Ten. Commandment 6.

TEN

You shall not kill.

You shall neither have the heart of a killer.

The cycles of attacks, counter attacks, preemptive attacks, revenge and all out war are obviously systemic, but are birthed in the individual. This is where we focus on ourselves, within our own groups, rather than idly chatting and trying to fix the world without dealing with our own.

Use the texts below to discuss God's kingdom and the way of Christ where anger and murder are concerned (Both literally, and as Jesus deals with it as an issue in the heart before a corpse is produced.) If the conversation slides into politics or is divisive, you will know that it has no longer become a Kingdom of God discussion, but one rooted in the kingdom of men.

Thaw

• Who is someone you know that never gets angry? Do you find them to be involved in life, or detached?
• What is something that makes you angry? Why does your anger make sense to you and what good does it accomplish? 
• Respond as a group to these two quotes:

"Everything you can do with anger you can do better without it."

“When Jesus says turn the other cheek, that does not dictate that you abandon your responsibility to make a judgment in that moment. In most occasions, in your pursuit of Jesus, you will turn the other cheek. But there will be occasions when you don’t. And when you don’t, the reason will be that love obliges you to do something different.” 

-Dallas Willard

Read

• Matt. 5:21-22
• Rom. 12:17-21
• Eph. 4:26 
• Eph. 4:31-32
• Ecclesiastes 7:9 
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• The first Issue Jesus spoke of in the sermon on the mount was anger. What are the implications of that  for a man trying to unite people in freedom and peace?
• Respond as a group to this, from Discovery.com :

During a tour around London’s Science Museum, Hawking responded to a question from 24-year-old teacher Adaeze Uyanwah from Palmdale, Calif. Uyanwah won an international contest to be his guest of honor.

During the tour, Uyanwah asked that if Hawking could change one shortcoming humanity has, what would it be?

“The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression,” said Hawking. “It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he focused on nuclear war being the trigger that “would be the end of civilization, and maybe the end of the human race.”

In an effort to counter human aggression, the 73-year-old said the quality he’d like to magnify is empathy, as “it brings us together in a peaceful, loving state.”

• Jonathan left a few thoughts at the end of the message pertaining to how an aggressive heart can grow. Discuss them and find ways to implement.

• The answer to contempt is love
• Learn to practice forgiveness 

Apply

How can this group help you to pause, reflect and see people better in order to reduce anger, aggression and the heart of one who seeks to hurt rather than bless?