Thou shalt not kill forbids murder and the taking of human life by violence, especially the taking of innocent life. It forbids far more than the outward act, for anger without cause, hatred cherished in the heart, malice, revenge, contemptuous words, envy, jealousy and evil-speaking are themselves murder. It also forbids injustice that tends to shorten life, neglect of the needy and suffering, and the injuring of health by self-indulgence, intemperance, excessive labor and violation of the laws of life. It is the sixth commandment, on the second table among those defining duty to fellow human beings, requiring active, self-denying benevolence and tender love to every one for whom Christ died, not mere avoidance of harm. It was spoken by God Himself in awful grandeur and glory from Sinai and written with His own finger on stone as part of His moral, unchangeable and eternal law, the standard of righteousness and rule of judgment, whose keeping brings blessing and protection.
Giving at Sinai
Thou shalt not kill was first laid down in Eden and then proclaimed anew at Sinai after God by mighty power delivered His people from Egypt in spite of Pharaoh's opposition so that they might keep it. Bondage and the witnessing of idolatry had blinded Israel, confused their ideas of the divine requirements, and caused them to lose sight of the commandments first given in Eden. After deliverance through the Red Sea they failed when proved, so God left them without excuse by making the law known Himself rather than trusting its teaching to anyone else, not even to angels. Had man kept that law, and had Abraham's descendants kept the covenant pledged by circumcision and stayed separate from idolatry, there would have been no need for circumcision, for going down into Egypt, or for proclaiming the law from Sinai and guarding it by definite directions through Moses.
It was proclaimed to the children of Israel with God's own voice, by Christ the Redeemer as Teacher speaking from Sinai, the same who afterward spoke in human flesh. The Father and the Son were present on Sinai's holy mount, and the command was spoken in awful grandeur, power and glory amid smoke, flame, thunder, lightning, earthquake, trumpet, cloud and thick darkness, in a sublime and awful manner with an audible voice in the hearing of all the people with His angels in glory. This display was to demonstrate its importance, to make known His majesty and authority as Ruler of the world, and to impress the people with the sacredness of His law and the importance of obeying it. He then wrote it with His own holy finger upon tables of stone so that a forgetful people would not forget His requirements and so that no tradition or practice of men could be mingled with His holy precepts or confuse His requirements. It is part of the instruction given to Moses in the mount that men should obey and that must be studied and presented now just as verily as Israel needed it in the days of Moses, guarding against injustice, ending contention, and guiding dealing one with another unto loving as brethren with softened and subdued hearts.
God did not leave the prohibition of killing alone but came still closer by commanding Moses, while with Him in the mount, to write judgments, statutes and laws giving minute directions to guard it. Those definite directions about duty to one another and to the stranger are the principles of the ten commandments simplified and given in definite form, setting out in specific terms the duties the moral law governs and making its requirements clear. Their far-reaching principles were not fully understood by Israel, so additional precepts were given to explain and apply the commandments so their obligations could be more fully understood and enforced. They were given to lead erring man, so prone to transgress, to strict obedience so he need not err, and if the people had practiced their principles those additional directions would not have been needed.
The law already existed before it was spoken aloud at Sinai and was not new nor for Israel alone but expresses God's enduring will and claims upon all people in every age and gives instruction and government for all humanity. Its ten principles existed before man was created and governed the angels, were made known to Adam and Eve spoken by Jehovah and not written, suited first to holy beings and unchanged after the fall though transgression then carried the penalty of death, were taught by Adam to his descendants and handed down through successive generations, were preserved in the ark by Noah and taught by him to his descendants, were observed by Abraham in obedience to God's voice, charge, commandments, statutes and laws, and made necessary the sacrifice of Christ and the system of sacrificing beasts to keep the penalty before fallen man and teach repentance and trust in the promised Redeemer. Israel was made its depositary to hand it down and was honored by its proclamation in majesty and glory as a mark of special covenant regard, yet it was for all mankind covering the whole duty of humanity. It was kept in the ark of the covenant, preserved as the beginning of the written Word through sixteen hundred years of history recorded by Moses as historian, and opened to view in the most holy place in heaven in 1844.
Place in the Decalogue
Thou shalt not kill is the sixth commandment, standing on the second table of stone among the last six commandments that define a person's duty to fellow human beings. Those last six are distinguished from the first four, which outline duty to God, and guide people in their obligations to one another. Their requirements include treating a spouse with kindness and respect rather than tyranny or disregard for personal rights, since unwise marriages can lead to crimes of every kind. The lawyer who asked about eternal life knew he had kept neither the first four nor the last six, and when Christ bade him love his neighbor as himself and live he was convicted of breaking this commandment, yet instead of confessing he tried to excuse and vindicate himself by asking who is his neighbor to make the requirement appear too difficult to fulfill. Professed commandment-keepers violate these duties to one another when they use God's time and money for needless display instead of loving their neighbors as themselves.
Keeping this commandment is summed up in loving the Lord God with all heart and soul and strength and mind, and loving neighbor as self, and doing this gives life. It belongs to the commandments concerning duties to one's neighbor which Christ summed up in the command to love one's neighbor as oneself, and it states principles of righteousness to be made the rule of action. Love for God and love for people are inseparable in divine unity, for when God has His rightful place in the heart people faithfully keep these commandments, and love for God cannot coexist with hatred of another person. The rich young man's refusal to give to the poor showed that he did not love his neighbor as himself and therefore failed to keep these last six commandments. Keeping it therefore means not mere avoidance of harm but practical helping of one another, with love becoming part and parcel of being through copying the self-denying, self-sacrificing life of Christ during the brief period of human life and short probation, expressing active, self-denying benevolence and tender pitying love to everyone for whom Christ died, so that those who will compose His kingdom reflect the character of Him who is the light and joy and glory of heaven.
With the other nine it forms links of one chain, requiring implicit obedience as a subject of the Sovereign of the world, where violation of one makes a commandment-breaker and only willing obedience to all in truth and righteousness makes a true commandment-keeper whose destiny is decided by principles that will testify in the judgment. It has the same authority as the other nine, including the fourth, so no one has authority to keep it while flouting or objecting to the Sabbath precept, God holds every person responsible for observing it together with every other precept, and widespread transgression of another commandment does not lessen the sin of breaking it or excuse disobedience. It was spoken by Christ and can never be repealed while heaven and earth remain, standing with the other nine as the origin of all enlightened law and government, so that to speak slightly of it is to side with rebellion against the foundation of God's government in heaven and on earth. Finite wisdom cannot improve these ten holy, just, and good precepts, not one can be broken without disloyalty to God, and keeping every jot and tittle is essential for personal happiness and the happiness of all connected with us.
