Love for self at the expense of the neighbour is already murder (1 John 3:12–15). Yet we ought to note that the four angels released at the Euphrates were mandated to “kill a third of mankind”—and they do so by an invasion of mounted troops whose power is in their mouths, that is, their teaching. That teaching sets human against human so that people murder each other (as predictable result of distrust and hatred).
21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.