thou fool, you know, you're in danger of hellfire. I mean, that's some pretty straight-up talk. Um and he talks about where hate really begins. And Jesus did say it begins in the heart, and it really begins with anger. Why are you angry with your brother? That's what he said to uh Cain when he looked at Abel. What's the deal? And then God said to him, Sin crouches at the door, but you must master it. You've got a choice here, Cain. Are you gonna murder your brother? Are you gonna let the anger in your heart transition over into a physical act of violence and murder, or are you gonna deal with your own heart? It begins in the heart.

SPEAKER_05 15:06

I think what's really cool too to think about uh how you put that, Pastor Perry, of Satan being a distorter. It's so easy for us to miss that. Uh, because Jesus got angry, right? Jesus cleansed the temple, Jesus cracked the whip and drove people out and flipped tables over. But just like you emphasized, the the purpose and heart in it mattered, right? Anger is still given by God, right? It's still an emotion that we can have, but the context of it matters. Uh, and so that's just a really great heart check for for us in general to, you know, Jesus says in in the Beatitudes and in the or in the Sermon on the Mount, excuse me, that uh, you know, that if you have hatred in your heart for your brother, you you've committed murder against them, right? When we start to get those points of anger in our lives, especially towards our brothers and sisters, to say, wait a minute, am I angry because they've done something to dishonor God? Or am I angry because they've done something to dishonor me?

SPEAKER_02 16:07

I like that you brought up that that Jesus had anger. Yeah. There is such a thing as righteous anger. And I think we live in a world where people do not want to address that and don't want to say, okay, there are some things that should make us angry because it's offensive to the holy God and how he created us. And it should, there are some things that are offensive, and I think that's what God is saying here. Murder is definitely offensive to God.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

And um, and but and it's the whole reason why is because uh God is one that's created us to be in his image, and taking anger to those levels, or even selfishness to those levels. Uh, I think those are the two main things that happen in the heart. There's a selfish thing, like like we deal and I know in the message we talked about euthanasia. When I was in Michigan, uh Jack Kavorican was up there, and of course, he his favorite place to go speak was in churches. That's where he went. I mean, and his lawyer, by the way, I don't mention this in the sermon, but his lawyer was an atheist. And his lawyer often really had a lot of very evil things to say about and blasphemous sayings to say about God. But the whole thing of, you know, going down a kind of an avenue that we often don't go down these days is how do we treat the elderly? How do we treat the handicapped? Uh, what's our choice on how do we say, man, life would be a whole lot easier if if I didn't have to fill in the blank? And it can go from, hey, I'm sick and why do why do we always have these handicapped parking spots? To, you know, why do we have to have braille on the wall, you know, on things in our, even in our church, we have these signs, and you're like, why do we have a braille on the wall? You know, why is that required? And part of that is really, do we think about other people? Is the question. And that's a heart check all by itself. Probably none of us are ever gonna just sit down and say, I'm gonna contemplate murdering somebody. But I think we would sit down and say, I wonder if it, you know, what it would it be like if, you know, I didn't have to take care of grandpa and grandma anymore. Now, those are some hard things. Probably things that um Jack Kavorkin said, here, this is what you need to do. You don't need to be a burden to your family.

Anger As The Seed Of Murder

SPEAKER_02 18:55

And he encouraged these people to take their own lives and he assisted with it. And is that a sin? The answer is yes, a hundred percent. Because uh it's not only euthanasia, but it's also encouraging suicide, which is another hard topic, uh, because all of us have had someone that probably has taken their own life and struggle with that.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

And this whole conversation kind of gets us down to that root cause. It's um Satan is trying to distort our image of ourselves and ultimately our image of God. And and you know, when we talk about this anger, um that's that's like the seed bed or the where where murder ends is where murder is the end result. So the command here isn't you just shouldn't murder, but Jesus, like you said, takes it that's that step further. And he says, No, it begins way back here. And um, I actually took this quote from Heath Lambert. He said this, he said, it's impossible for the poisonous weed of murder to grow without first sowing the seed of anger. And I thought that was just so profound and uh very poignant. And we're gonna see this in later weeks, you know, when we get to adultery. Like it doesn't start with cheating on your wife, it begins with lustful thoughts. It begins with it begins in our heart and then it manifests itself with our hands. Yeah, and so um just really like you guys said, I just love that. Hey, check your heart, find out where this anger is coming from, and um and and at the end of the day, again, remember that we're all image bearers of God.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

These commandments are really uh where the rubber reets the road. You initially look at thou shall not murder and you say, Oh, that doesn't apply to me. And then it really, the Holy Spirit gets a hold of it and starts really drilling down in your heart, and you and that's what Jesus did. Jesus took it beyond that. He said, Well, you say this, and it takes us out of the religiosity mentality to the relationship mentality, which the whole all the Ten Commandments deal with first and foremost our relationship with God, and then secondary, our relationship with others. Jesus said, you know, how do you sum up the commandments? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself. So that's what happens here. Jesus will take these same commandments, and believe it or not, he'll preach those to the religious. Yeah, that's what's interesting.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

So when people often hear people such as myself. Often hear you shall not murder, they often think only about the physical violence. I want you guys to help us out, the listeners. What are some everyday ways people can either value life or slowly diminish the value of others? Words, attitudes, or actions.