The law reaches to the intents and purposes of the heart and demands purity in the most secret thoughts, desires, and dispositions, requiring supreme love to God and love to neighbor as self, so that keeping the whole law yet offending in one point brings guilt of all, the least deviation by neglect or willful transgression is sin exposing the sinner to the wrath of God, by the law alone is the knowledge of sin convicting men before they feel their need of Christ, and calling it a yoke of bondage shows the transgressor who sees no beauty in it, whereas those who love it have great peace and nothing shall offend them. To disobey it with the rest of God's standard from which there can be no sinless swerving is to walk in strange and forbidden paths and transgression, to deny the Saviour when service is due, and to step from beneath the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ to stand under the black banner of the prince of darkness in the ranks of the enemy, which must be answered for in the last day when every man will meet the reward of his works. Its principle is far-reaching, and additional precepts were given to explain and enforce the commandments more fully.
Meaning and Scope
Thou shalt not kill forbids murder and killing, taking human life by violence, especially taking innocent life. It lays a binding divine restraint that keeps life respected, so that while it remains binding men fear to transgress, but if its restraint were wholly removed human laws would soon be disregarded, the strongest would take what they want by violence, life itself would not be respected, disobedience would be sown to reap disobedience, children would not shrink from taking the life of parents to obtain the desire of corrupt hearts, and the civilized world would become a horde of robbers and assassins with peace, rest and happiness banished from the earth. It remains a restriction against taking a neighbor's life, and to abolish the law would wrongly remove that prohibition and ease the murderer's conscience. It stands with the prohibitions of adultery, theft, false witness and coveting as holy commandments that remain before people with no excuse for disobedience, to be obeyed exactly as written, and obeying this commandment along with the others listed would bring a great change in cities and throughout the world.
It forbids more than the outward act of killing, for murder first exists in the mind. Anger with a brother without cause, malice and revenge that would delight in deeds of violence, hatred cherished in the heart, and contemptuous words such as Raca and Thou fool are themselves murder and bring danger of the judgment, the council and hell fire. Those who congratulate themselves for committing no outward crime while cherishing the feelings that prompt the assassin have already set their feet in the path of the murderer, and people who condemn criminals for robbery and murder break this law when they cherish hatred, including hatred of oppressors, other peoples, or countrymen who differ from them. Claiming to keep it while being envious, jealous, fault-finding, evil-thinking and evil-speaking, discourteous, unkind, cruel and unforgiving, loving self and hating brethren, is transgressing it, for God discerns impurities of heart and condemns such conduct as transgression even when outward character is claimed to be unblemished.
Not all anger breaks the command, for righteous indignation born of sensitive morals when God is dishonored, truth is brought into disrepute, and the innocent are oppressed and persecuted is justifiable and not sin. Hatred, revenge, bitterness and animosity must be rooted out of the heart. Before worship one must seek reconciliation with a brother and must also endeavor to relieve the mind of another who has aught against him, for religious offerings are not acceptable while remediable bitterness and division remain.
It does not forbid killing insects, vermin and harmful reptiles. Stretching the command to forbid killing even an ant, flea, moth or fly is contrary to sound reasoning, fanciful, non-essential, not learned in the school of Christ, not entrusted by God as a message to His people, with nothing in the teachings of Christ, dishonoring the law, making truth of none effect, bringing truth into disrepute, placing precious principles on a level with fables, doing great harm, originating with Satan and not the Spirit of God, and allowing the enemy to eclipse the great truths for this time. Because the earth was cursed for sin, vermin of every kind multiply in the last days and must be killed, or they will annoy and torment and even kill people and destroy the work of hands and the fruit of the land. Ants that destroy woodwork of houses should be destroyed, fruit trees must be sprayed to kill insects that would spoil fruit, and troublesome harmful insects and reptiles, including poisonous flies, must be guarded against and destroyed to preserve selves, life and possessions as man's faithful part, leaving the rest with the Lord, and even then they will still multiply, so that fighting and killing these evils remains necessary as long as this life lasts, until Satan with the agencies he employs is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone and sin is no more.
It forbids more than directly taking a life: it also forbids injustice that tends to shorten life, hatred and revenge, passions that lead to harm or wishing harm to others, and neglect of people who are needy or suffering. It forbids injuring health by self-indulgence, unnecessary deprivation, excessive labor, intemperance in eating, drinking and work, and violating the laws of being, which bring suffering, disease and premature death, for God's laws governing the body are as divine as the precepts of the Decalogue and every careless or willful violation of physical laws is sin against the Creator. Lessening mental and physical vigor by perverted habits of appetite and life clouds memory, enfeebles intellect and destroys the powers by which duty to God and fellow men is performed, making a person a transgressor of the ten precepts spoken from Sinai, while temperance in all things keeps the faculties healthy so intellect can discern and guide to right actions in keeping God's law. Pursuing wealth by overworking and violating the laws of health transgresses these precepts governing duty to others and becomes a course of sin. It, together with the other five commands that specify duty of man to fellow man, forbids increasing children when reason shows physical and mental weakness must be their inheritance, for such childbearing knowingly harms children and neighbors, increases degeneracy of the race and sinks society lower, brings lifelong physical, mental and moral suffering on children born diseased and left to poverty without proper care, training, education and happiness, and does great injustice to the mother by lessening and destroying her health, social enjoyment and strength with a child in her arms from year to year, and God who regards the rights of neighbors and notices even a sparrow falling cares still more for children in this closer and more sacred relationship and will call parents who put reasoning powers in the background and become slaves to passion to account for the deficiencies generations must bear.
Its prohibition of killing made Abraham question whether the command to offer Isaac could truly come from God, since it appeared to conflict with the divine law, and that prohibition was used to tempt him to doubt God's command to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, on the ground that God would not require what He had once forbidden.
Authority Judgment and Salvation
Thou shalt not kill expresses the character of God and makes His will plain, holy, just and good, revealing His goodness and the principles of His government in heaven and earth. It contains principles of heavenly origin to govern life in every particular, pure and ennobling, of value because they came forth from God as the transcript of His character, the science of all goodness, truth and righteousness. The law can never be changed to meet man in his fallen condition, and any doctrine that does not have its ten holy precepts as foundation is an unsafe guide, while the man who does not make them the foundation of life practice works on the enemy's side. The Word of God is the only safe guide, the foundation to build on, the rule to live by, and the standard by which all will be judged, requiring firm standing on It is written without turning to the right hand or to the left.
