MURDER OR KILL?

        The Sixth Commandment: You shall not murder (NKJV Exodus 20:13). The original King James translation is: Thou shalt not kill. (The New King James Version does away with the archaic idioms of speech from early 1600 England; additionally the original Hebrew and Greek texts dating to the 5th century used for the original KJV have been compared to the Dead Sea scrolls to provide the most accurate translation to date.) Murder was understood at the time of the writing of the old testament as the unethical or immoral taking of a life, the punishment of which was typically killing or maiming the offender in the manner proscribed by law (for perspective, remember this was 3500 years ago when the world was much wilder, requiring hard law to be tamed).

        Living on the Spiritual Basis, we look to the deeper layers of this commandment. No one can assassinate, murder our character, peace of mind, reputation or connection to God without our assent. To be clear: the assent is in our heart, others will say and do as they will, we know, and by extension God knows the truth, for it is written on our heart, in our hand. Living on the new basis, the basis of trusting and relying on God, we stand in the light, fearless (though often trembling) of the world, for we are in, but no longer of this world, walking the road less traveled. Rejecting gossip, character assassination and condemnation of others sets us free, for we now know in our heart of hearts the truth of being: that we are all children of the Divine and all reap as they have sown, be it the whirlwind or serenity. Our job to be of service to all who earnestly seek and to pray in private for those struggling with truth, asking God to do for them what they cannot do for themselves, never answering the unasked question, but standing ready to help when asked, be it stranger, friend or even, and most importantly, someone who has demonstrated ill will.