I hear you. I don't follow commandments. I believe the promise that accepting the gospel makes you a new person, capable of loving others. And if you love others, and act on that, not self-interest, you can do no wrong (you can make mistakes, but not wrong). It is, according to Paul, the only thing that counts. If a Christian doesn't believe in that promise and has to follow commandments, what's the point in being a Christian?
According to James (and I believe him) if you follow the law but fail in any part of it, you are condemned. Why would a Christian want that?
James 2:10 - For whoever keeps
the whole law but fails in one point
has become guilty of all of it.
You can't pick and choose. If a Christian wants to "keep" the 10 Commandments, he has to keep kosher and not cut his hair and keep the Saturday Sabbath (not Sunday) and stone those to death who don't. No thanks!
I think you may have upgraded the big 10.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
••OK, sure. Everybody feel that way (in monotheism anyway)
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
••Everybody seems to have blown this one off (except Muslims) and we are drowning in graven images.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
••Well I'll be double goddamned if this rule hasn't been negated.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
••Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Doesn't actually say.
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
••Also out of fashion.
Thou shalt not kill.
••But we do - both lawfully and unlawfully.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
••Ha ha. They forgot this one a long time ago.
Thou shalt not steal.
••But can I cheat on my taxes?
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
••This one has held up for the most part.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
••My neighbor has a mighty fine ass and I can't uncovet it. I'd like to uncover it though.
See. No stoning. That's all the extra stuff the owners wrote in.