It belongs to God's moral law of ten commandments, separate from the laws regulating Jewish sacrifices and offerings and from circumcision and ceremonial rites that ceased at the death of Christ. The ten commandments did not die with Christ, and Satan uses even the crucifixion and resurrection to lead professed believers to think they did. The law cannot be abolished but endures forever as an unchangeable standard of right conduct and eternal truth, binding on all people until the end of time, not optional or subject to personal choice, and it cannot be amended or set aside by human enactment. Christ's death for the world's transgressions confirms its permanence, His sacrifice and His example of keeping His Father's commandments uphold its claims rather than setting this command aside.
It is the standard of righteousness and rule of judgment proclaimed at Sinai as a guide for life, God's righteousness and authoritative standard by which character is tested and each person's destiny decided with a sentence of life or death. Its principles will testify against the world in the judgment, and those who despised and rejected God's requirements when plainly displayed will be condemned by the law they rejected at the last judgment. Transgression of that holy law pollutes the earth, piles up iniquity, and brings the judgment wrath of a pure and holy God with definite penalty, sure punishment and fearful retribution, as the recorded history of disobedience shows that His retributive justice does not fail and requires strict regard for His commandments. For a watchman on the walls of Zion to share in prevailing polluting sins makes his crime very aggravating before God, leaves a fearful record against him in heaven, and brings fearful retribution unless he humbles his heart, sincerely repents, and lives the rest of his life in repentance.
Obedience to all God's commandments is the condition of salvation and the term of entrance into life, bringing blessing, keeping, protection, safety, a healthy spiritual experience and true greatness. God gave the commandments defining justice, mercy and necessity in dealings with one another to preserve human integrity and bring humanity into harmony with divinity. Every Thou shalt not implies a promise, and those who do His commandments are blessed with right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the city. Christ perfectly fulfilled every precept of the law in human nature to show obedience possible and to vindicate God's justice, and the law that exposes and condemns every act of wickedness and unrighteousness is covered for the repentant sinner who trusts in Christ as substitute and surety, receiving pardon and forgiveness through faith, repentance, obedience and His imputed perfection and merits, enabled to obey and restored to the tree of life.
It lays a binding divine restraint that protects human life, everlasting and inexorable as the character of God Himself, and forms the foundation of all enlightened civil law that regulates human actions and restricts wrongdoing for the good and safety of society. While it remains binding men fear to transgress, and obedience to this moral code would prevent crime and the suffering and death that accompany it, keeping the wickedness now seen in the world from ever existing. If its restraint were wholly removed, life would no longer be respected, human laws would soon be disregarded, the strongest would take what they want by violence, and the civilized world would become a horde of robbers and assassins with peace, rest and happiness banished, descending into robbery, violence and murder. Disregarding the commandments sows disobedience to reap disobedience, so that children would not shrink from taking the life of their parents to obtain the desire of their corrupt hearts, a guilt that fills up the iniquity of favored nations that make it void. The safety of society and the progress of reform depend on keeping this law clearly defined before the people and respected as a rule of action, yet the inebriate with benumbed senses finds it meaningless and cannot comprehend the language of Sinai, trying to bring the law down to a debased standard instead of elevating himself to meet the exalted standard of God's government.
As words of the living God spoken with Thus saith the Lord authority and written by His own hand, it is of divine and not human composition. Unlike the rest of the Bible where God-given truths are expressed in the words of men as a union of the divine and the human, the ten commandments including the prohibition of killing are God's living word. It has more force and value than the precepts and teachings of men, including customs, maxims and traditions handed down from generation to generation through the rabbis and enforced by scribes and Pharisees. Those human customs must not be made all-essential and greater than the commandments, for treating them as of more force and value keeps Christ's followers back from advancing in knowledge and becoming efficient workers.
It is binding on all people of every age and position, revealing God's will to be believed just as it reads and done as the Lord has directed, to be searched with earnest prayer for opened understanding to know truth about salvation. It must be obeyed from the heart in spirit and letter and in daily life, not merely professed in theory, upheld as Christ upheld it when He declared He did not come to destroy the law or the prophets. Its sacred and enduring claims are to be taught to children, held firmly without allowing differences of opinion to divide believers, vindicated by heart obedience and strong arguments, and disregarding its plain precepts is violation of God's law and flagrant sin that can discourage those who recognize them and turn others from the truth. Churches and individuals that violate it while professing Christ are in transgression, and no plea of God's cause, no neglect of light, and no claim of sanctification excuses disobedience.
Links to Other Scripture
When asked what must be kept to enter into life, the answer named this command as doing no murder, and what is written in the law was pointed to for inheriting eternal life. The ruler claimed to have kept it from youth, yet refusal to give to the poor showed failure to love neighbor as self and therefore failure to keep the last six commandments summed up in that love. Claimed keeping is false when supreme love of riches shuts the eyes to the wants of fellow men, breaking love of neighbor and with it the rest of the last six and also the first four. It was named first among duties to neighbor that must be kept, and keeping it belongs to keeping the commandments in order to enter into eternal life. The whole law is summed up in love to the Lord God with all heart and soul and strength and mind and love to neighbor as self, and doing this gives life, stating principles of righteousness to be made the rule of action which those entrusted with the sacred oracles had well-nigh lost sight of and against which Satan is gathering the whole world to act as he once refused to yield in heaven.
Killing a brother, as Cain killed his, shows evil works and hatred, the opposite of the love that marks God’s children and accords with the call to love one’s brother under the holy law given at Sinai. It forbids taking innocent life, and Herod violated it when he ordered the death of John the Baptist to keep a rash oath made while intoxicated, which did not justify disobeying God’s law. He was tested whether he would uphold it or violate it by killing John, while justice and duty required refusal and humbling himself before his guests, and clear reason would have led him and his guests to recoil from killing an innocent prophet. The same law proclaimed on Mount Sinai by Christ Himself in a clear, ringing voice later heard in the temple condemns the unfair transactions, extortion, robbery, oppression of the poor, and conversion of the outer courts into a place of unholy traffic by priests and rulers as transgression of that law.
