I have never met a Christian that observes the Sabbath. Is this something they are supposed to do? I think they follow the other commandments, but I am not sure. So what is the deal with Christians and the 10 commandments?
No, they don’t. Well some probably do the way some non-christians do, but I’m pretty sure that large numbers of christians are just as guilty of breaking the ten commandments as any other people. Or do you mean “does their Church expect them to follow the TCs?”
What is your definition of “sabbath” and “observe”, and how do you derive those definitions? I would suspect that many Christians would claim to “observe” the “sabbath” according to the definitions of those terms provided by their individual religious traditions.
I would also suspect that most mainstream Christian traditions would expect adherents to try to follow the 10 Commandments, but also teach that failing to do so is fully expected within church teachings.
A more interesting question may be: are there any major Christian sects that openly teach that the 10 Commandments, or certain parts of them, should not be followed at all (or should be ignored)?
Well, I’ve never seen a Christian seethe a kid goat in its mother’s milk, so that one appears to be obeyed. By the way - we are talking about the ten commandments that Moses brought down from the mountain carved onto stone tablets, right?
In which case mixing meat and milk is not one of them…
Whether the Sabbath should be observed on a Saturday or a Sunday is a different debate, but I would venture to guess that all practising Christians mark their Sabbath in some way, be that going to church, spending time with family, refraining from working, refraining from other commercial activities (shopping, etc) or various combinations of the above. Some denominations emphasise the importance of this observance more than others (Seventh Day Adventists for example). Observing the Sabbath in the Jewish sense of total abstinance from anything regarded as “work” is not followed, as passages such as this one from Matthew are regarded as having overruled them.
As for the other nine, they’re universally promoted, although individual Christians are sure to fall down from time to time - I mean, have you seen my neighbour’s ass?
Grim
Currently, almost all do ignore parts of the 4th and the 10th commandments:
While not direct, it is clear that god had no problem with the chosen ones stealing the freedom and the labor of others.
At least in my experience, Christianity interprets to commandments (and indeed OT law generally) through things like this bit from Romans 13
Galatians 5, which says very much the same thing, and Matthew 22:
As I say, this has been my experience of the Christian approach to OT law, but last time I mentioned it on this board, people treated me like I had grown an extra head.
To answer that, you really have to define “work” and what it means to observe the Sabbath.
The Jews fleshed out these concepts in the Talmud. Those rules apply only to Jews, though, not to Christians.
The Catholic Church defines “work” quite differently. Since the eighth century AD, they have prohibited "servile work, public buying and selling, pleading in the law courts, and the public and solemn taking of oaths". They also require all Catholics to attend at least one Mass if at all possible (not doing so is a mortal sin).
Some blue laws interpret a ban on working on the Sabbath as prohibiting non-religious activities on Sundays.
You could just as logically define work to mean “something you’re paid to do”, “something you don’t like doing”, or “manual labor”.
How? Are you claiming they make their slaves work on the sabbath or covert their neighbor’s slaves?
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. "
You know, I don’t remember there being any Christians in the Exodus.
Hell, most Christians can’t even list the Ten C without looking them up. Most can give you a few. “Uh, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie, and, uh, don’t swim for an hour after lunch.”
Christians are not considered to be “under the law” (Galatians 3:25), thus the 10 commandments to not technically apply. NT-era Christians’ works will be judged (1 Corinthians 3:12 and 13).
All things are permissible. Not all things are a good idea, mind you, or please God (the NT is filled with exhortations to live a Godly life (Ephesians 4:30)). The Ten Commandments, along with the exhortations to love God and one’s neighbor-- form a foundation to good living and are pleasing to God. They are taught in most Christian denominations.
Fundamental to many Protestant denominations is the concept that good works are not practiced to earn the Christian’s way to Heaven (Ephesians 2:8,9); that admission into Heaven is a resuly of God’s grace. Grace, in this case, might me considered analogous to “generosity”. God gives eternal life not because of good works, but due to His generosity. It’s that way in the Old Testament, but more obvious in the New.
As far as observing the Sabbath: the earliest Christians-- converted Jews-- observed the Sabbath, Sundown Friday to Sundown Saturday, and then “their” day, Sunday, back-to-back. As Christianity-- and Christians moved into non-Judic cultures, the practice disappeared.
Meeting regularly seems to have been considered a given, rather than something people needed to be kicked into doing. However, regular meeting-- and, yes, throwing money in the collection plate-- is supported by Scripture (Hebrews 10:25).
As a side note, the condos next to the church I attend burned on Sunday morning. Service was cancelled, as the road was blocked. Several members made coffee and carried it over to the victims and firefighters. The Pastor made a run to Mickey-Dee’s and broght a bag of breakfast grease sandwiches. Church was suspended, and being nice to neighbors-- literally, in this case-- substituted. And ya know? I think they did well.
Hey, I agree with you. The big 10 are great but JC narrowed them down to the main 2.
Of course, George Carlin came up with a different result.
I’m going to assume that is an attempt to a joke, but one just needs to realize that if a believer thinks one must follow all the commandments that then the implications of the highlighted parts will remain an embarrassment, for it does remain that it was more evil then to covet your neighbors ass than to own [del]the ass of[/del] someone.
And is a fact that those highlighted bits are often omitted, specially when fundamentalists want to put the 10 commandments in public buildings.
And unfortunately in some regions of the world those lines still apply:
http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/antislavery/modern.htm
I can grant you then that making your slave rest on the sabbath was more humane than this.
Good thought: When the ten commandments were written there were no Christians. Christians are named so by their belief in, and following of, Jesus the Christ. I believe the OP is flawed in assuming Christians are committed to the ten commandments in the first place. Some may say “yes,” and others “no.” Some Christians are new testament believers only. There is a huge variety of Christians, the OP doesn’t address which variety. As for observing the Sabbath, yes, of course, they do according to the dictates of their variety of Christianity.
Well, I guess you could translate the word as “servant,” or maybe even “employee.” That’s probably a cop-out, but it’d be interesting to hear a Hebrew scholar’s take on it.
Yes, at least this commandment, and some of the other OT laws, put limits on what you could do to (or require of) your slave, so slaves had more rights under OT law than, say, in the pre-Civil War southern U.S.
Well, there’s not a commandment to have slaves…merely commandments saying what you can’t do with the slaves you have. So, it’s not saying that slavery is a moral good…just that it isn’t neccesarily a moral evil.
I dunno, where do you go to meet Christians? Seems to be cars in church parking lots when I drive by on Sunday.
OK, so we’re not talking about the Ten Commandments that were inscribed on the famous stone tablets, because those were: