The Fourth Commandment

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.


The 4th commandment is the keeping of the Sabbath. As I like to point out to people, even God took a day off, why can’t I? LOL I say it jokingly, but it is a commandment to take a day off.

This is not a hard command, but it is certainly one that is worthy of keeping. It is a command that can benefit us physically and mentally. We all know how burned out we can get during the week working our jobs. That day of rest gives us an opportunity to decompress from the stress mentally and rest our bodies physically so that we are ready to take on the next week in a good state of being.

For those who have chosen to follow the first of the commands, it is also a day that we can worship our Lord. A day to relax and study and meditate on the word. A day for prayers. A day to gather together with other likeminded believers and commune with each other and our God. However we see fit to spend our Sabbath, we are to keep it God focused, that is, keep it holy.

We are not supposed to do any work on the Sabbath. What is work, though? Mark Twain once said, ‘Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.’ I suppose this sums up the idea of working on the Sabbath to some degree.

Jesus then quotes Hosea 6:6: "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." Later, in v11 under a similar circumstance, Jesus gives an illustration that explains His point. Anyone would have pulled a sheep out of a pit, even if it were done on a Sabbath day. This would definitely constitute work. Normally it would be forbidden. But everyone would agree it could be done under these emergency circumstances. What makes it acceptable? What verse justifies it? Hosea 6:6 - mercy, not sacrifice. Note that Jesus' own example shows He recognized the principle as an emergency exception. He was not justifying disobeying the Sabbath or any other law for the sake of personal desire or convenience of ourselves or others. The act was not a violation of the law (from gospel way website)

The Jews celebrate the Sabbath from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. I see nothing scriptural that has changed that to be Sunday as most of Christianity holds the sabbath today. I imagine the change was something more done for political reasons, than spiritual ones, or to accommodate the pagan ways as many of the Christian holidays have done. I am not sure if that matters as much as that we do set aside a day to commune with our Lord and rest from our week.