The shorter catechism question this week is, what is forbidden in the Sixth Commandment? And the answer is, the Sixth Commandment forbideth the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbor unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto. So, one of the things you see immediately is that it is always unjust, it is always unrighteous to take away your own life. You do not have authority over your life, and you do not have your own purpose within yourself. You are made in the image of God. Your purpose is to glorify and enjoy Him, and He is the Lord and giver of life. You could only have authority to lay your life down if you had authority to take it up again. And since you cannot raise yourself from the dead, you cannot give yourself to be killed or kill yourself. Now when it says, the life of our neighbor unjustly, it reminds us that the only time that we may take the life of our neighbor is when the law of God actually requires it. So in just defense, when the taking of the life of your neighbor is required for the defense of another neighbor, especially those whom the Lord has entrusted to you, in the defense of your own life, If you are married or have children, especially, there is possible righteous situation where you know that the person will go to hell if they die, and you decline then to take their life. One of the things that we must not do is enter into the mindset of some people, especially around here, with the idea of castle doctrine and The idea that there are situations That give you the option to take someone's life if you want that is just murder in the heart Being indulged to become murder in the mind and God forbid even murder with the hand. No the only biblical condition in which you may take a life is where righteousness requires the taking of that life and And so that would also include, if you were the agent of a civil magistrate who has lawfully contemned to death one who has forfeited his life by crime, and just war, although just war is almost always war of self-defense. You have to have actual biblical mandate from God to engage in war Against a state or a nation or a people not your own the Lord does not set one nation in authority over others or give them a right to police the world that is Something that our nation has done in a wicked way, but just wars would then be wars of self-defense for ourselves for our own nation and wars of self-defense for Nations with whom we are in league the defense of a neighbor together with them and in just war of course killing is required by God in order to to properly carry out that which righteousness required for the state as a whole. But there is no situation in which God gives us permission to kill. There are only situations where his law requires us to kill, to use an illustration of that principle from a book. You can only let fly if you can do so in the name of God. You can only kill in any situation. You can only do anything, but it becomes really important in this question of just and unjust killing because there's confusion that is very near to us and very disturbing. Even people joking about the opportunity to kill because it's self-defense and that kind of murderous thing that, remember the missionary in Orange City who was joking about murdering Muslims, and I hoped I had seen the last of that in the church. So never, ever, ever indulge your mind or heart in an idea about the Sixth Commandment that views any situation as one in which you're permitted to kill. you may only kill when God's law requires it. And in every one of those situations, it's still a profoundly grave, profoundly serious. So what is forbidden in the Sixth Commandment? The Sixth Commandment forbids the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbor unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto. And then that last portion takes into account all the situations of negligence. that we are to be aware of the likely consequences under how God has enabled us to understand how creation operates, how physical health operates, etc. That we are to continuously be taking into consideration the likelihood that something we are doing might cause physical harm to others, and therefore avoiding those things that would cause physical harm to others. Again, only doing that which might cause physical harm to others when it is required by the law of God, which I can hardly come up with an example of that now. So, a very high regard for life in the positive, what the Sixth Commandment requires, is paired with a great carefulness against the taking of life. A very high regard for life in the negative. being positively against anything that would harm or take the life of another tends towards it. What is forbidden in the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment forbade the taking away of our own life or the life of our neighbor unjustly or whatsoever tendeth thereunto.