1. In how many ways it is prohibited to kill? A lot of people consider that it is quite clearly understood what the fifth commandment prohibits. You shall not murder! There is not a shorter and clearer commandment existing at all. Though we can start thinking thoroughly what the object of the sentence is. WHAT shall we not murder? Only and exclusively people or animals either? Plants either? And what about those who do not kill anything by their hands specifically but they just consume too much and by this they kill the entire Earth??? Jesus teaches us that the one who is angry with his fellow commits murder, too (Matthew 5:21-22; 1John 3:15). It is possible to kill with words (James 3; Matthew 15:18-19). Rejection of love is such a murder which kills the soul slowly on the long run. Judging other people, excommunication, ignoring, pitying and mocking look all can kill. It is not less evil to kill little by little silently than to commit a bloody deed. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

2. Whom do we kill when we are unable to forgive? Rancor and hurt are also murders because they break the love chain that connects the whole creation into the intimate love of the Holy Trinity. We kill the Lamb, the Lamb of God, Jesus Himself when we are unable to accept and forward the love avalanche that is outpoured from Jesus onto us. But with this we kill ourselves, too, because we expel ourselves from Eternal Life. In the presence of Jesus there is no room for lack of forgiveness. Inability to forgive builds such a lump in us that prevents Jesus to heal us deep down in our souls. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

3. What do we have to kill? Many people conclude the lesson from the previous section that a good Christian is gentle, placid and unable to hurt even a fly. This is a big mistake. It does exist towards what the Christian man has to be merciless and has to be a murderer. This is his own self without Jesus. "For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live." (Romans 8:13) The soul of Jesus does not tolerate co-tenancy in our hearts. Jesus waking in us expels the remaining part of our former souls that resists Him with the whip. Let’s allow it to happen! Moreover, we should not only let it happen but we should wait for it and help it to happen. That is how the Kingdom of God becomes created in us (Lucas 17:21). (For further details, please read my essay here.)

Introduction. This season’s essays are written about the Ten Commandments. With regard to the first commandment ("I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.") I wrote about the Christian identity. Interpreting the second and the third commandments ("Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Remember to keep holy the Lord's day.") I examined the concept of the real honoring of God. Regarding the fourth commandment ("Honor your father and your mother!") I was looking for the answer to what makes a dialogue determining in somebody’s life? The key idea of the answer is the openness to honor other people (e.g. our parents). Thinking over the fifth commandment ("Thou shalt not murder!") I showed that there are many ways to commit a murder in our everyday lives, and whom we kill when we are unable to forgive. I also thought it over what we must murder to become capable of accepting Jesus. Related to the sixth commandment ("Thou shalt not commit adultery!") I tried to find an answer to how we can avoid fornication and what purity means as a state of life. During the interpretation of the seventh commandment ("Thou shalt not steal!") I was looking for answers to the questions of what we can steal, what the opposite of theft is and when we do not steal from God. When thinking over the eighth commandment ("Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour!") I explored the issues of who is my neighbor, what insincerity and what real sincerity are. With regards to the ninth and the tenth commandments ("Thou shalt not covet neighbor's house! Thou shalt not covet neighbor's wife, slaves, animals, or anything else!") I was looking for answers to the questions of what we should not wish for and what is the only appropriate wish.

1. In how many ways it is prohibited to kill?

A lot of people consider that it is quite clearly understood what the fifth commandment prohibits. You shall not murder! There is not a shorter and clearer commandment existing at all. Though we can start thinking thoroughly what the object of the sentence is. WHAT shall we not murder? Only and exclusively people or animals either? Plants either? And what about those who do not kill anything by their hands specifically but they just consume too much and by this they kill the entire Earth??? Dear brothers and sisters, it is so comfortable to say that we do not murder at all, isn’t it? Oh, sure we do! We are all murderers of the Creation...

And the story is still far from being over... Because one could ask the question in how many ways is it possible to kill? Jesus teaches us that the one who is angry with his fellow commits murder, too (Matthew 5:21-22; 1John 3:15). It is possible to kill with words (James 3; Matthew 15:18-19), not only with weapons. Defamation can poison a whole community. Rejection of love is such a murder which kills the soul slowly on the long run. Judging other people, excommunication, ignoring, pitying and mocking look all can kill. It is not less evil to kill little by little silently than to commit a bloody deed. There is not a limit commanding to stop evil’s creativity but only one: Jesus Himself.

2. Whom do we kill when we are unable to forgive?

"The Commandment, 'Do not kill', is a call to love and mercy."
(Pope Francis 17th October 2018)

So we can commit a murder day and night in a thousand different ways – and we do so... Rancor and hurt are also murders because they break the love chain that connects the whole creation into the intimate love of the Holy Trinity. We kill the Lamb, the Lamb of God, Jesus Himself when we are unable to accept and forward the love avalanche that is outpoured from Jesus onto us. But with this we kill ourselves, too, because we expel ourselves from Eternal Life. Jesus can live in us only if we do not reject Him. If we refuse Jesus we hit another nail into Him (and into ourselves, too). Accepting Jesus presumes purity. However, at the same time accepting Jesus also gives us purity. In the presence of Jesus there is no room for lack of forgiveness. Inability to forgive builds such a lump in us that prevents Jesus to heal us deep down in our souls. That is why Jesus makes us utter in the prayer to our common Heavenly Father that "And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." (Matthew 6:12), and that is why Jesus adds the same again to the prayer as the only special explanation (Matthew 6:14-15). Let’s recognize that the ability to forgive is the only not obvious condition of mercy and Eternal Life.

3. What do we have to kill?

Many people may have concluded the lesson from the previous section that a good Christian is gentle, placid and unable to hurt even a fly. A good Christian forgives everything, he loves his enemies, too, he does not go against an evil man (Matthew 5:39). There is only love in a good Christian, he has been almost dissolved in love. All these thoughts are mistaken. Jesus has not set an example for us to get us indulged in a love ocean without any discrimination. Jesus did heal one of His arrester's right ear that had been cut off by Apostle Peter (Lucas 22:51), and He did pray for the people crucifying Him (Lucas 23:34). However, the very same Jesus has evicted the sellers and traders form the Father’s temple with a whip (John 2:15), and He used exactly the same word, "fools" (Μωρέ) for the Pharisees (Matthew 23:17a), about which He himself stated earlier that if someone used this word for his fellow he was worthy for the fires of Gehenna (Matthew 5.22b). It does exist towards what the Christian man has to be merciless and has to be a murderer. This is his own self without Jesus. As Jesus said: if anyone come to me and does not hate his own soul, he cannot be my disciple (Lucas 14:26). Apostle Paul wrote about this as follows: "For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live." (Romans 8:13) There is a Cain living in all of us. He is the one we have to murder at each and every day again and again. But we are unable to do so by ourselves. Only Jesus can do this in us. But I have some very good news: the soul of Jesus does not tolerate co-tenancy in our hearts. There is no such thing like "Sunday Jesus faith" that is not valid on weekdays. Jesus exists as a whole. A half-Jesus cannot be accepted. Jesus waking in us expels the remaining part of our former souls that resists Him with the whip. Let’s allow it to happen! Moreover, we should not only let it happen but we should wait for it and help it to happen. That is how the Kingdom of God becomes created in us (Lucas 17:21). Amen.