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The sixth commandment concerns our own and our neighbour's life (Exo_20:13): “Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not do any thing hurtful or injurious to the health, ease, and life, of thy own body, or any other person's unjustly.”
It does not forbid killing in lawful war, or in our own necessary defense, nor the magistrate's putting offenders to death, for those things tend to the preserving of life; but it forbids all malice and hatred to the person of any (for he that hateth his brother is a murderer), and all personal revenge arising therefrom; also all rash anger upon sudden provocations, and hurt said or done, or aimed to be done, in passion which Jesus further expounds in Mat_5:22. It also forbids persecution, laying wait for the blood of the innocent and righteous among us.
Sources:
John Wesley
Matthew Henry
New Bible Commentary (Inter-Varsity Press)
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