Written by It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone here that murder is more than a mere misdemeanor. It is a heinous crime, an appalling atrocity, a complete unregard for the image of God in man and woman, and a blatant act of defiance against God Himself. Though this is true we find that the act of taking another’s life is treated not only trivially but humorously in our culture.
For example: in 1955 Johnny Cash sang ‘I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.’ The Everly Brothers recorded a morbid number in 1958 called ‘Down in Willow Garden’ about murdering ‘dear little Rose Connoley’ and throwing her body in the river. In 1968 Tom Jones’ sang about stabbing Delilah ‘…just because he couldn’t take it anymore.’ Also in 1968 was Johnny Cash’s infamous song Cocaine Blues where he sang, ‘early one morning while makin the rounds, I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down.’ Bob Marley famously ‘shot the sheriff’ in 1974, while Guns and Roses sang ‘I used to love her, but I had to kill her…and I can still hear her complain’ in 1988, and last but not least who can forget the beloved song ‘Goodbye Earl’ from the Dixie Chicks in 1999 where a group of women killed a dirt-bag named Earl by poisoning his black-eyed-peas.
Enter the 6th commandment, Exodus 20:13, ‘You shall not murder.’ Taking all these songs, the current crime statistics, the depth of un-trust growing in people’s hearts toward each other, and all the man-centered arguments against God because of His so-called unjust violence and genocide in the OT – taking all of that together we can conclude this: nothing is more relevant today than the 6th commandment.
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