It belongs to the great precepts of the law given at Sinai which Christ defended against human traditions. Paul continued to keep the Ten Commandments in both letter and spirit after his conversion. It is part of the Decalogue, the precepts God spoke at Sinai, among the teachings of the law Jeremiah urged the people to honor as part of their covenant relationship with God. It is included in the Ten Commandments that Joshua repeated to Israel, with blessings following obedience and curses following disregard. It belongs to the law recorded by Moses, the historian of creation and the law, standing at the beginning of the written Word which began in the time of Moses after twenty-five hundred years of human history with no written revelation, when those taught of God communicated their knowledge to others and it was handed down from father to son through successive generations, with inspired revelations embodied in an inspired book continuing during sixteen hundred years from Moses to John, the recorder of the most sublime truths of the gospel.
Application to Daily Life
Violating the laws that govern the body is sin just as breaking this commandment is, for physical laws written on every nerve, muscle and fiber are truly God's laws as divine as the precepts of the Decalogue. Every careless or willful violation through depraved appetite, lustful passion, perverted habits and intemperance is transgression bringing punishment after warning, and the light of health reform makes its sinfulness clear. Such indulgence clouds memory, enfeebles intellect and destroys powers for duty to God and men, while obedience with temperance would keep out disease, suffering and premature death that now flood the world. Needless violation is as serious in God's sight as breaking the Ten Commandments, and keeping their principles in life would keep out the curse of disease. The commandment is in harmony with the laws of health and does not conflict with them.
Its principles must govern business transactions and every line of institutional work and must not be ignored in dealings between people. It forbids dealing unjustly, oppression, fraud, secret conniving, dishonest practices, taking unfair advantage of those under one's jurisdiction, forcing individuals to one's terms, ruling or ruining, oppressing, and robbing members of God's family of their individuality and rights. No plea of God's cause or working for advancement of the cause justifies breaking it, and God's cause must not be used to excuse oppression or suffering. God accepts no transactions that break it, no prosperity will attend them, and He will vindicate not a single touch of injustice because such practices misrepresent His will and character. Those in responsible positions must act with equity and practice the commandments so human imperfections do not dishonor God or become stumbling blocks leading to ruin, with conduct shaped by love for God and neighbor rather than financial interests or ambition crowding out compassion.
It is God's law for His household on earth governing family life, and parents and children are to order habits and practices by it and God's plans without departing from His rules. It is a word of the Lord to be obeyed and taught diligently to children so they teach it to their children. Among the last six commandments defining duty to fellow men, it requires treating a spouse with kindness and respect rather than tyranny or disregard for personal rights, for unwise marriages can lead to crimes of every kind. Physicians must have the highest regard for it together with the rest of the laws given from Sinai after deliverance from Egypt, for living by it keeps them from loose manners and carelessness about chastity and makes them safe to be trusted and not take liberties with patients. Together with the other five commands specifying duty to fellow men, it forbids increasing children when reason shows physical and mental weakness must be their inheritance, which injures the neighbor by increasing degeneracy and sinking society, brings lifelong physical, mental and moral suffering on diseased children left to poverty without proper care, training, education and happiness, and does great injustice to the mother by lessening and destroying her health, social enjoyment and strength with a child in her arms year after year. God regards neighbors' rights and notices even a sparrow falling, so He cares still more for children in this closer sacred relationship and will call to account parents who put reasoning powers in the background and become slaves to passion for deficiencies generations must bear.
As supreme higher law spoken with audible voice from Sinai and engraved on stone with God's finger, now to be written in mind and heart as spirit and life with power to enforce obedience, it is the only authority God's people can acknowledge above earthly powers. They must obey God rather than men and sooner disobey all men than deviate from it, conforming to every good law of the land as lovers of the ten precepts which are the foundation of all righteous laws, but refusing any ruler's requirement that conflicts with God's law. It forbids engaging in war, for military service under officers' requirements brings continual violation of conscience and is opposed to every principle of faith.
It is included among the last six precepts governing duty to others, which are violated when professed keepers use God's time and money for needless display instead of loving neighbors as themselves. Pursuing wealth by overworking and violating the laws of health transgresses these precepts and becomes a course of sin, and property thus obtained is bought at immense sacrifice. The desire to accumulate property is not sinful unless in seeking it men forget God, transgress these precepts, and place themselves where glorifying God in body and spirit which are His is impossible. Exhausting energies unnecessarily, intemperance in labor driven by intemperance in eating and drinking and by desire for wealth, violating the laws of health and being, bringing suffering upon self and anxiety, weariness and suffering upon loved ones, and overtaxing strength so perfect service cannot be rendered to God, is transgression of this commandment. It also condemns the liquor trade as legal killing, for selling intoxicating drinks helps destroy people by impairing reason and feeding appetite that brings misery and distress, which respect for God's commandments would prevent. Belonging to trade unions disregards and makes impossible to keep the entire Decalogue, for unionism controlled by cruel power requires pledging to serve union interests under threat punishable with loss of life, deprives neighbors of freedom of action and robs poorer classes of advantages justly belonging to them, breaking love to God and neighbor that sums duty and law. These combinations binding men in bundles ready to be burned are a sign of the last days and a last effort of Satan, and obedience to God's law including this commandment is the test for the whole world. It is broken together with coveting when people do everything possible to obtain money and treat money as everything, whereas money has value and right use to send missionaries abroad and provide education to fit workers to learn languages.
It is to be printed in plain letters in a prominent place and in plain sight in every house, on cards hung where eyes will fall so hearts and minds are impressed with powerful influence for good. Means are better used to feed the poor, clothe the naked, and buy books and pamphlets to enlighten souls than spent on photographs and multitudinous idols on walls. It is to be vindicated by obedience of heart and mind and by strong arguments, for obedience to it would have kept the wickedness now seen from ever existing. Its commands are binding, solemn, changeless and eternal, holy, just, good and perfect as God's pledged word to all on earth to be read and understood above all else, to be clearly proclaimed to rulers and people who are accountable and must obey, awakening duty and bringing sinners to conviction and conversion. Obedience to the first four commandments produces obedience to it and the other last five showing duty to fellow men, and keeping it means manifesting tender pitying love toward everyone for whom Christ died. Keeping it consecrates the keeper to be a missionary and laborer together with God, with zeal and energy derived from Christ as Chief Missionary, for all who have His Spirit live this missionary life, and doing God's will thus made known rather than merely professing faith or performing mighty works is essential to entering the kingdom.
