The Third Commandment

Well, friends, I forgot yesterday that I needed to be doing two commandments a day to keep up with the schedule.  Oops!  So today we will have three posts in quick succession:  "The Third Commandment," "The Fourth Commandment," and "The Fifth Commandment."  Sorry about that!  This week two posts a day is pretty normal, but I'll try to keep the double (and triple) posting to a minimum!

So on to the Third Commandment:  "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 he 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."  (Exodus 20:8-11)

After a thorough study of the scriptures, the Reformers summarized what the third commandment means in this way: 

"We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it."

Of all the commandments, this commandment is hard to understand. Why doesn't this one still apply to us in the same way it was described to God's people in Exodus 20:8-11? How do we justify observing it in a different way?

The answer starts with our Lord Jesus. During His ministry, our Lord Jesus showed a different understanding of the Sabbath than did the Jews around Him. He didn't avoid all "work" on Sabbath, but rather did the merciful and compassionate word of the Lord on the Sabbath. Moreover, when His adversaries challenged Him about this, He said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." While we might still have lingering questions about how to keep this commandment without keeping it in the "Jewish way," it is evident that it is no longer binding in the same way.

Notice also that the Reformers (in the Catechism) didn't associate "keeping the Sabbath" with a particular day. They related the Sabbath to "preaching and His Word." In other words, Sabbath rest is what comes to us when we hear the story of our salvation in Jesus Christ proclaimed to us with the full sternness of the Law and the full grace of the Gospel. We eagerly hear and learn this Word, because the Gospel is the power of salvation for all who believe. We WANT to be reminded of this Word often! We do NOT despise (i.e., neglect, treat it as if it is of little value) God's Word in any of the forms that it comes.