SPEAKER_05 22:22

What a question. Ways to value life. And it starts one one of the ways starts with our core, our core value of seeing others the way Jesus does. Right. And we have to understand how Jesus sees us, right? As his possession, as his portion is what the Bible says, that what he got out of dying on the cross was us. Um, and so when we can go into any relationship with any person, right, whether it's a casual relationship of I'm next to this person at the gas pump or the person standing out um asking for money or people that we interact with every day, when we can remember, kind of like we've we've already talked about being made in God's image, but also like Jesus came and died for that person's soul, right? For that person to hopefully decide to be reconciled back to him. Um it it changes the way that our hearts approach people and it changes the way that we're willing to be with others, if that makes sense. Um ways to prevent us devaluing life, we've gotta watch the things we consume. Um it's one of the hardest things, but we we become uh numb essentially to all of the messages that we're constantly receiving. Uh media uses sex to sell everything now, right? Well, what does that do? Well, it begins

Euthanasia Suicide And Convenience

SPEAKER_05 23:55

to shift a person's view of the opposite sex to be an item for their pleasure as opposed to someone who got intentionally and wonderfully designed for a purpose, right? Um it it slowly degrades and devalues those relationships, uh, which then flushes itself out to things all the way down to the extent of of things like abortion, right? Where where we're where we're taking life for the sake of convenience, where we're taking, uh, where we're minimizing the impact of that person for our current comfort. And that's flushed out in a hundred different things, right? I mean, it can be in our everyday really, oh well, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna interact with that person because they can't do enough for me, right? We talk about how the world is all about who you know, it's not what you know, it's who you know. And so when we start viewing people that way, we start creating tiers of society that we won't interact with, and that is the opposite of who Christ calls us to be.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Yeah, and uh I think you really hit on something there, Ryan, with watching what we consume. Uh actually, this weekend, we were all sitting around, our in-laws were over, and I think Olivia had woken up from a nap. Caitlin had been watching Criminal Minds. She loves that show, loves that show, and it was just on, and we were all just talking, and before we before we knew it, look over there, and Olivia is just glued to the TV. And I look at the TV, and it is super violent. There's blood, there's gunshots. I mean, like, sound was on, and it was just like and I'm like, what are we watching? I was like, criminal minds. It's like, oh, this is just casual network TV that we put on in the background. And I was like, can we maybe change this to something else? And it was kind of like that moment for all of us, like, hmm, hey, the little eyes that are watching, we have to protect those. And you know, I'm always brought to that song, Be careful little eyes, what you see. Be careful, big eyes, what you show them. Uh, be careful, little mouths, what you say, be careful, big mouth, what you say around them. Um, and so we get we are so easily desensitized to the evil that is around us that it goes unnoticed. And when it starts to go unnoticed, it can do a lot more. And that is the the sneaky and the the craftiness of the enemy that is trying to sneak around. The the the enemy is not some big thing that's in front of you, it's not this big monster. It can be, but but it is more sneaky, it is crafty, it is witty, it is uh trying to, as you said, uh distort things. It's it's trying to um infiltrate uh through these small little narrow openings. And so we really do have to guard ourselves against what the world is trying to tell us is okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

Yeah, I often wonder why, I'm gonna pick on us as Christians for a minute, why we have a New Testament that every New Testament book deals with false teaching, except for the book of Philemon. That's it, that's the one that doesn't have anything on false teaching, but every single one of them do. But for example, when you talk about life, you know, and you talk about sanctity of life, especially even Christians shut up. Don't say a word. I can't believe the preacher's talking about that. There's this utter silence. And part of the desensitation that we have in our world today is we have forgotten to get offended, talking about righteous anger. We have forgotten to get offended by the things that offend God. And we accept the false teaching of our world that says, well, if somebody wants to, you know, to take the life of a child, an unborn child, well, that's their choice. That's women's rights. Men, you know, and and it's their body, it's their choice. And that makes its way into the political world, and then everybody makes it a political statement when it's not. That statement is a statement about life.

