Sixth Word Part 1 - Exodus 20:13

20:13 - This sixth word is the one I find the most interesting which is “Thou shalt not kill.” The interesting part isn’t that it’s prohibited, because of course it should be, but it’s application. The God of the Old Testament was brutal in taking life in war and for disobedience, so for killing to be forbidden begs the question, how do we follow this commandment while also living in this world? I was in the army, and a big part of that is learning how to kill in combat. The Book of Mormon is full of war and battle, and the constant mention of murder. It seems like taking the life of others is such a common issue for humanity for how absolutely horrific it is as a concept.

If we consider that as spirit’s in the pre-mortal world, we waited for eons of time for our chance to come here to be born. And if this earth life truly was the most important part of our existence, then anything short of living a long, happy, healthy life full of love and laughter would be a tragedy. But this isn’t the most important part of our existence or at least, it won’t be the most significant. If it were, then the 50% infant mortality rate that has prevailed for all of human history would be unjust. I was just thinking about this earlier today, about the incredibly low life expectancy most people have expected always because of disease, war, famine, child birth, accidents, etc. All this is to say that human life has never really seemed to have that much value in this world, so this commandment to respect and treasure life indicates to me that this life isn’t the end, it’s merely a step in the eternal process.

The U.S. is incredibly lucky in terms of not every having war fought on our soils (within the last 180 years) but most other countries have and do even still, so even though the commandment “thou shalt not kill” seems like it doesn’t apply to most people, that hasn’t been the case for almost all of humans who have ever existed. The IM has a quote from the letter sent out to the world wide church during World War II that was read during General Conference. The beginning said that the church “is and must be against war.” However, and this was an interesting part, it says that “the Church membership are citizens or subjects of sovereignties over which the Church has no control… When, therefore, constitutional law, obedient to these principes, calls the manhood of the Church into the armed service of any country to which they owe allegiance, their highest civic duty requires that they meet that call.”

What was interesting about this is that this was during World War II and since we’ve had 80+ years to look back on the events during that war, I don’t think there are very many people who believe that Nazi Germany and Japan were morally correct in their positions in that war. However, the letter didn’t read “join the allies to fight against Germany and Japan,” or “join the fight for the cause that you believe is morally correct.” It said “any country to which they owe allegiance,” and cites “highest civic duty” to “meet that call.” It doesn’t talk about morally right or wrong, it talks about duty and allegiance. Given the fact that so many lives were lost that fell into that category, it all just goes to show that God values life and this world does not, but God’s got a plan to not just make it “just” but to make it all worth it.