Applying the Fourth Commandment (Love in Theology Pt 1 Series, 6 of 6)
Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Ex. 20:8–11)
"You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." (Deut. 5:15)
What is the Command?
The fourth commandment is, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy." You must set apart one day in seven to rest from all your work and be refreshed in your worship.
The first commandment answers the question, "Who do you worship?" It addresses the object of your worship and commands you to worship only the right God—not other gods (idols). The first commandment reveals the principle of exclusivity that is necessary to flourish in life: that you must worship God above everything and everyone.
The second commandment answers the question, "How do you worship?" It addresses the method of your worship and commands you to worship God truthfully—without false images. The second commandment reveals the role of your imagination so you worship the right God rightly—in spirit and truth.
The third commandment answers the question, "Why do you worship?" It addresses the purpose of your worship and commands you to honor God by not misusing his name. The third commandment reveals the purpose of your life: to bring honor to God's name in all that you do and say.
The fourth commandment answers the question, "When do you worship?" It reveals the pattern of your worship and commands you to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. The fourth commandment reveals your life rhythm—to work for six days and then rest and be refreshed in worship on one day weekly.
To worship the one true God (first commandment) in a true way (second commandment) that brings honor to his name (third commandment), you must remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy (fourth commandment).
To keep the Sabbath day holy means to set one day apart every week by stopping all your normal work so that you can rest and be refreshed in your worship of God on that day. You remember the Sabbath day because of how easy it is to forget God's astonishing love for you, especially when you're facing the demands of life.
God graciously designed the Sabbath to help you keep remembering the good news about who he is and what he has done for you as your Creator, Redeemer, and Restorer.[1]
Jesus' statement, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27), signifies the profound difference between a false view of the Sabbath as a strict day of burdensome religious duties, and the biblical view of a day of great delight and joy for God's glory and your good (Isa. 58:13—14).
Therefore, to stop all your work and gather with God’s people to be renewed and refreshed in worship on the Lord’s Day is both your solemn duty and joyful privilege.
What is forbidden?
God forbids you to work on the Sabbath day, except for works of mercy and necessity. The reason God forbids you to work for one day every week is so that you can be refreshed by resting and worshiping him.[2]
God also forbids you to cause others to work on the Sabbath day so that they may also experience the blessings of rest and worship (Ex. 20:10).[3]
You are not to misuse (profane) the day by things you do or do not do. The Sabbath is a day God designed to help you experience the renewal of your whole being. Therefore, it may include sharing meals, walking in nature, engaging in activities that strengthen relationships, listening to music, reading, etc.
But what is forbidden on the Sabbath is doing these kinds of good things without making the primary focus of the day the renewal of your personal relationship with God—especially by "not neglecting to meet together" for public worship with other believers (Heb. 10:25).
However, by both his words and life, Jesus teaches that works of necessity and mercy are not forbidden on the Sabbath. Instead, they're encouraged. Works of necessity and mercy refer to actions needed to meet essential and urgent needs such as safety, health, and hunger which cannot be postponed without causing harm.
When Jesus' disciples were hungry on the Sabbath, he allowed them to break the Sabbath traditions created by religious leaders by plucking grain and eating it (Matt. 12:1–4). Jesus also healed many people on the Sabbath, including Peter's mother-in-law, a man with a crippled hand, and a woman possessed by a demonic spirit (Matt. 8:14–15, 12:9–14; Luke 13:10–17, 14:1–6).[4] Jesus taught that works of necessity and mercy are actions that honor God and show God's love to people by upholding the "weightier matters of the law" like "justice and mercy and faithfulness" (Matt. 23:23).
What is required?
God requires you to set apart one day in seven to rest from all your work and be refreshed by your worship of him.
The Bible instructs believers not to neglect meeting together (Heb. 10:25), and the early church sometimes met daily (Acts 2:43). Debates have persisted over the correct day for Christian rest and worship—Saturday, Sunday, any day, or no specific day.
Some believe that because the Sabbath was included in Jewish ceremonial laws, it is no longer for Christians. However, most Christians throughout history have believed that God gave the fourth commandment to be a continuing moral law.[5] Paul condemns the superstitious observance of the Jewish Sabbath (Col. 2:16), not the moral "one-day-in-seven Sabbath" established by God for all image bearers at creation.[6]
Sunday is the most common day of rest and worship for Christians worldwide because the Sabbath has transitioned from a Jewish commemoration of God's creation and redemption in the Exodus on the seventh day, to a Christian commemoration of God's creation and redemption in Christ through his resurrection on the first day of the week.[7]
No matter which day you keep the Sabbath, God's design is for you to see it as a perpetual sign of his covenant love and faithfulness to you as your triune Creator, Redeemer, and Restorer.[8] Therefore, God's requirement to keep the Sabbath includes
remembering the good news (gospel) about his magnificent acts in creation (Ex. 20:11), redemption (Deut. 5:15), and restoration (Heb. 4:8–11).
Remembering God's Magnificent Acts in Creation
In Exodus 20:11 God instructs you, as his image bearer, to keep the Sabbath by imitating his divine pattern in creation of six days of work and one day of rest.[9] You imitate God's example by stopping all your "normal work" so that you can spend one day on what the English Puritans called "holy work."[10]
This includes remembering God's magnificent acts of creation in your worship, both with others and privately, as you celebrate God's creative acts through songs, prayers, Scripture readings, and sermons. It's a day to remember how your work is part of God's work in the world, and to celebrate all the blessings of your work as God's good gifts.
On the Sabbath, you follow God's example to appreciate the work you've been able to complete during the last six days, seeing your work as a part of God's work through you in the world, and giving thanks for it. Learning how to rest from your work on the Sabbath includes learning how to trust God with all your unfinished work.
