The fourth commandment: one day in seven

This week's questions

Which is the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment is, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, 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.

Question 57

What is required in the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his Word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy sabbath to himself.

Question 58

Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly sabbath? From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian sabbath.

Question 59

The fourth commandment closes the four on our duty to God: after his name last week, his day. This week: which day, and why; next week: how it is kept holy.

A day that remembers creation and redemption

The commandment begins "Remember": the day's roots go deeper than Sinai, into creation. Question 59's first proof text says:

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.

Genesis 2:3

God rested from finished work, not weariness, and blessed a day to share that rest with us. The Westminster Confession calls one day in seven "a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages" WCF 21.7.

Question 58's proof text shows how far down the household its rest reaches:

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work— … nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do.

Deuteronomy 5:14

The next verse gives a reason Exodus does not: Israel was a slave in Egypt, and the Lord brought them out (Deuteronomy 5:15). Exodus remembers creation; Deuteronomy, redemption. The Larger Catechism names them together, "the two great benefits of creation and redemption" Q. 121. So the day is a gift before it is a duty: "The Sabbath was made for man" (Mark 2:27).

From the seventh day to the first

The day moved with the resurrection. Jesus rose "Early on the first day of the week" (John 20:1); that evening, and again eight days later, he stood among his disciples (John 20:19, 20:26). Question 59's other proofs show the church meeting that day, at Troas to break bread (Acts 20:7), and Paul bidding the Corinthians set gifts aside on it (1 Corinthians 16:2); John calls it the Lord's Day (Revelation 1:10).

Around 100 the Didache bids believers break bread and give thanks on the Lord's Day Didache 14; around 150–155 Justin Martyr calls Sunday the day creation began and Christ rose First Apology 67. Peter Chrysologus, fifth-century bishop of Ravenna, wrote that "the sabbath is illuminated, not taken away, by Christ" Peter Chrysologus. Constantine's law of 321, which bade city people rest on ‘the day of the Sun’ while leaving farm work free, came long after and names neither Christ nor the Lord's Day Law on the Day of the Sun (Constantine).

All the churches honour the resurrection day, but explain its tie to the sabbath differently. The Larger Catechism Q. 116 and the Reformed Baptists' Second London Confession of 1689 22.7 teach with the Shorter that one day in seven binds every age. John Calvin and the continental Reformed put the weight elsewhere: the sabbath's ceremonial side was abolished in Christ, while a set day for the Word, the sacraments and prayer, and rest for those who labour under others, remain for the church's order, though he would not bind it to the number seven Institutes 2.8.28–34; the Heidelberg Catechism joins the gathering on the day of rest to resting from our evil works all our days, to "allow the Lord to work in me by his Spirit" Q. 103. Both are Reformed.

Lutherans, who follow Martin Luther, confess that Scripture "has abrogated the Sabbath" and that the church appointed the Lord's Day so the people might know when to gather, as "an example of Christian liberty" Augsburg Confession, art. 28; Luther's Small Catechism, counting this the third commandment, asks us to "gladly hear and learn" God's Word Small Catechism. For the Catholic Church, Sunday is also the eighth day, the day of the new creation; it fulfils the sabbath, and its Eucharist is the centre of the church's life Catechism, 2174–2177. The Orthodox churches of the East likewise gather each Sunday for the Eucharist.

Seventh Day Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists keep the seventh day still, reading the commandment as unchanged: the day God blessed at creation, in a law of which Jesus said not a stroke would pass (Matthew 5:17-18), kept by the women who "rested on the Sabbath, according to the commandment" after the cross (Luke 23:56). See also Worship and the Lord's Day, Worship centred on the Word, Worship and prayer, Why should we rest? and Do Christians have to keep the Old Testament law?

To ponder this week

What would it mean this week to receive the Lord's Day as a gift rather than a rule? On Sunday, read how the risen Lord stood among his frightened disciples and gave them peace (John 20:19), and at night thank God for one rest the day gave you.

Practice