So many philosophies in our society today involve precarious justifications for actions, especially those of murder and its lesser form of hatred. "This man killed someone, so let's kill him." Basically, an eye for an eye. And while this way of thinking is Biblical in nature, Jesus Himself overturned this thought process in Matthew 5:38-42. He says that we should forget the old teachings of an eye for an eye, and instead, if someone strikes you on the right cheek, offer them your left as well. If someone steals your jacket, give them your shirt as well.
This makes their reasoning of mutual justification the exact opposite of what Jesus said- a direct disobedience to His teachings. Not to mention that we are commanded not to kill as one of the twelve commandments directly given from God (the original ten plus the two on love from Jesus). So why then do we go around destroying God's creations? Not just through murdering people, as I am sure most of you reading this have never done so, but through other actions- such as anti-environmentalist exploits, hating someone or something, or even omnivorous diets.
God took time to mold and manufacture every living and non-living thing on this Earth, and it took Him an entire allegorical day to decide what Man and Woman would look like, and we have so little respect for Him that we destroy someone's or something's life. That right there is how much we love God? To cut down His trees and blow up His mountains and devour His creatures?
Leviticus 24 tells us that "Anyone who kills a human shall be put to death." But if someone kills someone for committing murder, then they themselves must be killed, and so on until the whole world has spiraled into extinction. There are well over six-hundred laws that Moses gives us, and so many of them involve killing someone for doing something. Moses, a leading patriarch in three of the biggest faiths on Earth, who was literally handed the ten commandments, says that we shall indeed kill. This God who tells us not to kill and to love thy neighbor would not write in His own book that we are to kill people, so we see yet again that the Bible is a contradiction to the God it worships.
On the subject of eating animals, we learn in Proverbs 12:10 that God finds righteousness in those who have care and concern for animals and that He finds it wicked of those who are cruel to them. The Bible also says that God gave us some animals for food, but only as long as they do not still have life in them- and yet most of the developed world benefits from a multi-million-dollar industry devoted to just that- murdering God's creatures for the mere pleasure of consuming them. And not just that, but most of you patronize companies that use animals in their products or in the research and development of those products. Yet God finds these actions wicked.
We also learn in Genesis that God has given us green plants for food, we are to care for and reign over the animal kingdom, and that thous shalt not kill. And all of this is not to say that you cannot worship God until you stop destroying or consuming His creations, just something to think about.
The last lesson comes from Matthew 5 during the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus turns to His flock and states, “But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgement.” He tells us that being angry in our hearts means we have already committed murder in our hearts- that the two sins are tantamount in God's eyes. So the next time you are thinking, "WWJD?", consider the fact that He would not be killing anyone, He would be loving them. The greatest commandment is love, and you cannot love someone or something while contributing to their death and destruction.
