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• The sixth commandment commands us not to cross over the right of another person to life.
• The commandment is complicated and has many ramifications.

• Jesus' grand expansion is "Love your neighbor as yourself."
• To be angry is to murder.
• To call another a fool is to break this commandment.

• Paul says to bless those who curse you.
• Paul says try to understand where the other person is coming from.
• Paul says do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

• This is the grand simplification by Jesus and Paul.
• This includes vengeance, which in Western law has been codified.
• This also includes a restriction of community vengeance.
• This includes no suicide, the taking of one's own life.
• Jesus brings a new strategy into play: not just "don't" but "love."

• Principle one: Individuals must not harm one another.
• Principle two: Society must show restraint.
• Illustration/quote: General Norman Schwartzkopf, general of the Desert Storm allied forces: "I would never want to serve under a general who enjoyed war."
• A police officer should hate to use his weapon.
• The built-in restraints of due process slow down the temptation to vengeance.
• Principle three: God values all people.

• We have many debates in American culture in which Christians should have a voice.
• We should weigh in in a way that we are models of hope.
• Illustration: A group of Christians in Berkeley and Seattle have started crisis pregnancy centers as a positive, loving model of alternatives to abortion.
• We need to learn how to bring a new ingredient into the cycle of hate, fear, and despair.
• Illustration (extended): From the novel, Les Miserables. The key scene comes when the bishop forgives Jean Valjean for stealing his candlesticks and then says, to him, "Never forget that you have promised to me to employ this money in becoming an honest man."