Different Life: 5th CommandmentSample

A man at our church had a brother who was murdered. His brother wasn’t involved in criminal activity. He didn’t do something stupid. He wasn’t tangled up with the wrong people. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time in the presence of someone who had no regard for his life.

This man told me one of the hardest things he had to learn was how to forgive his brother’s murderer. Years later, I would still see him choke up with grief when the subject of murder came up. Each time it confronted him with the awful loss and the spiritual decision of whether to keep on forgiving.

Like that man, I suspect most of us too have been on the receiving end of murder. Some of us literally. More us of in other ways. From the person who hates you. The person who hurt you. The person who uses you. The person who backstabs you. The person who has no regard for you. The person who torments you, or maybe your kids. It’ll make you thirst for justice. Even revenge. How will you respond? Will you forgive?

Other times, it’s reversed. We find ourselves wrestling with our own acts of killing. The soldier who struggles over lives taken in war. The police officer who shot the suspect. The person who kills their attacker. The family who pulls the plug on their loved one. The girl who aborted her baby. The father whose son killed himself, wondering if he could have done more. Or maybe just the outright acts of cruelty and contempt we’ve thrust on another. The weight can be just as heavy. How will you respond? Will you wallow in self-hatred? Will you accept God’s forgiveness?

Who are you struggling to forgive? Who has murdered you, or someone you love, in one way or another? And who have you murdered? Remember, Jesus was murdered for you. His forgiveness is yours. Trust His promise that He does. And through that redemption, learn how to love and forgive like Jesus does. Even in the face of murder.

If this plan helped you learn about the 5th Commandment, we encourage you to walk through all 10 Commandments. Subscribe to the next plan: “Different Life: 6th Commandment” or others that have come before.