The tenth commandment, for example, has altered the Biblical “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” to just “find contentment.”
“Thou shalt not commit adultery” have been edited to “affair-proof your relationships”, and “honour thy father and thy mother” has altered to “keep the peace with your parents”.
J John claims his commandments enable “everyone to understand God’s timeless principles on how we should live” and said he was inspired to write them by last summer’s riots.
He said: “Along with a lot of people I think about the way that we live nowadays and what leads people to do the sort of things that happened in the riots – whether or not we have forgotten something about a good way of living.”
The Reverend Paul Roberts, 54, vicar of St John the Evangelist in Old Coulsdon, Surrey, which dates back to 1210 AD, is among those using the new commandments.
He said: “It’s basically a way of presenting the Ten Commandments to help people connect with them in a positive way.
“Rather than just seeing them as a list of things you shouldn’t do, it is meant to help people live as God intended for our good.
“Unlike the dos and don’ts most people imagine when quizzed about the maker’s instructions, the message is meant to be both a challenge and an encouragement.”
Wayne Dulson, 40, minister of Loughton Baptist Church, Essex said: “People really engaged with the Ten Commandments in a new and fresh way.
“People now see these commandments not as a set of rules but as a template for living so that we experience God’s best for our lives.
“All ten commandments were extremely challenging, especially as the series helped us see them in the context of modern day living.
“People keep telling me how just10 has made them think much more about how they live their lives and also how much they have learnt about the commandments as they found out things they never knew before.”
Steve Jenkins, spokesman for the Church of England, said they supported new ways of communicating and added: “The Book Of Common Prayer is very clear that the faith needs to be taught afresh in every generation.”
Even former Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe, who left the Church of England after objecting to women priests, has backed J John’s rules.
“I’d say it’s not a patch on Moses but not a bad set of rules really,” she said.
“What he’s trying to do is offer a modern take on the original to explain it to a modern audience, which is fine as long as he doesn’t dispense with the original.”
