Fridays with the Heidelberg

Lord’s Day 40

105. Q. WHAT IS GOD’S WILL FOR YOU IN THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT?

     A. I am not to belittle, insult, hate, or kill my neighbor-not by my thoughts, my words, my look or gesture, and certainly not by actual deeds-and I am not to be party to this in others; rather, I am to put away all desire for revenge.  I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself either. Prevention of murder is also why government is armed with the sword.

106. Q. DOES THIS COMMANDMENT REFER ONLY TO KILLING?

     A. By forbidding murder God teaches us that He hates the root of murder: envy, anger, vindictiveness. In God’s sight all such are murder.

107. Q. IS IT ENOUGH THEN THAT WE DO NOT KILL OUR NEIGHBOR IN ANY SUCH WAY?

     A. No. By condemning envy, hatred, and anger God tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to be patient, peace-loving, gentle, merciful, and friendly to them, to protect them from harm as much as we can, and to do good even to our enemies.

Moral lessons disconnected from the character of God are dangerous.  That is why we must be so careful to never allow commands, rules and instructions to be taught independently of God’s character.  The order of the 10 commandments helps us in this regard.  The 6^th commandment tells us so simply, “You shall not murder.”  Why?  We are not to murder because the One True God, who alone is to receive our worship, commands such obedience.

My guess is that it is unlikely that anyone who reads this blogpost has ever murdered anyone.   Yet, as we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, we know we are all guilty of violating the 6^th commandment because of our struggle with anger (Matt. 5:21-22).

The HC in my opinion very helpfully explains what obedience to the 6^th commandment means for the believer in questions 105 and 106.  But I appreciate so much what is said in 107.  The answer points to a principle that we find throughout Scripture:  put-off/put-on.  It is not enough that we stop doing certain things.  That is only half of what we are instructed to do.  In putting off the old, we put on the new (see Eph. 4 and Col. 3).   In applying the 6^th commandment, we are reminded not only to put off anger, but also to put on love.  “To be patient, peace-loving, gentle, merciful, and friendly to them, to protect them from harm as much as we can, and to do good even to our enemies.”