Honor Killing – Oct. 19, 2008

In the news this past week has been a story about “Honor Killing”. Two young girls were murdered by their father because they had adopted too many western customs, were wearing western clothing, and were dating non-muslim boys. According to the UN, more than 5000 of these murders occur each year in the middle-east and virtually none of them are prosecuted..
The father had previously made threats to his daughters – but people didn’t take it seriously – after all, who would do something like this?

Most people will be quick to condemn this man and his terrible actions. What he did was evil, criminal, and wrong! We wonder how could this happen. We wonder what kind of thinking could be going on to do something like this. And we wonder how this kind of thing can be stopped.

Jesus once told the people, “The devil comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10. Earlier, he told the folks that the devil was a murderer from the beginning and that when he lies, he speaks his native language.

Honor killing comes first in the heart and in the mind before it comes in the flesh. It comes when you believe a lie. A part of this lie is that “it’s all about you”, This father murdered his daughters because he believed that they had tarnished his “honor”. Another part of the lie is that the law is for other people – not you. And it comes in the heart when you give in to hate.

Jesus said that he that hates his brother or sister is a murderer also because they have committed murder in their heart.

Could this happen to you? We all want to say NO! – but that’s not what either the Bible or experience tells us. The Bible tells us that we can be deceived and that we can hate. It can happen – even to you. And it doesn’t take long to see in the news examples of “good” people who commit murder – often for the most trivial of reasons.

The moment we start believing that life is all about ourselves, we start going down that path. Every slight, every inconvenience soon becomes a personal matter that we must deal with. Then law and the Gospel is ignored because, after all, it is for other people.

Jesus came to save us, not only from hell but also from the self-centered life that leads to honor killing. And the moment you reject this message, the moment you decide that it’s ok for children and other weak people but that you don’t need it, is the moment you begin walking the path which leads to terrible acts like what we read in the news and the more terrible fate of judgment after death.

God Bless You – Pastor John