Human life is valued because it is God’s gift and secondly because man bears God’s image (Genesis 1:27; 9:6). Human life is thus the most precious and sacred thing in the world, and to end it, or direct it’s ending, is God’s prerogative alone. We honour God by respecting his image in each other, which means consistently preserving life and furthering each other’s welfare in all possible ways. There are several things, not always called murder, which the commandment rules out. First is malice, the desire to diminish someone or, as we say, to “see them dead.” Jesus underlined this. “Anyone who nurses anger against his brother must be brought to judgment … if he sneers at him he will have to answer for it in the fires of hell” (Matthew 5:22,). Hate in the heart can be as much murder as violence against the person.
Posted by Brendon Naicker 