Thou shalt not kill forbids murder and the taking of human life by violence, especially the taking of innocent life. It forbids far more than the outward act, for anger without cause, hatred cherished in the heart, malice, revenge, contemptuous words, envy, jealousy and evil-speaking are themselves murder. It also forbids injustice that tends to shorten life, neglect of the needy and suffering, and the injuring of health by self-indulgence, intemperance, excessive labor and violation of the laws of life. It is the sixth commandment, on the second table among those defining duty to fellow human beings, requiring active, self-denying benevolence and tender love to every one for whom Christ died, not mere avoidance of harm. It was spoken by God Himself in awful grandeur and glory from Sinai and written with His own finger on stone as part of His moral, unchangeable and eternal law, the standard of righteousness and rule of judgment, whose keeping brings blessing and protection.
Giving at Sinai
Thou shalt not kill was first laid down in Eden and then proclaimed anew at Sinai after God by mighty power delivered His people from Egypt in spite of Pharaoh's opposition so that they might keep it. Bondage and the witnessing of idolatry had blinded Israel, confused their ideas of the divine requirements, and caused them to lose sight of the commandments first given in Eden. After deliverance through the Red Sea they failed when proved, so God left them without excuse by making the law known Himself rather than trusting its teaching to anyone else, not even to angels. Had man kept that law, and had Abraham's descendants kept the covenant pledged by circumcision and stayed separate from idolatry, there would have been no need for circumcision, for going down into Egypt, or for proclaiming the law from Sinai and guarding it by definite directions through Moses.
It was proclaimed to the children of Israel with God's own voice, by Christ the Redeemer as Teacher speaking from Sinai, the same who afterward spoke in human flesh. The Father and the Son were present on Sinai's holy mount, and the command was spoken in awful grandeur, power and glory amid smoke, flame, thunder, lightning, earthquake, trumpet, cloud and thick darkness, in a sublime and awful manner with an audible voice in the hearing of all the people with His angels in glory. This display was to demonstrate its importance, to make known His majesty and authority as Ruler of the world, and to impress the people with the sacredness of His law and the importance of obeying it. He then wrote it with His own holy finger upon tables of stone so that a forgetful people would not forget His requirements and so that no tradition or practice of men could be mingled with His holy precepts or confuse His requirements. It is part of the instruction given to Moses in the mount that men should obey and that must be studied and presented now just as verily as Israel needed it in the days of Moses, guarding against injustice, ending contention, and guiding dealing one with another unto loving as brethren with softened and subdued hearts.
God did not leave the prohibition of killing alone but came still closer by commanding Moses, while with Him in the mount, to write judgments, statutes and laws giving minute directions to guard it. Those definite directions about duty to one another and to the stranger are the principles of the ten commandments simplified and given in definite form, setting out in specific terms the duties the moral law governs and making its requirements clear. Their far-reaching principles were not fully understood by Israel, so additional precepts were given to explain and apply the commandments so their obligations could be more fully understood and enforced. They were given to lead erring man, so prone to transgress, to strict obedience so he need not err, and if the people had practiced their principles those additional directions would not have been needed.
The law already existed before it was spoken aloud at Sinai and was not new nor for Israel alone but expresses God's enduring will and claims upon all people in every age and gives instruction and government for all humanity. Its ten principles existed before man was created and governed the angels, were made known to Adam and Eve spoken by Jehovah and not written, suited first to holy beings and unchanged after the fall though transgression then carried the penalty of death, were taught by Adam to his descendants and handed down through successive generations, were preserved in the ark by Noah and taught by him to his descendants, were observed by Abraham in obedience to God's voice, charge, commandments, statutes and laws, and made necessary the sacrifice of Christ and the system of sacrificing beasts to keep the penalty before fallen man and teach repentance and trust in the promised Redeemer. Israel was made its depositary to hand it down and was honored by its proclamation in majesty and glory as a mark of special covenant regard, yet it was for all mankind covering the whole duty of humanity. It was kept in the ark of the covenant, preserved as the beginning of the written Word through sixteen hundred years of history recorded by Moses as historian, and opened to view in the most holy place in heaven in 1844.
Place in the Decalogue
Thou shalt not kill is the sixth commandment, standing on the second table of stone among the last six commandments that define a person's duty to fellow human beings. Those last six are distinguished from the first four, which outline duty to God, and guide people in their obligations to one another. Their requirements include treating a spouse with kindness and respect rather than tyranny or disregard for personal rights, since unwise marriages can lead to crimes of every kind. The lawyer who asked about eternal life knew he had kept neither the first four nor the last six, and when Christ bade him love his neighbor as himself and live he was convicted of breaking this commandment, yet instead of confessing he tried to excuse and vindicate himself by asking who is his neighbor to make the requirement appear too difficult to fulfill. Professed commandment-keepers violate these duties to one another when they use God's time and money for needless display instead of loving their neighbors as themselves.
Keeping this commandment is summed up in loving the Lord God with all heart and soul and strength and mind, and loving neighbor as self, and doing this gives life. It belongs to the commandments concerning duties to one's neighbor which Christ summed up in the command to love one's neighbor as oneself, and it states principles of righteousness to be made the rule of action. Love for God and love for people are inseparable in divine unity, for when God has His rightful place in the heart people faithfully keep these commandments, and love for God cannot coexist with hatred of another person. The rich young man's refusal to give to the poor showed that he did not love his neighbor as himself and therefore failed to keep these last six commandments. Keeping it therefore means not mere avoidance of harm but practical helping of one another, with love becoming part and parcel of being through copying the self-denying, self-sacrificing life of Christ during the brief period of human life and short probation, expressing active, self-denying benevolence and tender pitying love to everyone for whom Christ died, so that those who will compose His kingdom reflect the character of Him who is the light and joy and glory of heaven.
With the other nine it forms links of one chain, requiring implicit obedience as a subject of the Sovereign of the world, where violation of one makes a commandment-breaker and only willing obedience to all in truth and righteousness makes a true commandment-keeper whose destiny is decided by principles that will testify in the judgment. It has the same authority as the other nine, including the fourth, so no one has authority to keep it while flouting or objecting to the Sabbath precept, God holds every person responsible for observing it together with every other precept, and widespread transgression of another commandment does not lessen the sin of breaking it or excuse disobedience. It was spoken by Christ and can never be repealed while heaven and earth remain, standing with the other nine as the origin of all enlightened law and government, so that to speak slightly of it is to side with rebellion against the foundation of God's government in heaven and on earth. Finite wisdom cannot improve these ten holy, just, and good precepts, not one can be broken without disloyalty to God, and keeping every jot and tittle is essential for personal happiness and the happiness of all connected with us.
