ineke.co.uk

I don’t know about you, but generally, every time I read or hear a C.S. Lewis quote I think wow that’s brilliant, and generally just have no doubt in it. However, at the moment I’m reading Mere Christianity and this morning came across this quote:

If you had committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and be hanged. It is, therefore, in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentence a man to death or a Christian soldier to kill an enemy. I always have thought so, ever since I became a Christian, and long before the war, and I still think so now that we are at peace.

A bit different, hey? He continues:

It is no good quoting “Thou shalt not kill.” There are two Greek words: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when Christ quote that commandment He uses the murder one in all three accounts. Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew. All killing is not murder any more than all sexual intercourse is adultery.

So I’ve never read anything like this before – I’d be interested in your opinions! Any thoughts?!