Dirk Taljaard

Reading from Scripture

Exodus 20:13

Do not commit murder.

Taken into account the fact that life is a gift from God, it implies that it cannot readily be taken away or merely ended. This would mean trying to ‘play God’ in deciding when it should be ended.

Murder refers to unlawfully taking someone’s life and ending his or her chances of praising God. And yet, this is what we see happening all over the world on a daily basis: watch the TV, read the news papers or  walk the streets. Many of us have been exposed to some form of violence and may even have lost loved ones in the process. Life has become so cheap, worth the value of a cell phone, a laptop, a vehicle.

Maybe we’ve become so complacent about it all. It could even be that we’ve become  so egocentric, placing our own lives, our comfort and our needs above all. It seems to have become the norm: Everyone needs to take care of him- or herself and whoever comes in the way, gets eliminated. That is the moral of many a movie or TV-programme. Death doesn’t necessarily mean that someone has died: characters ‘die’ in one series and the very same face appears in another!

Jesus took it one step further. In the Sermon on the Mount He emphasised that one’s attitude towards someone else could be equally life-threatening. The question is whether your life is governed by love or hatred, whether you have others’ interest at heart or whether you regard them as a threat. Are your words constructive or destructive, do you uplift people or break them down, do you build others’ confidence or demolish their self-esteem?

In the end it warns us not to begrudge others the air that they breathe. If we really were to take the welfare of others seriously, there would be fewer incidents of maltreatment of the defenceless in our communities. Fewer incidents of emotional, physical and verbal abuse, neglect and exploitation. Fewer ‘wrecks’ will be seen uncared for. In some cases we may have been the culprits, while in others we’ve just looked on without a word.

How many people’s characters have been ‘assassinated’ and denigrated for sensation’s sake. Murder remains murder, however the mode….

Lord, help me to uphold the good reputation of others. Amen.