The law reaches to the intents and purposes of the heart and demands purity in the most secret thoughts, desires, and dispositions, requiring supreme love to God and love to neighbor as self, so that keeping the whole law yet offending in one point brings guilt of all, the least deviation by neglect or willful transgression is sin exposing the sinner to the wrath of God, by the law alone is the knowledge of sin convicting men before they feel their need of Christ, and calling it a yoke of bondage shows the transgressor who sees no beauty in it, whereas those who love it have great peace and nothing shall offend them. To disobey it with the rest of God's standard from which there can be no sinless swerving is to walk in strange and forbidden paths and transgression, to deny the Saviour when service is due, and to step from beneath the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ to stand under the black banner of the prince of darkness in the ranks of the enemy, which must be answered for in the last day when every man will meet the reward of his works. Its principle is far-reaching, and additional precepts were given to explain and enforce the commandments more fully.
Meaning and Scope
Thou shalt not kill forbids murder and killing, taking human life by violence, especially taking innocent life. It lays a binding divine restraint that keeps life respected, so that while it remains binding men fear to transgress, but if its restraint were wholly removed human laws would soon be disregarded, the strongest would take what they want by violence, life itself would not be respected, disobedience would be sown to reap disobedience, children would not shrink from taking the life of parents to obtain the desire of corrupt hearts, and the civilized world would become a horde of robbers and assassins with peace, rest and happiness banished from the earth. It remains a restriction against taking a neighbor's life, and to abolish the law would wrongly remove that prohibition and ease the murderer's conscience. It stands with the prohibitions of adultery, theft, false witness and coveting as holy commandments that remain before people with no excuse for disobedience, to be obeyed exactly as written, and obeying this commandment along with the others listed would bring a great change in cities and throughout the world.
It forbids more than the outward act of killing, for murder first exists in the mind. Anger with a brother without cause, malice and revenge that would delight in deeds of violence, hatred cherished in the heart, and contemptuous words such as Raca and Thou fool are themselves murder and bring danger of the judgment, the council and hell fire. Those who congratulate themselves for committing no outward crime while cherishing the feelings that prompt the assassin have already set their feet in the path of the murderer, and people who condemn criminals for robbery and murder break this law when they cherish hatred, including hatred of oppressors, other peoples, or countrymen who differ from them. Claiming to keep it while being envious, jealous, fault-finding, evil-thinking and evil-speaking, discourteous, unkind, cruel and unforgiving, loving self and hating brethren, is transgressing it, for God discerns impurities of heart and condemns such conduct as transgression even when outward character is claimed to be unblemished.
Not all anger breaks the command, for righteous indignation born of sensitive morals when God is dishonored, truth is brought into disrepute, and the innocent are oppressed and persecuted is justifiable and not sin. Hatred, revenge, bitterness and animosity must be rooted out of the heart. Before worship one must seek reconciliation with a brother and must also endeavor to relieve the mind of another who has aught against him, for religious offerings are not acceptable while remediable bitterness and division remain.
It does not forbid killing insects, vermin and harmful reptiles. Stretching the command to forbid killing even an ant, flea, moth or fly is contrary to sound reasoning, fanciful, non-essential, not learned in the school of Christ, not entrusted by God as a message to His people, with nothing in the teachings of Christ, dishonoring the law, making truth of none effect, bringing truth into disrepute, placing precious principles on a level with fables, doing great harm, originating with Satan and not the Spirit of God, and allowing the enemy to eclipse the great truths for this time. Because the earth was cursed for sin, vermin of every kind multiply in the last days and must be killed, or they will annoy and torment and even kill people and destroy the work of hands and the fruit of the land. Ants that destroy woodwork of houses should be destroyed, fruit trees must be sprayed to kill insects that would spoil fruit, and troublesome harmful insects and reptiles, including poisonous flies, must be guarded against and destroyed to preserve selves, life and possessions as man's faithful part, leaving the rest with the Lord, and even then they will still multiply, so that fighting and killing these evils remains necessary as long as this life lasts, until Satan with the agencies he employs is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone and sin is no more.
It forbids more than directly taking a life: it also forbids injustice that tends to shorten life, hatred and revenge, passions that lead to harm or wishing harm to others, and neglect of people who are needy or suffering. It forbids injuring health by self-indulgence, unnecessary deprivation, excessive labor, intemperance in eating, drinking and work, and violating the laws of being, which bring suffering, disease and premature death, for God's laws governing the body are as divine as the precepts of the Decalogue and every careless or willful violation of physical laws is sin against the Creator. Lessening mental and physical vigor by perverted habits of appetite and life clouds memory, enfeebles intellect and destroys the powers by which duty to God and fellow men is performed, making a person a transgressor of the ten precepts spoken from Sinai, while temperance in all things keeps the faculties healthy so intellect can discern and guide to right actions in keeping God's law. Pursuing wealth by overworking and violating the laws of health transgresses these precepts governing duty to others and becomes a course of sin. It, together with the other five commands that specify duty of man to fellow man, forbids increasing children when reason shows physical and mental weakness must be their inheritance, for such childbearing knowingly harms children and neighbors, increases degeneracy of the race and sinks society lower, brings lifelong physical, mental and moral suffering on children born diseased and left to poverty without proper care, training, education and happiness, and does great injustice to the mother by lessening and destroying her health, social enjoyment and strength with a child in her arms from year to year, and God who regards the rights of neighbors and notices even a sparrow falling cares still more for children in this closer and more sacred relationship and will call parents who put reasoning powers in the background and become slaves to passion to account for the deficiencies generations must bear.
Its prohibition of killing made Abraham question whether the command to offer Isaac could truly come from God, since it appeared to conflict with the divine law, and that prohibition was used to tempt him to doubt God's command to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, on the ground that God would not require what He had once forbidden.
Authority Judgment and Salvation
Thou shalt not kill expresses the character of God and makes His will plain, holy, just and good, revealing His goodness and the principles of His government in heaven and earth. It contains principles of heavenly origin to govern life in every particular, pure and ennobling, of value because they came forth from God as the transcript of His character, the science of all goodness, truth and righteousness. The law can never be changed to meet man in his fallen condition, and any doctrine that does not have its ten holy precepts as foundation is an unsafe guide, while the man who does not make them the foundation of life practice works on the enemy's side. The Word of God is the only safe guide, the foundation to build on, the rule to live by, and the standard by which all will be judged, requiring firm standing on It is written without turning to the right hand or to the left.
