“The Sanctity of Life” - Exodus 20:13 (Larry Malament)

Sermon Quotes:

Malcom Potts – medical professor: “We can no longer base our ethics on the idea that human beings are a special form of creation made in the image of God, singled out from all other animals and alone possessing an immortal soul. Once this religious mumbo-jumbo has been stripped away, we may continue to see normal members of our species as possessing greater capacities of rationality, self-consciousness, communication, etc. than members of other species, but we will not regard as sacrosanct the life of each and every member of our species.”

Dr. Peter Singer – Princeton University professor of bioethics: – “Those who are cognitively impaired, whether as a result of a congenital condition, a degenerative disease, or as a result of accident or injury, ought not to be regarded as intrinsically equally valuable human beings along with the rest of society.”

Westminster Catechism: “What are the duties required in the sixth commandment?”

“The duties required in the sixth commandment are all careful studies and lawful endeavors to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any; by just defense thereof against violence, patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit; a sober use of meat, drink, and medicine, sleep, labor, and recreations; by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness; peaceable, mild and courteous speech and behavior; forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil; comforting and succoring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent.” 

Westminster Catechism: "What are the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment?”

“The sins forbidden in the sixth commandment are, all taking away the life of ourselves or of others, except cases of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defense; the neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means of preserving of life; sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge; all excessive passions, distractive cares; immoderate use of meat, drink, labor, and recreations; provoking words, oppression, quarreling, striking, wounding, and:  whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any.”

Sinclair Ferguson: “For Jesus, to kill with a knife, or to engage in character assassination through anger, or to belittle another by calling him a 'fool' is part and parcel of the same spiritual sickness. Clearly, he does not mean that it makes no difference whether we gossip or stab, but he does mean that both activities reveal the same animosity of heart to our neighbors…it is not only in the sordid muckracking of come elements of the media that such public assassination takes place. It is not unknown among professing Christians. In the spirit of the Pharisees, they wrongly assume that they can retain clean hands by ruining someone’s reputation with a word, under the cover of ‘getting at the truth'."

Sinclair Ferguson: “We treat the damage we do with our lips very lightly because we do not see the corpses we leave behind."

D.A. Carson: “These verses make one great point. The Old Testament law forbidding murder must not be thought adequately satisfied when no blood has been shed. Rather, the law points toward a more fundamental problem, man’s vilifying anger. Jesus by his own authority insists that the judgment thought to be reserved for the actual murderer in reality hangs over the wrathful, the spiteful, the contemptuous. What man then stands uncondemned?"

James 3:7-12 – “For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.  It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the image of God.”