Remembering God's Magnificent Acts in Redemption
In Deuteronomy 5:15, Moses gave the Ten Commandments again to the next generation of Israelites who had not experienced firsthand God's deliverance of their parents from their slavery in Egypt. The Sabbath became Israel's weekly celebration that affirmed their identity as God's redeemed people, set apart for his divine mission on earth.
The Church, as the New Israel, observes the Sabbath as a weekly celebration of God's redemptive acts through Jesus Christ. It's a day to remember God's redeeming love for you by hearing the preaching of God's word and receiving the Lord's Supper, given by the one who said at his last Passover meal, "Do this in remembrance of me" (1 Cor. 11:25).
Remembering God's Magnificent Acts in Restoration
Israel’s observance of the Sabbath was also a day to remember and celebrate God's magnificent acts of restoration, through which they entered their promised rest in the land (Deut. 3:20, 12:9–10, 25:19; Jos. 1:13, 15).[11] In Hebrews 4:1–11, God promises you a Sabbath "rest" that is far better than the rest God gave Israel in Canaan.[12] This rest is described as "good news" with both a present and future blessing.[13]
Hebrews tells us there remains a "Sabbath rest" today that can only be found in the completed work of Jesus Christ. You enter this rest when you stop trying to earn your salvation by all your works so that you can rest alone in the saving work of Jesus for you.
However, your ultimate Sabbath rest is not just the salvation of your soul after death, but the promise of your bodily resurrection in a renewed creation in the age to come, that far surpasses the land of Canaan (Heb. 11:16; 2 Pet 3:13; Rev. 21:1–5).[14]
This is the hope God means to sustain you today, as you keep resting and worshiping on the Sabbath in anticipation of your ultimate rest to come with the One who says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).
Catechism Questions
What is the Fourth Commandment?
The fourth commandment is, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy."
What is forbidden by God in the Fourth Commandment?
God forbids me to work on the Sabbath day, except for works of mercy and necessity.
What is required by God in the Fourth Commandment?
God requires me to set apart one day in seven to rest from all my work and be refreshed by my worship of him.
Footnotes:
[1] It's a day to remember that God gave his Son to redeem you, and when you believed in him, he gave you the gift of his Spirit so that you would be forgiven and experience the fullness of life with him now and forever.
[2] It can often be hard to stop all your work so that you can refresh your body and soul every week. Honoring the Sabbath day requires you to deepen your trust in God in ways that you need, but that you might not normally choose.
[3] In Exodus 20:10, Moses told Israel those who are not to work include "you, your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates."
[4] After healing a man on the Sabbath, Jesus was criticized for breaking the Sabbath by the Jewish religious leaders known for teaching many burdensome Sabbath traditions. In response he asked them, "Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?" Luke records their response, "And they could not reply to these things" (Luke 14:5–6).
[5] All ten commandments, including the fourth, were spoken directly by God, inscribed by him on stone tablets, housed in the Ark of the Covenant, and were the basis of the Mosaic Covenant. The fourth commandment differs from the other nine because it is both a perpetual moral law for all humanity established at creation (before the Ten Commandments, e.g., Ex. 16:5, 23), and a Jewish ceremonial law in the Ten Commandments fulfilled in Christ.
[6] In the New Covenant, believers in Jesus are not under the Jewish Sabbath law(s), including the penalty of death for breaking the Sabbath (Ex. 31:14). This is why Paul taught that Christians no longer keep the Jewish "special days" (Rom. 14:5–6; Gal. 4:10).
[7] Having finished all his magnificent acts of redemption, Jesus rested in the grave on the Old Covenant Sabbath, then rose from the grave in his resurrection on the first day of the week. The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 59 summarizes this transition: "From the beginning of the world until the resurrection of Christ, God established the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. From that time until the end of the world the first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath."
[8] The Sabbath is a sign of God's covenant love and faithfulness that "sanctifies" (sets apart) his people to remember who their triune God is and what he does as their Creator (Father), Redeemer (Son), and Restorer (Spirit). Just as the rainbow was a sign of God's covenant with Noah (Gen. 9:13,17), and circumcision was a sign of God's covenant with Abraham (Gen. 17:11), the Sabbath was a sign of God's covenant with Moses. "Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you" (Ex. 31:12–13).
[9] God's rest on the seventh day was not due to his weariness but signified a dramatic shift from his acts in creation to his ongoing acts of sustaining and developing his creation to flourish according to his design. The Westminster Confession, Chapter V explains God's work of providence following creation. It describes how "God upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and things, from the greatest to the least, by His most wise and holy providence."
[10] Matthew Henry wrote, "The sabbath was made a day of holy rest so that it might be a day of holy work." Quoted in J.I. Packer, Growing in Christ, (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1994) 252.
[11] After many difficult years of struggling in the wilderness, this new generation of Israelites was about to enter the land of Canaan where God promised to restore them as his people and give them rest. In the book of Joshua, the story of Israel’s journey from slavery to rest reaches its climax when Israel finally enters the land God promised them and all their forefathers: "Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their father" (Josh. 21:43–44).
[12] "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on" (Heb. 4:8).
[13] While the Israelites found physical rest in the Promised Land, Hebrews tells us there remains a "Sabbath-rest" for the people of God—rest that is found only in Jesus Christ's completed work. Therefore, God commands you to stop trying to earn your salvation by all your works, just as God stopped from all his works in creation, so that you can rest in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone for your salvation.
[14] Your final rest will not be a passive state, but an active engagement in the life of the new heaven and earth that will be characterized by worship, service, and ruling with Christ in a restored universe where there will be no crying, or mourning, or pain (Rev. 21:1–5).