It belongs to God's moral law of ten commandments, separate from the laws regulating Jewish sacrifices and offerings and from circumcision and ceremonial rites that ceased at the death of Christ. The ten commandments did not die with Christ, and Satan uses even the crucifixion and resurrection to lead professed believers to think they did. The law cannot be abolished but endures forever as an unchangeable standard of right conduct and eternal truth, binding on all people until the end of time, not optional or subject to personal choice, and it cannot be amended or set aside by human enactment. Christ's death for the world's transgressions confirms its permanence, His sacrifice and His example of keeping His Father's commandments uphold its claims rather than setting this command aside.
It is the standard of righteousness and rule of judgment proclaimed at Sinai as a guide for life, God's righteousness and authoritative standard by which character is tested and each person's destiny decided with a sentence of life or death. Its principles will testify against the world in the judgment, and those who despised and rejected God's requirements when plainly displayed will be condemned by the law they rejected at the last judgment. Transgression of that holy law pollutes the earth, piles up iniquity, and brings the judgment wrath of a pure and holy God with definite penalty, sure punishment and fearful retribution, as the recorded history of disobedience shows that His retributive justice does not fail and requires strict regard for His commandments. For a watchman on the walls of Zion to share in prevailing polluting sins makes his crime very aggravating before God, leaves a fearful record against him in heaven, and brings fearful retribution unless he humbles his heart, sincerely repents, and lives the rest of his life in repentance.
Obedience to all God's commandments is the condition of salvation and the term of entrance into life, bringing blessing, keeping, protection, safety, a healthy spiritual experience and true greatness. God gave the commandments defining justice, mercy and necessity in dealings with one another to preserve human integrity and bring humanity into harmony with divinity. Every Thou shalt not implies a promise, and those who do His commandments are blessed with right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the city. Christ perfectly fulfilled every precept of the law in human nature to show obedience possible and to vindicate God's justice, and the law that exposes and condemns every act of wickedness and unrighteousness is covered for the repentant sinner who trusts in Christ as substitute and surety, receiving pardon and forgiveness through faith, repentance, obedience and His imputed perfection and merits, enabled to obey and restored to the tree of life.
It lays a binding divine restraint that protects human life, everlasting and inexorable as the character of God Himself, and forms the foundation of all enlightened civil law that regulates human actions and restricts wrongdoing for the good and safety of society. While it remains binding men fear to transgress, and obedience to this moral code would prevent crime and the suffering and death that accompany it, keeping the wickedness now seen in the world from ever existing. If its restraint were wholly removed, life would no longer be respected, human laws would soon be disregarded, the strongest would take what they want by violence, and the civilized world would become a horde of robbers and assassins with peace, rest and happiness banished, descending into robbery, violence and murder. Disregarding the commandments sows disobedience to reap disobedience, so that children would not shrink from taking the life of their parents to obtain the desire of their corrupt hearts, a guilt that fills up the iniquity of favored nations that make it void. The safety of society and the progress of reform depend on keeping this law clearly defined before the people and respected as a rule of action, yet the inebriate with benumbed senses finds it meaningless and cannot comprehend the language of Sinai, trying to bring the law down to a debased standard instead of elevating himself to meet the exalted standard of God's government.
As words of the living God spoken with Thus saith the Lord authority and written by His own hand, it is of divine and not human composition. Unlike the rest of the Bible where God-given truths are expressed in the words of men as a union of the divine and the human, the ten commandments including the prohibition of killing are God's living word. It has more force and value than the precepts and teachings of men, including customs, maxims and traditions handed down from generation to generation through the rabbis and enforced by scribes and Pharisees. Those human customs must not be made all-essential and greater than the commandments, for treating them as of more force and value keeps Christ's followers back from advancing in knowledge and becoming efficient workers.
It is binding on all people of every age and position, revealing God's will to be believed just as it reads and done as the Lord has directed, to be searched with earnest prayer for opened understanding to know truth about salvation. It must be obeyed from the heart in spirit and letter and in daily life, not merely professed in theory, upheld as Christ upheld it when He declared He did not come to destroy the law or the prophets. Its sacred and enduring claims are to be taught to children, held firmly without allowing differences of opinion to divide believers, vindicated by heart obedience and strong arguments, and disregarding its plain precepts is violation of God's law and flagrant sin that can discourage those who recognize them and turn others from the truth. Churches and individuals that violate it while professing Christ are in transgression, and no plea of God's cause, no neglect of light, and no claim of sanctification excuses disobedience.
Links to Other Scripture
When asked what must be kept to enter into life, the answer named this command as doing no murder, and what is written in the law was pointed to for inheriting eternal life. The ruler claimed to have kept it from youth, yet refusal to give to the poor showed failure to love neighbor as self and therefore failure to keep the last six commandments summed up in that love. Claimed keeping is false when supreme love of riches shuts the eyes to the wants of fellow men, breaking love of neighbor and with it the rest of the last six and also the first four. It was named first among duties to neighbor that must be kept, and keeping it belongs to keeping the commandments in order to enter into eternal life. The whole law is summed up in love to the Lord God with all heart and soul and strength and mind and love to neighbor as self, and doing this gives life, stating principles of righteousness to be made the rule of action which those entrusted with the sacred oracles had well-nigh lost sight of and against which Satan is gathering the whole world to act as he once refused to yield in heaven.
Killing a brother, as Cain killed his, shows evil works and hatred, the opposite of the love that marks God’s children and accords with the call to love one’s brother under the holy law given at Sinai. It forbids taking innocent life, and Herod violated it when he ordered the death of John the Baptist to keep a rash oath made while intoxicated, which did not justify disobeying God’s law. He was tested whether he would uphold it or violate it by killing John, while justice and duty required refusal and humbling himself before his guests, and clear reason would have led him and his guests to recoil from killing an innocent prophet. The same law proclaimed on Mount Sinai by Christ Himself in a clear, ringing voice later heard in the temple condemns the unfair transactions, extortion, robbery, oppression of the poor, and conversion of the outer courts into a place of unholy traffic by priests and rulers as transgression of that law.
