6/27/2023 0 Comments Thou shalt not kill![]() Paranoia, false suspicion, harsh judgment, cynicism, and negativity, be it in word or attitude, also kill. What breaks the fifth commandment is not just the brute act of murder, or even the physical acts of bullying or abuse. We do it in the negative and suspicious judgments we make about each other: “ He thinks he’s so clever!” “She always thinks she’s better than others!” “He’s a sham, everything he does is for show!” “She’s so proud of herself, but she should be staying home and taking care of her own children!” “I know his angle, he’s a selfish person who’s using other people for his own glory!” Daily, hourly, almost every minute of our lives, we are making judgments like this and, in them, we are killing those around us, shooting them through the heart just as surely as if we were doing it with a gun. All of us break the fifth commandment in countless ways. Killing is not just a brute external act it is, in its more common form, a subtle internal thing. Henri Nouwen once said that nobody is shot with a bullet who is not first shot with a word – and nobody is shot with a word who is not first shot with a thought. Jesus, however, in the Sermon on the Mount, points out that this commandment, understood more fully, does not just forbid the external act of killing, it also forbids killing others in our thoughts and attitudes: “ You have heard it said, ‘You shall not murder …’ but I say to you that if you are even angry with a brother or sister, you are liable to judgment.“ There are different meanings to the precept thou shalt not kill. Why do I say that? Murder, after all, is a rather infrequent occurrence.
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