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This is a bit of a toughy. A sniper shooting a member of the public is a criminal but a sniper on the field of battle isn’t…but are both of them committing sin by killing a person?
In particular, if someone commits murder in self-defence, which of the following statements is true?
- The person broke the commandment not to commit murder, therefore has committed sin.
- The fall means that some evils are actually ok within certain criteria; murder is still, strictly speaking, sin, but in self-defence it’s not that bad.
- Some sins, when committed within certain contexts, are the right thing to do and therefore are not sins; murder in self-defence is not sin.
A bit morbid for a Tuesday, don’t you think? Well on New Year’s Eve a widowed mum protected herself and her baby by shooting a man dead who had broken into her house. The story’s here and I’m confident once you’ve read it you won’t forget it.
Conclusion: I don’t know what the ‘right’ answer is to this, but I don’t think getting the answer particularly matters; the mum in the story needs Jesus for redemption whether or not this particular act is a sin or not. Thank goodness eternity won’t have any sin.
