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From the beginning, God made it very clear the bodies He had created were precious to Him. After He created the first human bodies, He pronounced them very good.
Paul said our bodies are Temples of God’s Holy Spirit. He notes we are not our own. The bodies He created belong to Him.
So anyone who comes against any one’s body is going against God’s Temple. And He will hold them responsible for what they do to it.
From the very beginning, God said,
And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man.
From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His Own Image.
Genesis 9:5-6
This was not God saying if one person took the life of another, it was ok to kill that person. God was simply warning that one blood shedding would lead to more, not by His Choice, but by the sins of people.
God felt so strongly about violence against the body, He included in The Ten Commandments, “You shall not kill.” Some have tried to water that commandment down into “you shall not murder.”
Then they try to explain how it is ok to kill another person if we did it for a “good” reason and we do not call it outright murder. However, the original commandment made it clear God meant “do not kill.”
Jesus repeated the commandment and took it a step further. He said if you are even angry with someone else, you are setting yourself up to act on your anger in a bad way.
What about war? Much killing has been done in the name of Holy causes. Is any war really holy? No.
Did Jesus approve war? No. He observed there would be wars and rumors of war, but He did approve them. He simply said they would happen.
Should we get rid of evil people? What about those who have killed our people? Isn’t that a justification to fight back?
What did God say?
The Lord God says, “I don’t want evil people to die. I want them to change their lives so that they can live.”
Ezekiel 18:23
Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Matthew 5:44
David was known as a man after God’s own heart. He was deeply humanly flawed, but he loved God and each time he failed, he still trusted God.
David was known as a great warrior. The people honored him for the many he killed or had killed. God did not approve.
David wanted to honor God by building a Temple for Him. God stopped him.
God told him,
“You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.”
1 Chronicles 28:3
God was not going to let someone who was honored for destroying The Temples He had created turn around and make a show of building an earthly Temple to try to honor Him.
The original commandment of do not kill says it all.
What about other forms of killing? What about abortion?
In the same way some try to rebrand the name of killing to “just” murdering, some have tried to redefine when life begins. The thought is if you do not recognize it as a life, it is ok to kill it.
But, in fact, the life in utero was a life even before God put the wrapping of a body on it.
David said,
“Your Eyes saw my unformed body.”
Psalm 139:16
God said through the prophet, Jeremiah,
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”
Jeremiah 1:5
What happens outside a woman’s body may or may not be holy, but what happens inside is completely God’s Territory. Sperm would not meet egg unless God intended to create a Life. And that Life belongs to Him.
What about capital punishment? Remember again, God said He did not want evil people to die. He wanted them to change their ways.
Not only is capital punishment an attack on God’s Body, it is a solid vote against the practice of Mercy and Grace. And no one is beyond God’s Reach of Mercy and Grace.
What about euthanasia? Is there such a thing as mercy killing? No. We have every call to provide comfort to the suffering, but we do not have the right to try to terminate their life.
Summary. All life is created by God. All Life is precious to Him. He has a designated time table for each person’s life. They will arrive and depart at the time He designates, even if it appears someone took their life.
It would have appeared that someone took the life of Jesus and also Stephen, but we see in both accounts, no person could take their life. They were taken to Heaven by God Himself.
God will be in charge at the moment of a person’s death, as He has been all their lives. But what God said from the beginning will be true for anyone who tried to take a life that was only God’s to take.
He will require a reckoning from the one who tried to take what was created by God in His Image.
Ultimately it comes down to what God said through the prophet, Hosea and again through Jesus.
I desire Mercy!
Hosea 6:6
Matthew 9:13
