Theological term
Manslaughter
13 sermons · All terms
The Sixth Commandment
The sixth commandment, 'You shall not murder,' forbids not only the external act of taking innocent life but also the internal dispositions of hatred, unwarranted anger, and character assassination that flow from the same malicious heart. The sermon distinguishes murder from three lawful forms of killing — capital punishment, just war, and self-defense — grounding each in the abiding authority of Scripture from the Noahic Covenant through the New Testament. The image of God in every human being is the theological foundation for the commandment's reach across abortion, euthanasia, and the neglect of capital punishment. Hearers are called to clarity on the law's three uses, to renounce internal murder within the church, and to find in the gospel the only remedy for sinners who have violated this commandment in heart or deed.
The Death Penalty
Genesis 9:6 grounds the biblical mandate for capital punishment in the image of God: to shed human blood unlawfully is to assault God himself, and the prescribed penalty reflects the weight of that offense. This sermon works through the Noahic covenant as a common-grace ordinance never abrogated, traces the continuity of capital punishment into the New Testament through Romans 13, and then systematically answers both biblical and pragmatic objections — including the mistranslation of Exodus 20:13, the pacifist reading of Matthew 5:38–42, and the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Believers are called to submit to the whole counsel of God on this issue, even where it cuts against cultural sentiment, because consistency with Scripture requires affirming what God has commanded for the governance of civil society.
The Bible and Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is not a relic of Old Testament severity but a universal, creation-order ordinance grounded in the image of God and confirmed in the New Testament — and therefore not in tension with a pro-life ethic but demanded by it. Expositing Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13:1-4, this sermon argues that God commissioned the civil magistrate to wield the sword as His appointed agent of retributive justice precisely because human life bears divine dignity. Common objections — from the Sixth Commandment's 'thou shalt not kill,' to Christ's handling of the woman caught in adultery, to the fear that execution forecloses repentance — are examined and answered on biblical grounds. Hearers are called to embrace the full counsel of God's Word on civil ethics, to resist the moralizing of secular humanism, and to see in God's hatred of bloodshed the very reason every sinner needs the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
The Bible and Abortion
Abortion is not merely a political question but a theological one, demanding that Christians know what Scripture says about the pre-born. Working through Exodus 20:13 and Exodus 21:22–25, this sermon establishes the Sixth Commandment's prohibition of murder, grounds the sanctity of human life in the doctrine of the image of God (traced from creation through the incarnation), and demonstrates from the Mosaic case law that even accidental harm to a pre-born child carried the full force of the lex talionis — life for life. The sermon closes by addressing the church's responsibility to preach both law and gospel, to vote and live consistently with the conviction that abortion is both sin and crime, and to extend the forgiveness of Christ to those who have been party to this particular transgression.
The Sixth Commandment
The sixth commandment, 'You shall not murder' (Deuteronomy 5:17), rests upon the foundation of the imago Dei — the conviction that every human being, from the pre-born to the elderly, bears the image of the Creator, and that to assault an image-bearer is to assault God himself. The sermon distinguishes murder from lawful killing, arguing from Genesis 9, Exodus 22, and Romans 13 that capital punishment, self-defense, and just war are not violations of the commandment but are grounded in the same principle that makes murder heinous: the sanctity of human life. Modern applications — abortion, euthanasia, and the neglect of capital punishment — are examined in light of both Old and New Testament texts, and the sermon closes by directing those who have participated in these sins to the pardoning grace of Christ.
The Bible and Abortion
Exodus 21:22–25 is examined as a direct biblical address to the ethics of abortion, situating the text within the Sixth Commandment's prohibition of murder and the broader biblical witness to the sanctity of human life from conception to death. The sermon argues that the Hebrew vocabulary of the passage — the language of childbirth rather than miscarriage — establishes that God's law affords protection, including capital sanction, to pre-born image-bearers of God. The image of God in man, displayed across every stage of human life from Genesis to James, grounds the absolute moral prohibition of abortion and exposes the moral bankruptcy of societies and churches that disregard it. Hearers are called to informed prayer, faithful proclamation of the law, sexual purity, and confidence in the sufficiency of Christ's blood to forgive even this sin.
