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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.
The problem I have with this is the sense in which some sins are elavated above others when actually all sin is sin. Murder and telling a lie equate to the same thing, in fact getting angry or even thinking lustfully; the root of sin is far deeper than any one action and thus looking at what it sin or not is almost counterproductive. Dividing between lawfulness and unlawfulness only aids to increase the insurmountable mountain.
The truth is that ‘the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life’ (2 corinthians 3:6).
Righteousness is a state of being, a gift that cannot be earned. Holiness is actually an aspect of divinity, which we cannot attain. The person to stand in Judgement over is ourself.
Should the woman have been passive. I say no because I think I would kill to save my son/ daughter. Should the sniper in the theatre of war shoot to kill? This unfortunately is the world we live in as a result of the fall – not just of Adam but of everyone (for all have sinned). The suffering of the innocent, the flourishing of the wicked are things to contend with until Christ returns. They are for a time and should be observed with hopefilled spectacles. It’s sad that people kill, but equally as sad that they lie to each other.
We all fit in the pot. Let’s keep in prayer for change, and for ultimate change; trying to affect as much of it as we possibly can.
A bit of a mash-up but hope it makes sense.
Den
That God can command people not to murder and then command people to kill clearly implies that there is ‘a time to kill.’ That this is a means to an end is clearly implied from Isaiah 2. No easy answers, indeed.