However, the first four commandments are more debatable. Nowadays, the third commandment is broken very often due to the way the language as evolved – when people say ‘OMG’ they aren’t meaning to say god’s name in vain, but just use slang to express their disbelief. This commandment is still loosely relevant as Christians should still abide by it. After all, the commandments were made for the Christians (and Jews).
The first commandment is clearly broken by some religions, and even in Christianity you could say celebrities are idolised, but not in the same way. To Christians, the first is very relevant and the second a bit less. Overall neither commandment is very relevant to non-religious people in today’s world.
The fourth commandment seems to be very sceptical. Among non-religious people, Sunday is no longer the sole day of resting, as they now have the sixth day, Saturday to rest too. When shops are opened 24/7, quite a lot of people are forced to work on the Sabbath. In modern times it is nowhere near as relevant to these people as it was a hundred years ago.
However, some believe the fourth commandment is relevant to the modern day from the Christian community. In fact a lot of "Christian" organizations flatly deny this Commandment by observing Sunday first day of the week instead of the seventh. However they also continue to host religious services on Sundays, leaving this commandment’s relativity to the modern day in the Christian and Jewish community open to interpretation.
In conclusion I believe that we cannot simply state whether the commandments are simply relevant today or not. We know that the last six commandments are relevant to all across the world in modern times. The first four commandments as shown are very open to interpretation by both non-religious people and some Christians. On the most part, I believe they are still a very reliable source of guideline for Christian across the world. Considering their age, it is quite amazing just how relevant they are.
Freddie Preece 4L
