Theological term
Euthanasia
3 sermons · All terms
The Sixth Commandment, Part 5
The sixth commandment, 'You shall not murder' (Deuteronomy 5:17), is grounded not in mere legal convention but in the theological reality that man bears the image of God — an image that persists from conception through old age, in sickness and health, in the handicapped and the mentally ill. Drawing on Genesis 1, 5, and 9, alongside Jesus' exposition in Matthew 5:21-22 and John's application in 1 John 3, this study traces the commandment's reach inward to unwarranted anger and character assassination, and outward to the present cultural crises of abortion, euthanasia, and the neglect of capital punishment. Because the image of God is the theological rationale for both the prohibition of murder and the mandate of capital punishment, opposition to abortion and support for the death penalty are not contradictory positions but necessary corollaries of the same conviction about the sanctity of human life.
The 6th Command, Part 2
The sixth commandment's prohibition against murder extends far beyond the physical act of killing to encompass the internal disposition of the heart — unwarranted anger, bitterness, and character assassination. Drawing from Exodus 20:13, Matthew 5:21-26, Leviticus 19:17-18, and the Westminster Larger Catechism, this study traces the biblical distinctions between murder and lawful homicide (capital punishment, just war, and self-defense), demonstrates that all human beings at every stage of life bear the image of God and therefore possess inviolable dignity, and applies the commandment's positive duty to preserve life. Hearers are called to deal faithfully with relational sin rather than harbor grudges, to resist the culture of abortion and euthanasia as violations of the image of God, and to understand the civil use, pedagogical use, and normative use of this commandment.
1 Samuel 31
The death of Saul and his sons in 1 Samuel 31 is not merely a military defeat but the judicial end of a king whose reign was marked by persistent unfaithfulness to Yahweh — a verdict the Chronicler renders explicitly in 1 Chronicles 10:13-14. The chapter is examined under three headings: the death of Saul and his sons (with particular attention to Jonathan's steadfast faithfulness), the response of the Philistines (whose pagan celebration is a direct assault on the glory of God), and the kindness of the men of Jabesh-Gilead (who honor Saul out of remembered gratitude for his deliverance of their city in 1 Samuel 11). The study closes by drawing out the relentless fulfillment of God's word across 1 Samuel and calling hearers to faithful, unrecognised service and a consuming concern for the glory of God.