Farther Along #3: Third Commandment
SMALL CATECHISM: THIRD COMMANDMENT
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching in His Word but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
Scripture: Hebrews 10:19-25
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Large Catechism: I 78-86
You shall sanctify the holy day.
The word holiday is used for the Hebrew word Sabbath, which properly means “to rest,” that is, to cease from labor. Therefore, we usually say, “to stop working.” Or “Sanctify the Sabbath.” Now, in the Old Testament, God set apart the seventh day and appointed it for rest [Genesis 2:3]. He commanded that it should be regarded as wholly above all other days. This commandment was given only to the Jewish people for this outward obedience, that they should stop toilsome work and rest. In that way both man and beast might recover and not be weakened by endless labor [Exodus 20:8-11]. Later, the Jewish people restricted the Sabbath too closely and greatly abused it. They defamed Christ and could not endure in Him the same works that they themselves would do on that day, as we read in the gospel [Matthew 12:11]. They acted as though the commandment were fulfilled by doing no manual work whatsoever. This, however, was not the meaning. But, as we shall hear, they were supposed to sanctify the holy day or day of rest.
This commandment, therefore, in its literal sense, does not apply to us Christians. It is entirely an outward matter, like other ordinances of the Old Testament. The ordinances were attached to particular customs, persons, times, and places, but now they have been made matters of freedom through Christ [Colossians 2:16-17].
The simpleminded need to grasp as Christian meaning about what God requires in this commandment. Note that we don’t keep holy days for the sake of intelligent and learned Christians. (They have no need of holy days.) We keep them first of all for bodily causes and necessities, which nature teaches and requires. We keep them for the common people, manservants and maidservants, who have been attending to their work and trade the whole week. In this way they may withdraw in order to rest for a day and be refreshed.
Second, and most especially, on this day of rest (since we can get no other chance), we have the freedom and time to attend divine service. We come together to hear and use God’s Word, and then to praise God, to sing and to pray [Colossians 3:16].
However, this keeping of the Sabbath, I point out, is not restricted to a certain time, as with the Jewish people. It does not have to be just this or that day. For in itself no one day is better than another [Romans 14:5-6]. Instead, this should be done daily. However, since the masses of people cannot attend every day, there must be at least one day in the week set apart. From ancient times Sunday <the Lord’s Day> has been appointed for this purpose. So we also should continue to do the same, in order that everything may be done in an orderly way [1 Corinthians 14:40] and no one may create disorder by starting unnecessary practices.
This is the simple meaning of the commandment: People must have holidays. Therefore, such observances should be devoted to hearing God’s Word so that the special function of this day of rest should be the ministry of the Word for the young and the mass of poor people [Nehemiah 8:2-3, 8]. Yet the resting should not be strictly understood to forbid any work that comes up which cannot be avoided.
Commentary: John Chrysostom, Hebrews 19.4-5
Christ asked nothing impossible, seeing that many have even gone beyond his commands. Who has done this? Paul, Peter, all the company of the Saints. Hardly. If I say that they loved their neighbors, I see no great matter, but they have loved their enemies. They have loved them even more than those who would think like themselves. For who would choose for the sake of those like-minded, to go away into hell when he was about to depart for a Kingdom? No one. But Paul chose this for the sake of his enemies, for those who stoned him, those who scourged him. What pardon then will there be for us, what excuse, if we shall not show toward our friends, even the very smallest portion of that love which Paul showed toward his enemies?
And before him, too, the Blessed Moses was willing to be blotted out of God’s book for the sake of his enemies who had stoned him. David also, when he saw those slain who had stood up against him, said, “I, the shepherd, have sinned, but these, what have they done?” And when he had Saul in his hands, he would not kill him but saved him—and this when he himself would be in danger. But if these things were done under the old covenant, what excuse shall we have who live under the new covenant and do not attain even to the same measure with them? For if, “unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” how shall we enter when we have even less than they?
“Love your enemies,” he says. Love your enemy, therefore, for you are doing good not to your enemy but to yourself. How? You are becoming like God. One whom you love has no great gain, for he is loved by a fellow servant; but you, in loving your fellow servant, have gained much, for you are becoming like God. Do you see that you are being kind not to him but to yourself? For he appoints the prize not for him but for you.
What if he is evil, you say? So much greater is the reward. You ought to feel grateful to him for his wickedness, even if he continues in his evil despite receiving ten thousand kindnesses. For if he were not exceedingly evil, your reward would not have been exceedingly increased. … That he is evil is the very reason for loving him. Take away the contestant, and you take away the opportunity for the crowns. Do you not see how the athletes exercise when they filled the bags with sand? But there is no need for you to practice this; life is full of things that exercise you and make you strong. Do you not also see that the trees, the more they are shaken by the winds, become ever stronger and firmer? We then, if we are long-suffering shall also become strong.
OTHER SCRIPTURES
Matthew 12:11 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Romans 14:5-6 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
1 Corinthians 14:40 But all things should be done decently and in order.
Nehemiah 8:2-3 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.
STUDY QUESTIONS
- What is the best way to keep the Sabbath day holy?
- Must the Sabbath day be on the seventh day (Saturday)?
- How can we encourage one another to make better usage of God’s Word in worship?