This past week my heart has been heavy. Like many of you, I’ve been wrestling with the tragic news of Charlie Kirk’s murder. One of the things that grieves me most is that this act of violence happened in a nation that claims to value free speech, yet someone felt justified in taking another person’s life simply because they didn’t like the words he spoke.
But it’s not just this one story. In the same week: there was a young girl in Ukraine whose life was also violently and unnecessarily cut short; there was a school shooting in Colorado; and there are countless others whose names we may never hear because their deaths didn’t make national headlines. Every single one of those people were valued by God: and not one of them matters more to the heart of God than another. One death is not more tragic than another. Whether known or unknown, every person bears the image of God and every loss breaks His heart.
The Sunday before these tragedies, I preached on the sixth commandment in Exodus 20:13: “You shall not murder.” And, as I shared that day, the heart of this command goes far deeper than the act of murder. In Matthew 5, Jesus teaches that murder isn’t just about our physical actions—it’s also about our hearts. “Anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” (Matthew 5:22) Anger, hatred, and bitterness are the seeds of murder. And if we’re honest, every one of us has found ourselves with a handful of those seeds at one time or another in our lives.
This is why Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:44 are so radical, when He says: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” This means we are called to love people who think differently than us, vote differently than us, and even those who may actively oppose us. This hostility we see in our nation is not the way of Jesus. He didn’t call us to win arguments and try to prove others wrong—He called us to simply love people.
Jesus demonstrated this for us time and time again. As He hung on the cross, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He loved the thief dying next to Him. He loved the soldiers driving the nails into His hands. And He loves every single person in this world, including those we struggle to love.
The sixth commandment reminds us to value life. But valuing life means more than avoiding violence—it means refusing hatred, it means laying down bitterness, and it means choosing to love even when it’s hard.
How are we doing with this command, especially in light of this past week and a half? Is there someone we’ve been harboring anger towards? Is there someone we view as an enemy? Jesus invites us to let go of that anger, to seek to forgive, and to learn to love—because every life matters to Him.
My prayer is that we can learn to be people who reflect the heart of Jesus—the one who came to give life not destroy it. May we help point others to Him through His life-changing love!
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