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Show I JESUS AND THE SACREDNESS OF HUMAN LIFE Internalion Sunday School Lesson ' GOLDEN TEXT: "But I say unto you, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment." Matthew 5:22. Lesson Text: Exodus 20:13; Matthew 5:21-24; 10:29-31; 18:10-14 While the sixth commandment, Exodus 20:13, reads, "Thou shalt not kill," the Hebrew word translated trans-lated kill is not the usual word for that verb, and the English Revised Version translates the sentence, "Thou shalt do no murder." mur-der." Of course, any intelligent person per-son knows that in our courts of justice, one who kills another in order to save, his own life, or the lives of others, or who kills another an-other accidentally, is charged with man-slaughter, not with murder. One who commits murder is ! actuated by personal motive or uncontrolled passion. The soldier sold-ier in battle is not actuated by any personal feeling against the one whom he kills. He is fighting fight-ing for his country and for the lives of others and,-. therefore, does not violate this commandment. command-ment. Of this, Dr. G. Campbell Morgan Mor-gan once declared, "Killing is unwitting and unintentional taking tak-ing of life; murder consists in the intentional taking of human life on the lone responsibility of human will. However, let it be clearly noticed in passing that killing unwittingly was not looked look-ed upon as a light offense. The man who took life in this way was denied his liberty for an indefinite in-definite term." In speaking of this command-. command-. ment, Jesus said, "Ye have heard I that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill;' and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment (the lower low-er Jewish court, found in every village), but I say unto you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the i judgment." He warns. against un-. un-. justified anger or animosity, thus forbidding the angry thoughts ' which often lead to- the angry word and sometimes to the angry . deed of murder. Jesus warns against contempt and hatred which, while they do not destroy the body of man, oftentimes of-tentimes destroy his will to live his ambition to better his condition con-dition or make progress in his field of endeavor. Walter .Rauschenbush says, "Jesus pushed up the whole schedule of crime and made it an offense justifiable in the High Court even to call your brother a worthless fool. To break down a man's sense of his own worth chokes the good in him just as surely as faith in the higher possibilities pos-sibilities awakens the soul in a lost man to a new birth." If ever a . people , had. a. cause for hatred of another, we think the Chinese people, who have suffered so long and so terribly at the hands of the Japanese, surely have sufficient cause for hating their enemy. And yet, Joy Homer bears witness to the fact 'hat "in all the flood of Chinese propaganda, there is no mention of the word 'hate,' I have yet to hear a phrase spoken or seen a phrase written against the Japanese people as a nation . . . "Comparatively few Chinese are Christians but all of them are realists. War has never he!d any romance for them. They will suffer and die gladly for any number of causes, but they find few causes worth killing for. They happen to know, simply by using their heads, that because a nation sends an invading army into their land, that nation is not therefore a land of bad enemies. en-emies. Its people are not responsible respon-sible for this madness.-They are to be pitied. I have often heard Chinese Christians pray for Japan, Ja-pan, not as one prays for a wayward way-ward sinner, but as one might pray for a friend in trouble." Human life was held cheap by the world into which Jesus came. The condition of the slaves, of women and children, were almost al-most unspeakable. With the coming com-ing of Jesus and His teachings things began to be different! The good news which Jesus brought in'o the world gave to all men the sense of a new dignity dig-nity and a new worth, for Jesus taught the Fatherhood of God. and consequently, the universal brotherhood of man. Jesus, in His teachings, showed show-ed that, in order to keep man from killing his brother man, the feelings which engender strife must be romnvpd frnm hie Virnrt Therefore, instead of hatred, malice, jealousy, revenge, unfor-liveness unfor-liveness and like feelings, which ooner or later break out into violence, men should be taught 'o fill their hearts with love so that there wduld be no room for such sinful feelings. If Christians generally, in all of their dealings with their fel-lowmen, fel-lowmen, would practice the teaching of the Golden Rule, as given by Jesus: "Inasmuch as ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also unto them," not only would their individual lives be happier but their community would also be a better place in which to live. |