As a public service to the religious life of this community and the faith of its people, we take pleasure in presenting a television feature of the Back to God Hour with the Reverend Peter Eldersveld in the ministry of the Word of God.
And God spake all these words, saying, Thou shalt not kill.
The cost of living is going up.
The cost of life is going down.
In fact, life has become very cheap.
We spend millions of dollars on scientific research to preserve life, to extend it, to enrich it, and devoted men and women are working day and night toward that end.
But meanwhile, we are perversely abusing this great gift in every way.
The National Safety Council tells us that 96 ,000 people were killed and 9 ,600 ,000 were injured in accidents in one year, most of which were due to carelessness and recklessness.
Motor vehicles killed over 38 ,000 people that year.
That's four every hour.
We spent eight billion seven hundred million dollars to pay for those accidents.
That's an average of two hundred dollars per family.
A strange paradox indeed that it should cost us so much to make life so cheap.
And then think of how many people have been killed in our wars.
During the first half of this 20th century, 140 million.
World War II alone cost us 22 million dead and 35 million wounded.
And those figures are still mounting due to the starvation and disease and poverty in the aftermath.
And furthermore, consider the over 50 % of the people in this world do not have enough food to sustain life properly.
They simply go to bed hungry every night.
And that's not because we don't have enough for all, but rather because what we have is not fairly distributed.
And meanwhile, we are spending millions of dollars on the machines of destruction, which can only bring us more poverty and hunger.
And then suppose you add to all of that the dreadful loss and waste of life through debauchery and dissipation and all forms of immorality.
Think of the human wrecks, not only in our skittles and slums, but in the upper brackets of society where that kind of living can be covered up with a cloak of respectability.
And don't forget to include those who make a profitable business out of providing the inducements for these victims of vice.
And then of course, there is outright murder itself, one every 40 minutes in this country according to a recent report.
And there are kindred crimes against the life of man, such as kidnapping and rape and assault.
Our leaders are beginning to express grave concern about the increase of these crimes.
Editors are writing about it, and criminologists are worried about it.
They're telling us that the criminal rate now is one major crime every 22 seconds.
Yes, life is cheap.
Thou shalt not kill, says God, but we have found a wide variety of ways to break that commandment, many more besides those I have mentioned.
And what's worse is that we have become accustomed to this horrible waste of life.
We are beginning to take it for granted.
But perhaps you do not feel guilty.
You have never committed any these crimes, and you don't feel responsible directly or indirectly for our wars.
Well, then suppose you listen to these few words from the New Testament.
You'll find them in the First Epistle of John chapter 3 and verse 15, where we read, whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.
You see, in the sight of God, we're all in this thing together.
Hatred is the root of murder.
It may not have made you a criminal, but it has made you a sinner.
Which one of us would ever dare to say that he has no hatred in his heart and has never had any hatred in his heart for someone else? The God who is love says that every one of us is a murderer at heart.
That's a terrible thing to say, isn't it? But it's true.
Maybe the sins we have been talking about and mentioning by name are really only signs of what's wrong with all of us.
Have you ever watched a potter at work with his clay? It's a very delicate art, isn't it? You marvel at his genius.
You wonder how he does it.
He takes just a lump of common clay and fashions it into a lovely statue.
But now suppose that he could make it live and move and talk.
Suppose the statue would come alive.
Well, that's what God did when he made us.
Just common clay became a man's well -formed body and into it God breathed his own breath, his own spirit, and man became a living soul, the Bible says.
He made the statue live.
It can talk and walk and think and understand.
It can study the stars and till the soil and harness the powers of nature.
It can build skyscrapers and write books and split atoms.
And it can even know God.
All the ingredients of a man's body taken together would bring less than a dollar on the pre -inflated market.
But with God's great gift of life, man walks with dignity and dominion in the image of his maker.
You know, when you go to the great art galleries in this world, where they display the treasures of painting and sculpture, you may study them and examine them and admire them and absorb their matchless beauty, but you may not mutilate them.
In some instances, you even have to look at them through panes of glass.
You may not touch them.
The world has nothing but contempt for people who trample the treasures of art.
Soldiers, for example, in times of war who damage and destroy them and enemies that bomb them deliberately.
Well, what do you think God says about people who damage and destroy the creature of his highest genius, the statue that became the temple of a living soul of the spirit of God? Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not hate.
Life may be cheap to us, but not to God.
And remember, it is the artist himself with whom we will have to reckon if we ruin his art.
Life is a gift of God, a precious gift.
Be careful what you do with it.
But you ask, how is it possible for people like us with hate in our hearts to obey this commandment? How can we appreciate the true value of life and handle it with care? The treasures of art never mean very much to people who have no feeling for them.
And we have certainly proved, you say, by the way we abuse this treasure that we don't really understand how much it is worth.
Well, there's one place in this world where you must go if you want to see how precious life really is.
You won't find that here on Mount Sinai.
This commandment only tells you how much life was worth when God made it and how we have cheapened it.
But if you want to see its true value, you'll have to go to Mount Calvary where God paid the price to redeem it.
The price of the precious blood of his dear son.
For God so loved the world that it cost him, his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
There is no other hope, no other real hope, for hateful hearts like ours, whether or not we actually commit murder.
The greatest life that was ever lived was sacrificed on a cross to save the lives of those who deserve death.
In exchange for our hatred, we may have God's love.
For people like us who shed human blood and soak the earth with it, the blood of Christ was shed.
For all those who confess on Mount Sinai, there is pardon on Mount Calvary.
And isn't it significant that the first believer on Mount Calvary, 1900 years ago, the only man who made a public profession of his faith in that most momentous hour of the world's history, was a murderer on the cross next to Jesus.
His hatred became love when he saw the love of God displayed there.
And he cried, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
The life of the Son of God was given for a man who had taken the life of another, and the God who had said once, thou shalt not kill, then said from that cross to a killer, verily, verily, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
That should be good news to people like us with hate in our hearts.
If human life means that much to God, if it is so precious in his sight, if he would go so far to save it, then no matter how much we have abused it, he can redeem it with his love.
If a killer on a cross could be saved by the Christ of the cross, then there is hope even in murderer's row, and for all the rest of us who but for the grace of God would be thereto.
It is as though God says to you and to me, here, give me your life such as it is, and I'll give you mine.
Give me your sin and I'll give you my Son.
Give me your hate and I'll give you my love.
What more could you ask? Life everlasting in exchange for the life that is lost.
You may have a printed copy of today's message as well as the others in this series.
If you will send your request to the Back to God Hour, Box 773, Chicago, Illinois, and if you would like extra copies for distribution to others, we will be happy to send them to you.
Join us again next week, same time and station, for another program of the Back to God Hour with the Reverend Peter Eldersveld in the Ministry of the Word of God, presented as a public service to the religious life of this community and the faith of its people.