2 Samuel 13:23-39
2 Samuel 13:23–39 narrates the premeditated murder of Amnon by Absalom, the flight of Absalom to Geshur, and David's paralysis as father and king. The passage exposes how unaddressed sin compounds — David's failure to punish Amnon's rape of Tamar creates the conditions for Absalom's vigilante vengeance, fulfilling Nathan's prophetic word that the sword would not depart from David's house. Absalom's two years of nursed hatred illustrate Paul's warning in Ephesians 4 that unresolved anger gives place to the devil, and the passage ends by pointing the faithful forward to the promised Messiah, the son of David who will reign with the righteousness and justice no merely human king can sustain.
Joshua 18-21
Joshua 18–21 records the distribution of the remaining tribal allotments, the establishment of cities of refuge, the assignment of Levitical cities, and a concluding theological summary of the entire book. The seven tribes' failure to claim their inheritance is exposed as unbelief and ingratitude, while Caleb and Joshua stand as models of faith that acts upon the promises of God. The cities of refuge illumine God's justice — distinguishing murder from manslaughter, protecting the innocent, and underscoring the sanctity of human life made in God's image. The passage closes with the theological heart of the book: not one word of God's promise failed, a principle that extends through the new covenant to the final defeat of all Christ's enemies and the rest that awaits the people of God.
Deuteronomy 19
Deuteronomy 19 addresses three domains of civil and judicial justice under the Mosaic law: the cities of refuge for accidental homicide, the prohibition against moving a neighbor's landmark, and the law governing witnesses and perjury. The cities of refuge reveal that God's law is concerned equally with punishing the guilty and protecting the judicially innocent — unexecuted murder and the execution of an innocent man both bring blood guilt upon the land. The law of witnesses, culminating in the lex talionis applied to the false witness, demonstrates that God does not take perjury lightly, and that biblical judicial procedure builds in structural safeguards against abuse.
Deuteronomy 17:8-20
Deuteronomy 17:8–20 sets forth two connected institutions for Israel's civil life: a central tribunal empowered to adjudicate cases too difficult for local courts, and a set of governing principles for the monarchy Israel would eventually request. The passage establishes that both judicial authority and royal office are subordinate to the law of God, and that contempt for divinely instituted authority — whether in court or in kingship — carries grave consequence. The same pattern carries into the New Testament, where submission to governing authorities (Romans 13) and church discipline (Matthew 18; 1 Timothy 5) reflect identical principles of evidence, procedure, and obedience. The sermon's driving application is that trust placed in any human institution — monarchy, military, wealth, or political alliance — rather than in the living God is the root of covenant unfaithfulness.
Capital Punishment
Romans 13:1–4 and Genesis 9:6 together establish that capital punishment is not a relic of Mosaic theocracy but a creation-order institution grounded in the doctrine of the image of God. The sermon traces a biblical theology of capital punishment from Noah through the Mosaic economy into the New Testament, demonstrating that Paul's command to 'give place to wrath' in Romans 12 flows directly into his description of the civil magistrate as God's minister and avenger in Romans 13. Common biblical and pragmatic objections are examined and answered in turn, and the sermon closes with a call to hold together the sanctity of life, the duty of civil justice, and the proclamation of justification by faith alone in Christ.
The Sanctity of Life
The sanctity of human life is grounded not in sentiment but in the biblical doctrine that God created man in his own image — a dignity that persists after the fall and extends to every category of person, including the preborn. Exodus 21:22–25 is examined as a text that directly addresses the legal standing of the unborn: the lex talionis applied to a premature birth demonstrates that God's law protects prenatal life with the same weight it protects any other. The sermon then takes up the wickedness of murder across its biblical dimensions — divine prohibition, divine hatred, divine observation, and divine punishment, including eternal judgment — while insisting that the church's primary instrument against these evils is the preaching of the gospel and the doctrine of justification by faith alone, under which even those guilty of abortion may find forgiveness in Christ.
A Biblical View of Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is not merely a contested social policy but a divine ordinance rooted in the Noahic covenant, grounded in the doctrine of the imago Dei, and confirmed throughout the whole of Scripture into the New Testament. This sermon traces a biblical theology of capital punishment from Genesis 9 through the Mosaic law, the example of the apostle Paul before Festus, and the role of the civil magistrate in Romans 13:1–4. The argument is that nations and magistrates are in sin when they fail to execute murderers, because blood-guilt defiles the land, and that no ransom may substitute for the life of a murderer. Hearers are called to pray for civil rulers to wield the sword as God's ministers of wrath, and unbelievers are confronted with the reality that the death penalty is a foretaste of the eternal wrath that awaits the unrepentant.