Some of the women said they were innocent. Others admitted they did the crime but say they were easily manipulated by others. Still others were just teenagers when they committed murder and can give no reason why they participated in murder. They were just senseless acts that cost people their lives.
I listened to some of these women and can see how we humans can get so carried away in our emotions or our need for others to give us love that we go a lot farther in our actions than we would if we were thinking clearly. One woman committed murder so a man would love her. Another woman was an accomplish to murder for $50.
James 2:10 says, "For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's laws."
It's so easy for some of us to say we'd never do _________, but if we were put in the "perfect" situation we might very well do what we say we'd never do. For sure this is true if a person doesn't have Jesus Christ (but Christians aren't exempt from heinous crimes --- plenty of them do terrible things).
I watched an episode of Netflix's I Am A Killer today (Beware -- if you watch that show there is some bad language). The first episode is about a man who has been in prison for decades. He killed while in prison so he could go to death row because the inmates there were treated better than where he was in prison. The show begins with him being interviewed. Then, others who know him are interviewed. And the show ends with one more interview with the killer.
This man was a hardened criminal. He didn't regret killing the man he did at all (this is what he said). But four years ago (before the show was shot) a cousin of his contacted him. They started writing letters. The cousin brought his family several times to visit the inmate. Through contact with someone who really cared about him, this inmate's heart has thawed. He never received any love before his cousin and the cousin's family showed him love. And even though he received this love late in life, this love changed him.
I don't really know why I'm sharing this with you today. Sin and love -- two things that change us. We all are capable of great sin. We all are capable of great love.
To keep us from sin we have to know what we believe and why we believe it and know what lines we will never cross. Our beliefs, in order to stand up to life, need to be rooted in Scripture. We also need to understand ourselves; understand that apart from Jesus Christ we all are murderers (Jesus says in Matthew 5:22 "whoever shall say to his brother, 'Fool,' shall be guilty before the supreme court"); apart from the love we have received we too might be hardened criminals (or at least bitter, bitter people).
To love as best we can we must remember of the love we have received, the love we receive when we don't deserve it. And since we receive this kind of love, why not give it?