Remember the Sabbath to Keep It Holy*

But whoever does not love God’s law does not truly love God. —Augustus Hopkins Strong, or somebody in the fine print.

Some Background

I have been a Sabbatarian for at least two years now. I endeavored to sanctify the Lord’s day before, and so I can be said to have been growing in my understanding of how to do it for some five years. I first heard a serious suggestion of obeying the fourth commandment in the year 2000 in my first class in seminary, and at the time I was fresh from reading Joseph Pieper’s Leisure, the Basis of Culture. The ideas began to come together then, but I did not start practicing till much later.

My practice was, of course, rather inaccurate at first. Anybody who thinks about the word ‘sanctify’ carefully for a little time will realize that it must be all or nothing: things are not partially consecrated. This ought to have led me more quickly to a more careful scrutiny of my practice, but even such elemental habits of mind as the consideration of what a thing means before proceeding to its implications are not standard parts of the mental equipment of this age. When I first entered into a more rigorous practice of keeping the Christian Sabbath, I did it by observing it according to the pattern of the days of creation: I would begin on Saturday evening and continue until Sunday evening. Apparently this was not common; one pastor remarked that that seemed very Jewish. “The Lord’s Day lasts from when you get up in the morning till you go to bed at night,” another pastor suggested, and this made sense to me. The Lord, after all, changed the schedule pretty early in the morning. And so I have found, over the years, that the perfecting of one’s practice grows.

What I have since found curious is that even those who have good teaching and something of a tradition, who have developed a way of observing not peculiarly individual are generally dissatisfied with their practice. I found in conversation that Sabbatarians (even ones with a whole library full of nothing other than SRB’s [Solid, Reformed Books] are willing to say ‘We are lax in our observance,’ much as many believers are willing to admit about their personal devotion.

This situation ought not to be tolerated: a person who is lax in his personal devotion ought not to live with a bad conscience, nor ought a Christian be lax in his observance of anything God commands him. It is not modest to be obedient to the Lord, and if we cannot obey to the satisfaction of our conscience we should change. We should be able to say, I pray enough, having set the time aside; I study as I ought; I am diligent to keep the right ways of the Lord for all that I desire more (and if we really desire more, we will find ways for it, however gradually).

An Example

A good example of a strict observer of the fourth commandment was John Murray, who used to avoid traveling on public transportation on Sunday and travel in general if possible, devoted the day exclusively to worship, reading Scripture (with his one good eye) and the necessary meals. When asked by J. Gresham Machen (or at a Sunday meal with Machen present and implicated) his opinion on a topic that was not strictly related to religion and which the rest of those present had been discussing, Murray told Machen he did not want to talk about such things on the Lord’s Day. I assume, a pause in the conversation ensued.

Ironically, the reason Murray was in the United States at all had to do with his refusal to take measures against Scottish believers who were being barred from communion because they relied on public transportation to attend worship. He was unable to become a teaching elder in Scotland because he did not believe his personal scruples about using public transportation on the Lord’s Day were universally warranted by the commands of Scripture. Forced to find another place of ministry, he took the position at Westminster Seminary and taught there most of his life.

A General Conclusion

All of which goes to say that when it comes to the fourth commandment, there is room for a stricter interpretation. We may need to reform our laxness and cease living with a conscience that condemns us, or even worse, grows insensitive. Or, like John Murray, we may wish to hew to a stricter adherence than we would expect of others simply because the thing is a good.

I want to help you to desire the observance of the fourth commandment.

What I want to do is to examine three passages of Scripture that teach the observance of the Lord’s day, and I want to show why a person like John Murray would consider it a good to be devoted to. If we are going to cease to be lax and no longer have the condemnation of our conscience, we are going to have to learn the law of loving the things God commands us because they are our good.

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*I have to teach on the fourth commandment on Wednesday. This is the English version of my introduction. I have been thinking it in Spanish but I wanted to work it out in English as another part of my thinking and preparation. I am not actually going there with all this written down.