Catechism #30

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The sixth commandment: life

The sixth commandment requires every lawful effort to preserve our own life and the lives of others, and forbids taking life unjustly or anything that leads to it. It guards the life that bears God's image, reaches down to anger and hatred in the heart, and calls us to gentleness and mercy.

A Samaritan struggles to lift a wounded man onto his mule by the roadside, while others walk away in the distance.
Vincent van Gogh, The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix), 1890 · Source

This week's questions

Which is the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.

Question 67

What is required in the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of others.

Question 68

What is forbidden in the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment forbiddeth the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbour, unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto.

Question 69

Last week the fifth commandment guarded our neighbour's place and honour; the sixth guards our neighbour's life itself. Once again the Catechism asks what is required before what is forbidden. Where its English says "kill", the BSB has "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13); Question 69's word "unjustly" draws the same line.

Life that bears God's image

In a dark cave Obadiah holds out bread and a water jar while servants follow with baskets of bread and pitchers, and the hidden prophets reach out their hands.
Caspar Luyken, Obadiah Feeds a Hundred Prophets in a Cave, 1712 · Source

Life is precious because we are made in the image of God, as a proof text of Question 69 declares:

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.

Genesis 9:6

So Question 68 asks for "all lawful endeavors" before anything is forbidden. In one of its proof texts Obadiah hid a hundred prophets in caves while Jezebel was killing them, and fed them (1 Kings 18:4); in another Paul says that no one hates his own body, "but he nourishes and cherishes it" (Ephesians 5:29). Among this commandment's duties the Larger Catechism even names the sober use of medicine, sleep and rest Larger Catechism, Q. 135. To eat, sleep and rest, and to see a doctor and take medicine when ill, is to keep this commandment.

Our neighbour's life is in our care too. The law made the man who injured another in a quarrel see that he was completely healed, and held to account the owner who did not restrain a goring ox (Exodus 21:18-32). Proverbs says, "Rescue those being led away to death" (Proverbs 24:11), and Jesus gave us the Samaritan who stopped and bound up a stranger's wounds (Luke 10:30-37). This care reaches the weakest: the unborn child, the sick and the dying. For any who carry grief or regret here, Christ's forgiveness and comfort are open.

Murder begins in the heart, and so does love

"Whatsoever tendeth thereunto" means that murder begins in the heart. Jesus said that anger against a brother and words of contempt bring judgment (Matthew 5:21-22), and John writes, "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). The Heidelberg Catechism calls envy, hatred, anger and the desire of revenge "hidden murder" Q. 106, and the English pastor Matthew Henry writes, "All rash anger is heart murder" Matthew Henry. Is it enough, then, not to kill? The Heidelberg Catechism answers:

No; for in condemning envy, hatred, and anger, God requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and kindness towards him, and, so far as we have power, to prevent his hurt; also, to do good even unto our enemies.

Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 107

Our own life is in this commandment too: the Heidelberg Catechism asks "that I harm not myself, nor willfully run into any danger" Q. 105. In Question 69's first proof text a jailer, seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword to kill himself. Paul did not rebuke him; he called out to hold him back, telling him not to harm himself, for they were all there (Acts 16:28). If you are struggling with thoughts of ending your life, there is no shame in it. Do not carry it alone: tell someone you trust today, and seek the help of a doctor and your pastor. If you are in danger now, call emergency services or a suicide crisis line. Those who have lost someone this way need comfort, not condemnation. Is depression a lack of faith? and Can someone who dies by suicide be saved? think this sorrow through.

"Unjustly" means that not every taking of life is alike. The Larger Catechism excepts public justice, lawful war and necessary defence Q. 136, and the Westminster Confession allows war "upon just and necessary occasion" WCF 23.2. This teaching of the just war, which many trace to Augustine, bishop of Hippo in North Africa, is shared by the Reformed, Lutheran and Catholic traditions. The Anabaptists' Schleitheim Confession of 1527 refused the sword to Christians art. 6, and their heirs the Mennonites, with the Quakers who arose in seventeenth-century England, still take Jesus' words, not to resist an evil person and to love one's enemies (Matthew 5:38-48), as the way for his followers, and do not bear arms. Christians have both defended and opposed the death penalty; in 2018 the Catholic Church revised its Catechism to teach that, since even the gravest crime does not take away a person's dignity, the death penalty cannot be accepted, and it seeks its end everywhere Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2267. On the way beyond hatred, see How is forgiveness possible?

To ponder this week

At dusk two farmers clasp hands across a low stone wall between their fields, their hoes leaning on the stones, with a cottage and its rising chimney smoke behind them.
Two neighbours clasping hands over the wall between their fields

Whom have I ‘killed’ in my heart this week by anger or contempt, and whose life or health can I help to preserve? If someone comes to mind, pray for them, and think of one word of peace you could offer. Look in on someone ill or worn out, and take care of your own sleep, meals and rest.

Practice

  1. Practice 1 of 6

    According to Question 68, what does the sixth commandment require?

  2. Practice 2 of 6

    In 1 Kings 18:4, a proof text of Question 68, what did Obadiah do?

  3. Practice 3 of 6

    What does the Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 106, call "hidden murder" in God's sight?

  4. Practice 4 of 6

    What were Paul's first words to the jailer who was about to take his own life?

  5. Practice 5 of 6

    Which does the Larger Catechism, Q. 136, set apart as exceptions to the taking of life it forbids?

  6. Practice 6 of 6

    Which pairing of a church with its teaching on war and violence is accurate?

Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.

Related topics

HomicideLifeAngerPeace

Source

  1. Swiss Brethren, Schleitheim Confession 1527 — The first Anabaptist confession, in seven articles: baptism for those who repent and believe (Art. 1), separation from the world, refusing the sword (Art. 6), refusing oaths (Art. 7).
  2. Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church 2267 — 1992, this paragraph rewritten in 2018: no crime, however grave, takes away a person's dignity, so the death penalty, which strikes at a life and a dignity that must never be violated, cannot be accepted; and the church strives to see it ended in every land.

Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds, the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Reformed confessions, the Fathers and classic commentary. They teach the Catechism as the Reformed churches' own, a week at a time, and present both sides where the Reformed differ, and other traditions' views, fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.