Life & Death: Motive, Means, & Opportunity

You shall not murder. – Ex 20:13

If you ever have the power and the desire to take someone’s life unjustly, do not do it.

There are various pieces of this we could talk about. 

For instance, the word “unjustly.” If you ever have the power and the desire to take someone’s life unjustly… As you see in the text itself – if you’re using the ESV anyway – the verse does not say, “you shall not kill,” rather “you shall not murder.” That’s a wise choice on the part of the translators.  You have various texts in the New Testament that do warrant certain kinds of killing. Just War. Capital Punishment. Self Defense.

But I want to talk about the first part – “If you ever have the power and the desire…”

This is an important aspect of the conversation. It isn’t like everyone has the ability to kill someone. Especially not back then. The detective shows talk about motive, means, and opportunity. The means of murder isn’t evenly distributed across all people everywhere. Not everybody has the physical strength, etc…

And that’s interesting insofar as we’re thinking about motives. Because there are plenty of temptations that never even occur to us if we don’t have the opportunity. There are plenty of sins we feel rarely drawn to because they’re not really legitimate possibilities. 

The means and the opportunity to murder someone is really an interesting issue. 

So please trust me for a moment. You might think this is a strange line of thought. But I believe it warrants some discussion. 

Some people have more opportunity to murder than others. Historically, that would’ve come down to size and strength advantage. 

But also technological advantage. Technology winds up being a key part of this conversation. Because there you get force multipliers. Take a 265lb UFC fighter and a 100lb woman with a shotgun. Who you picking? Take away the shotgun and the answer is easy. 

Technology winds up being a really key idea. This is what’s really going on with abortion. Which is by far the most common kind of murder that takes place in the United States. A group of people, “expecting mothers” have been given an opportunity they did not widely have before. To murder their own unborn children. Abortion technology is a force multiplier. A group of people who did not have the means now do. 

And remember the connection between means and temptation. Because what’s happening now is especially concerning on this front. 

Abortion has been a possibility for some time. There were certain poisons you could take for instance. But these had a real possibility of doing the mother harm. So many women were not tempted by that route because after all, the only reason they want the abortion is because they’re narcissistic or fearful or both. 

Not to mention it has often been illegal. 

But over time, it has become legal and even worse – somewhat safe. Now here’s the thing… its only getting easier and safer. 

The latest abortion pills are force multipliers – giving people an opportunity to murder who never had it before. A temptation has come along with it. 

Because God Said So


So that’s the introduction to the topic. And now I’ll show you all my cards. This is going to be mostly a sermon about loving God’s word. How can I turn Exodus 20:13 (Thou Shall Not Murder) into a sermon about God’s word?

Because under certain conditions, all that will keep you from doing a terrible thing, is simply the fact that God told you not to. 

In a lot of situations, motive doesn’t exist. Means doesn’t exist. Opportunity doesn’t exist. In other situations, one of the three does exist but not the other two. But there are moments when all three are present – and then what? All you’ll have is God’s word. 

That’s the situation we find ourselves in regarding abortion. 

Not many women would ever be tempted to take a poison that could also kill them. 


Some but not many women would ever be tempted to get a back-alley abortion that could give them sepsis, etc…


Many women, but not the majority, would ever be tempted to drive to a Planned Parenthood and have a procedure.


But what about a couple of pills shipped to your home that you can wash down with a nice Rose while sitting on your white couch underneath your live laugh love sign?


In a lot of situations, there would be no other reason to not take those pills – other than “because God said no.”

So we’re not really talking about murder today per se. We’re not really talking about abortion. We’re really getting at the following:

Under certain conditions, the only thing standing between you and a disastrous decision are words written in an ancient book. There are plenty of moments when literally all the other reasons not to do the thing disappear. 

SUICIDE

Let me give you another example. As I started to think about this motive, means, and opportunity dynamic, I began to think about the role technology has played and continues to play in creating force multipliers that allowed people who previously had no opportunity to murder – the opportunity to murder. 

And I began to ask myself, are there any kinds of murderings, that pretty much everybody has pretty much all the time. And of course there is one. Taking your own life. 

Most people have power over their own lives. If you use crime data as your guide, you will see that there are twice as many suicides last year than murders. Now before I go any further, I promise you two things:

I won’t be talking about this for very long at all
I will be very very careful. 

Beside abortion, suicide, (or as they called it in the deep past, ““Felo De Se” which is translated “Felonizing Himself”) is the most common form of murder in America (so there’s a good statistical reason to briefly discuss it).

And there’s a few philosophical/logical reasons to think about it. It is the one form of murder that almost everybody has the opportunity to commit. 

And it allows us to explore this very real territory of “sometimes the only reason not to do something is because God said not to.” Let me explain…

We all know the various reasons given to those who are considering taking their own lives. 

You have so much to live for. 
People love you and depend on you. 

These are front-line, common grace reasons for people not to commit self-murder. And they’re all subjective. And may not be true. And they may not be true to an extent sufficient to ward off the darkness. 

There are plenty of people who can get into such a dark place that they have only one reason that isn’t subjective, doesn’t move around on them in their squishy minds, that simply is what it is – Thou Shall Not Murder.

And again, I want you to see that this is true in all kinds of ways in your life. 

In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, God calls out to his people:

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

In Deuteronomy 32:46

“Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life…”

All we’re seeing here is a very literal visceral example of this. The word of God is life. It really is, in some very fundamental way, the only thing standing between you and darkness. 

I know all of this is morbid. But friends, sin is morbid!

Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. 

Violating the 6th commandment leads to death. So does violating the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th.

Perhaps one of the most unique things about murder is that for that crime, motive, means, and opportunity rarely all line up at the same time. For basically every other sin on the tablets, the opposite is true.

You will frequently have the motive means and opportunity to violate the first commandment — to serve God only — and when you violate it — a kind of spiritual death takes place.

You will frequently have the motive means and opportunity to violate the sabbath commandment — and death will ensue there.

The motive means and opportunity to violate the command to honor your father and mother is always knocking on your door — violate it and get the inversion of the promise — you won’t live long in the land
Violate the commandment against lying and you’ll see the death of your word.

Violate the commandment against adultery and see the death of your spouse’s trust.

Violate the commandment against covetousness and you’ll see the death of your joy!

Its all death all the time. And very often — the only thing standing between us and this buffet of decay is the word of God.

How much death is in your life… really?

The answer is simple — how true is the following for you?

“Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from God.”

The more you walk in your own wisdom — the more death.
The more you walk according to the word — the more life.

Walking in your own wisdom is sin — and “the wages of sin is death”

BUT — Romans 6:23 continues…

The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.