It belongs to the great precepts of the law given at Sinai which Christ defended against human traditions. Paul continued to keep the Ten Commandments in both letter and spirit after his conversion. It is part of the Decalogue, the precepts God spoke at Sinai, among the teachings of the law Jeremiah urged the people to honor as part of their covenant relationship with God. It is included in the Ten Commandments that Joshua repeated to Israel, with blessings following obedience and curses following disregard. It belongs to the law recorded by Moses, the historian of creation and the law, standing at the beginning of the written Word which began in the time of Moses after twenty-five hundred years of human history with no written revelation, when those taught of God communicated their knowledge to others and it was handed down from father to son through successive generations, with inspired revelations embodied in an inspired book continuing during sixteen hundred years from Moses to John, the recorder of the most sublime truths of the gospel.
Application to Daily Life
Violating the laws that govern the body is sin just as breaking this commandment is, for physical laws written on every nerve, muscle and fiber are truly God's laws as divine as the precepts of the Decalogue. Every careless or willful violation through depraved appetite, lustful passion, perverted habits and intemperance is transgression bringing punishment after warning, and the light of health reform makes its sinfulness clear. Such indulgence clouds memory, enfeebles intellect and destroys powers for duty to God and men, while obedience with temperance would keep out disease, suffering and premature death that now flood the world. Needless violation is as serious in God's sight as breaking the Ten Commandments, and keeping their principles in life would keep out the curse of disease. The commandment is in harmony with the laws of health and does not conflict with them.
Its principles must govern business transactions and every line of institutional work and must not be ignored in dealings between people. It forbids dealing unjustly, oppression, fraud, secret conniving, dishonest practices, taking unfair advantage of those under one's jurisdiction, forcing individuals to one's terms, ruling or ruining, oppressing, and robbing members of God's family of their individuality and rights. No plea of God's cause or working for advancement of the cause justifies breaking it, and God's cause must not be used to excuse oppression or suffering. God accepts no transactions that break it, no prosperity will attend them, and He will vindicate not a single touch of injustice because such practices misrepresent His will and character. Those in responsible positions must act with equity and practice the commandments so human imperfections do not dishonor God or become stumbling blocks leading to ruin, with conduct shaped by love for God and neighbor rather than financial interests or ambition crowding out compassion.
It is God's law for His household on earth governing family life, and parents and children are to order habits and practices by it and God's plans without departing from His rules. It is a word of the Lord to be obeyed and taught diligently to children so they teach it to their children. Among the last six commandments defining duty to fellow men, it requires treating a spouse with kindness and respect rather than tyranny or disregard for personal rights, for unwise marriages can lead to crimes of every kind. Physicians must have the highest regard for it together with the rest of the laws given from Sinai after deliverance from Egypt, for living by it keeps them from loose manners and carelessness about chastity and makes them safe to be trusted and not take liberties with patients. Together with the other five commands specifying duty to fellow men, it forbids increasing children when reason shows physical and mental weakness must be their inheritance, which injures the neighbor by increasing degeneracy and sinking society, brings lifelong physical, mental and moral suffering on diseased children left to poverty without proper care, training, education and happiness, and does great injustice to the mother by lessening and destroying her health, social enjoyment and strength with a child in her arms year after year. God regards neighbors' rights and notices even a sparrow falling, so He cares still more for children in this closer sacred relationship and will call to account parents who put reasoning powers in the background and become slaves to passion for deficiencies generations must bear.
As supreme higher law spoken with audible voice from Sinai and engraved on stone with God's finger, now to be written in mind and heart as spirit and life with power to enforce obedience, it is the only authority God's people can acknowledge above earthly powers. They must obey God rather than men and sooner disobey all men than deviate from it, conforming to every good law of the land as lovers of the ten precepts which are the foundation of all righteous laws, but refusing any ruler's requirement that conflicts with God's law. It forbids engaging in war, for military service under officers' requirements brings continual violation of conscience and is opposed to every principle of faith.
It is included among the last six precepts governing duty to others, which are violated when professed keepers use God's time and money for needless display instead of loving neighbors as themselves. Pursuing wealth by overworking and violating the laws of health transgresses these precepts and becomes a course of sin, and property thus obtained is bought at immense sacrifice. The desire to accumulate property is not sinful unless in seeking it men forget God, transgress these precepts, and place themselves where glorifying God in body and spirit which are His is impossible. Exhausting energies unnecessarily, intemperance in labor driven by intemperance in eating and drinking and by desire for wealth, violating the laws of health and being, bringing suffering upon self and anxiety, weariness and suffering upon loved ones, and overtaxing strength so perfect service cannot be rendered to God, is transgression of this commandment. It also condemns the liquor trade as legal killing, for selling intoxicating drinks helps destroy people by impairing reason and feeding appetite that brings misery and distress, which respect for God's commandments would prevent. Belonging to trade unions disregards and makes impossible to keep the entire Decalogue, for unionism controlled by cruel power requires pledging to serve union interests under threat punishable with loss of life, deprives neighbors of freedom of action and robs poorer classes of advantages justly belonging to them, breaking love to God and neighbor that sums duty and law. These combinations binding men in bundles ready to be burned are a sign of the last days and a last effort of Satan, and obedience to God's law including this commandment is the test for the whole world. It is broken together with coveting when people do everything possible to obtain money and treat money as everything, whereas money has value and right use to send missionaries abroad and provide education to fit workers to learn languages.
It is to be printed in plain letters in a prominent place and in plain sight in every house, on cards hung where eyes will fall so hearts and minds are impressed with powerful influence for good. Means are better used to feed the poor, clothe the naked, and buy books and pamphlets to enlighten souls than spent on photographs and multitudinous idols on walls. It is to be vindicated by obedience of heart and mind and by strong arguments, for obedience to it would have kept the wickedness now seen from ever existing. Its commands are binding, solemn, changeless and eternal, holy, just, good and perfect as God's pledged word to all on earth to be read and understood above all else, to be clearly proclaimed to rulers and people who are accountable and must obey, awakening duty and bringing sinners to conviction and conversion. Obedience to the first four commandments produces obedience to it and the other last five showing duty to fellow men, and keeping it means manifesting tender pitying love toward everyone for whom Christ died. Keeping it consecrates the keeper to be a missionary and laborer together with God, with zeal and energy derived from Christ as Chief Missionary, for all who have His Spirit live this missionary life, and doing God's will thus made known rather than merely professing faith or performing mighty works is essential to entering the kingdom.