Channel 4 – The New Ten Commandments
Aim: questioned relevance of 10 Commandments today
Jon Snow – declared them rubbished/finished
Nationwide survey of 4000 people – 20 new dictums for 21st Century
Be honest
Don't kill
Look after the vulnerable
Respect your mother and father
Enjoy life
Nothing in excess
Be true to your own God
Treat others as you would like to be treated
Be true to yourself
Protect your family
Look after your health
Try your best at all times
Don't commit adultery
Live within your means
Appreciate what you have
Never be violent
Protect the environment
Protect and nurture children
Take responsibility for your own actions
Don't steal

Points to note:
1. don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, respect mother and father, don’t steal – straight from Moses
2. Pharisee like zeal or just verbosity – live with in your means, appreciate what you have = do not covet
3. all other can be found in some form in the various laws of the Bible (e.g. Deuteronomy, Leviticus)
4. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “Almost all the New Commandments are back there in the Bible. The only really new one is ‘Be true to yourself’.
5. Top New Commandment ‘Treat others as you would have them treat you’ – quote Matt 7:12

Society says – anything goes
People know – morality matters
Cp. C S Lewis Mere Christianity:
How’d you like it if I did the same to you?
That’s my seat, I was there first.
Leave him alone, he isn’t doing you any harm.
Morality deep within us.

Matthew 19:16-22 – rich man knew about morality – living good life
1. Rich man wants certainty of eternal life, but knows his life cannot guarantee
2. Jesus doesn’t weigh in with more laws and interpretations (unlike Rabbis and Pharisees)
3. 10 commandments very well known then so Jesus doesn’t have to list fully
4. Jesus hits home – heart of problem is problem of the heart
5. wealth is between Rich Man and God

Omission of God in the Man’s life
Cp. Channel 4 list
- why update the 10 commandments:-
The only reason, ultimately, that the commandments needed to be updated at all - apart from to excise the bit about the Sabbath, out of respect … that shops are now open on a Sunday - is to get rid of the taint of monotheism. In order to be modern, all godheads must be accorded the same respect; and in order to do that, their express wishes that they are the "one true God", and that they are generally jealous, and that all else is a false idol, must be ignored.

Sure, they're ignoring Him for His Own Good that (God) might stay within the spiritual loop of the 21st century, but still, it doesn't take His will into account. It's a bit like putting (God) in a home.
Zoe Williams – Guardian article

Cp. Guy Buckler – funerals “I’ll do anything as long as it is legal.” – Government not God is moral arbiter!

People do not want God to decide morality

God must ‘grade on the curve’ = no absolutes surely

Main question:
Won’t a good moral life be enough to get me into heaven?
Do our best – all be alright or just scrape through
Incredible optimism:
man’s righteousness v ignorance of God’s holiness

Illustrate: Atlantic swimming race
Result: all drown
Swimming instructions won’t help
Need someone to get us there

Know we need a saviour:-
· know morality and fail own standards
· know how to live – lack power to live

Application
Take heart – Bible is so relevant and upto date
Need to live in light of God’s holiness/standards
Not “be true to yourself” but true to God’s holiness
Gordon Graham (professor of moral philosophy at Aberdeen University) says, ‘Strictly speaking, you can’t have a commandment without somebody to issue it. People want a clear framework for behaviour, they want strong clear guidelines but they don’t actually know how to get them. The truth is they can’t get them if they ditch the religious context in which they originally found them.’
Commandments are only commandments if come with authority
No God, No judgement, No need for commandments – do whatever you want to do
If you believe in morality, you should believe in God
Our daily work to be judged by God’s standard