Exodus 20:13 You shall not kill.… We now come to the commandments which refer exclusively to our duty to man. Of these there are five. The first four we group together. They each read: "Thou shalt not injure thy fellow-man." We cannot injure God — we can only act irreverently and carelessly toward God, and so injure, not Him, but ourselves. Sin has made us natural enemies to one another — Ishmaelites, whose hands are against every man, and every man's hand against us. Man's condition by nature is not seen in man's condition in England, France, or civilized America, but in man's condition in the savage island of the Pacific, where the heavenly rays of the gospel have least penetrated. The civilizations of Christianity exhibit, not humanity, but Christianity. The civilizations of ancient Persia, Greece, and Rome (although a little revelation filtered through upon them) exhibit humanity, in its best estate, as a refined selfishness, where every man seeks (adroitly, perhaps, and not openly) to injure his neighbour. The injury which man can do to his fellowman can be divided into four kinds — injury to person, injury to society, injury to property, and injury to reputation. (H. Crosby, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thou shalt not kill. |
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