The Ten Commandments – Murdering and Honouring - 21st March 2007

It’s the middle of the week, and today we are looking at murder, and honouring, which are at different ends of the behavioural spectrum but equally raise points of impact in our lives.

6.You shall not commit murder

Now this seems reasonably obvious to me, and it’s not a commandment that I struggle to obey, unlike most of the others. However, a few moments thought made me realise that under this banner also comes the issues of euthanasia, cloning, frozen embryos, abortion and terrorism, most of which are daily occurrences and slip by unnoticed in today’s society.

Continuing to think about this brought me to the following point. Human nature is such that murder is regarded as a most serious crime, and yet other commandments such as stealing are considered minor and trivial offences. The human race has diluted the value of the commandments and created its own ranking order. Ask your average man in the street, and they will get murder much higher up the list than misusing God’s name. And that brings me to my point. God doesn’t have a ranking order, a list of sins that aren’t quite as bad as others, no scales of justice. God’s position is that there is sin, and not different levels of sin.

That challenges me enormously, particularly in the context of the next commandment………

5. Honour your father and mother.

Most people, including me often forget that this one exists, and if they do remember it, that it’s not that important. Wrong. As I wrote this, I reflected on it for a while and then remembered a TV advert. Most of us will recall the Oxo advert, which depicted a family of 5, Dad, Mum and 3 children all tucking into Sunday lunch with gravy – the great taste of Oxo. Seen it recently? No, because Oxo decided that after 18 years, this typical family scene was no longer typical of family life. I find this really sad, firstly because this is one of our favourite family meals and secondly it shows how much today’s society is conveniently bypassing the need for family values. Look at the increase in asbo’s, often attributed to the breakdown in family life. This links back to adultery and the consequences of it. That lead me to another thought.

People often comment that this is commandment for children. Wrong again. There is no age limit on this one, so it is applicable to me at 37 as it is to my child of 2. I have sometimes struggled in relationship with my parents, but thinking about this has reminded me that no matter how old I am, the commandment stays the same.

So, try and remember today that not honouring your father and mother is a sin, just like murdering someone is a sin, that God doesn’t have different grades of sin and inspires us to be sin free people.