This is my attitude and the theme of this passage. (It is found in page 5 of my NKJV Bible, page 6 of my NASB Bible, page 10 of my VOICE copy, and pages 10-11 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.) Any creature is available to eat (funny-weird in many cases, but fish is delicious 😋) — for some reason, this wasn’t said in chapters 1-3 before the Fall happened. I don’t know why He didn’t say anything about meat, but I think God had intended food to come from the creatures without killing them. Speaking of which, this passage does not address a killing that happens by complete accident; only those who have killed someone on purpose to some degree — it’s not cool how murder still happens in this world. This un-Christian thing is forgivable, but not all who murder will be saved. I know I wouldn’t befriend someone who wants to kill me. Hopefully, no one I know is planning my demise, but I don’t expect each person I see to be free of hateful intent; most people in this world are pretty deep in murderous content. But I think all of us have hated others at one point or another — if you see someone being an opponent to someone, tell them to watch out, for hate makes bitterness happen, and bitterness, especially against God, defiles many people around them (Hebrews 12:15).
Each person is supposed to love even an enemy (Matthew 5:43-48), and I think that’s excellent. Too bad a lot of people see themselves as perfect, though. I know I could never succeed, and I don’t care to be perfect today. Instead, though, I’d rather do Jesus’ works in His love for all mankind. I know I want to make it so that death is avoided every time I do something. But none of us can be perfect, although if a Christian sins for some reason, he/she is never hateful about it, for hate is only intentional, and it is un-Christian (1 John 3:15). From it comes many bad things, such as murder, abuse, scandals, gossip, and worst of all, rape and judgment. I want to rid the world of such evil deeds, but not of any person. EVER. I’m against death because Jesus doesn’t support the death penalty. I know a lot of people of all religions would support it because of their tradition, or if he/she grew up in a particular church, they might support it because of many verses in the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible) recording God’s many instances in which the Israelites were to stone people — I don’t think He wanted anyone dead (Ezekiel 18:32); in fact, we see in Ezekiel 20:25 that God gave over His people who wouldn’t love Him over to laws that were not good and unlivable. I think that’s pretty much everything in the Mosaic Law (or the Law of Moses, see Exodus 21-Deuteronomy 28), although social justice is important. Indeed, James wrote certain parts of his letter by the inspiration of much of Leviticus 19, including to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18).
It’s not as though you need to do anything in the Bible to become Christian, though. For instance, in Acts 15, Peter said that his people could never fulfill the law of Moses at any time, neither in his generation or in the generations of those who have gone before him. Noah offered those sacrifices in chapter 8 to remind him of his own sins (verses 20-21, see Hebrews 10:3 for the concept I’m drawing this from), and sacrifices like what he brought to God could never take away sin (Hebrews 10:4). Instead, Noah looked to Jesus instead to save him; that’s why he was counted righteous before God (Genesis 6:8, see another story in Genesis 15:6).
I still want death to be avoided by each person, though. I don’t expect each person reading this to believe me; what matters is that they believe the words of Christ spoken across the Bible. For all life, especially human lives, is sacred, and an editor of the VOICE made a note after verse 7 in this chapter to explain a thing or two about it. God especially hates it when someone tried to honor Him by killing someone. Jesus warned this would happen (John 16:2) — this happens in Islam, unfortunately. But I pray the Muslims around the world would become Christian 🙏
I’ll write more about what I said across this post in the next two weeks, mainly on the death penalty, the different food consumption choices and convictions people have, and a small bit of reproduction, which is what frames this seven-verse passage (verses one and seven). I don’t know how many posts I’ll make, but I’ll see you soon!
Ron And His Stories 