Abortion War And Culture’s Smokescreens

SPEAKER_02 28:40

And God created that. It's so easy when you talk about thou shalt not murder, it's so easy to get off on the abortion issue. And I agree with that. It's so easy to do that. And that's why in the message we talk about euthanasia, we talk about homicide, we talk about suicide, we talk about the dynamics of what God forbids in this command. But then we we talk about other things. And what often happens is a smokescreen of, well, what about war? What about what about uh capital punishment? And you know, you're beginning to try to say, okay, how do I define biblically murder versus killing? And what is what is something that God will do? Because I mean, God had Joshua was a military commander, y'all. Uh, and and a lot of people that deal with this whole subject of thou shalt not murder, they get off and say, Well, if God doesn't believe you should kill, which it doesn't say that, it says you shouldn't murder, then why would it be that he would go in and it would have an impact on like the Canaanites? And and it just kind of goes down that road. And that's that's one of the things that that you know you you take the risk of people being offended, or you take the risk of people getting silent and going, well, I'll have to think about that. Uh, and maybe we should think about that. Maybe that's what we need to be doing as Christians, and instead of just listening to the media and being desensitized to subjects that relate to what I believe is false teaching in our world today, let's call it what it is. Let's call this kind of stuff where it devalues human life, whether living or whether it leads to murder or even anger. Why are we not offended at that, uh, those behaviors? And what does that mean for me? And what does that mean uh in relationship to God's word?

SPEAKER_04 30:55

So, one of the strongest moments in the sermon is the reminder that Jesus willingly gave his life for sinners, including murderers. What does what does the cross teach us about both the seriousness of sin and the depth of God's love?

SPEAKER_02 31:16

There are when you talk about, you know, there are some um folks that claim themselves to be Christians, for example, that say, you know, that taking the life of someone is a mortal sin. And I dealt with that when I was in Michigan, by the way. Uh I had a young man that killed two women, and I was the person that went into the jail and ministered to him, and I sat through the two between the two families, the victim family, as well as the young man that took that girl's life, I sat with him in the courtroom, and I was a young guy, and there was a whole lot of struggle there um during that moment of dealing with that. And um I guess when when you go down the road of talking about murder and can a person be forgiven, um well, you have to go the apostle Paul. He was a murderer. And God used him to write most of the New Testament. Now that bothers people, if you really think about it. Because if you take that and you say, okay, there's a person in our world that

Jesus Was Murdered For Murderers

SPEAKER_02 32:55

has murdered somebody, or maybe was a serial killer, can they be saved? Those are see how this one four four four-word sentence, it really, really drills deep into our society and into our hearts, as well as what we believe about Jesus. And so our theology is shaped by four word sentences that in in a in a 28, you know, a 28-word set of commandments. Um, but when you read that, you learn a lot about God. You learn about God's God's sacredness and his holiness and what he calls for, but also you learn a lot about his grace. And that's what uh the finality of the message was is here's the reality. Jesus was murdered for murderers. And by the way, that's a big conversation too. John MacArthur put out a book called The Murder of Jesus. And that was, oh my goodness, that caused a lot. He wasn't murdered, you know. He wasn't murdered. Uh, that's what they would say. And then others would say, well, no, he actually was murdered. And it does fit both, you know, Jesus gave his life. So some people say he wasn't murdered, he chose to give his life, and he did, for sure. But at the same time, there was an element of here's an innocent man. Innocent blood was shed on Calvary for people who were not innocent, and that happens to be me and you. So thank God that God works all things together for good. And that's the greatest good of all.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Yeah, and I think to kind of wrap this up, it it also all goes back to the sovereignty of God. Um, when he's giving this command, God is saying, Hey, I'm the author of life, and I don't need your help. Um, and so when you're taking innocent life, what you're saying is, hey, I know better than God. And uh I actually thought of this on the on the uh no, actually I thought of this uh last week. It was like a banger quote that I came up with. It was like, hey, God is the author of life and he doesn't need an editor. So you can you can try that one out. Maybe I'll tweet it out. Yeah, maybe I'll tweet it out and see see that. Um but yeah, it all it also all goes back to um the sovereignty of God and that God is king. And um, so if we if we just can remind ourselves of that and remember that, I think, I think we're in pretty good shape.

SPEAKER_04 35:56

Every life has value because every life has a creator, and the same God who said, You shall not murder, was willing to lay

Choose Life And Stay Connected

SPEAKER_04 36:05

down his own life so broken people could be forgiven. That means no life is meaningless, no person is beyond grace, and no story is too far gone for redemption. So, in a world filled with anger, division, death, may we be the people who choose life, speak life, protect life, and point people to the author of life self, Jesus. Gentlemen, see you next week. See you next week. You'll peace.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

We're glad you joined us for today's segment. We believe a life built on truth is a life that transforms everything. To stay connected, share this message, subscribe, or visit us online at Kennesoft First. We'll see you next time. Keep building your life on truth.