You Shall Not Murder, You Shall Do Good
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 40
Scripture Texts: Exodus 20:13; Galatians 6:9-10; I Thessalonians 5:14-15
As we have mentioned before the reason we are doing two sermons on each commandment is because each commandment is stated in Scripture as half a commandment. In each of the Ten Commandments there is commission and omission, action and restraint.
If a virtue is being upheld, then it follows the opposite vices would be excluded.
If a vice is being prohibited, then it follows the opposite virtue would be exalted.
Two weeks ago we considered you shall not murder and mentioned over a dozen ways in which we murder each other. I titled the sermon “You Shall Do No Harm.” This week we want to look at the other side of the coin under the title, “You Shall Do Good.”
It is not enough just to do no harm, we must also do good. The opposite of everything forbidden is also positively commanded.
This commandment proclaims the preciousness of life, the supreme value of life. It affirms and protects the imago Dei, the image of God in all human beings, we are all endowed by God with an eternal soul. We must hold each other as sacred.