Click here to download this video.

The fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8–11 is this: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (niv)

God provides at least two reasons in the Pentateuch for keeping the Sabbath. The first reason is in Exodus 20:8–11 when Israel rested on the seventh day of each week as a witness to God’s rest as Creator. Because God could rest, the Israelites could trust that creation was taken care of—a gift that would still be there tomorrow.

The second reason is in Deuteronomy 5:12–15 when Israel is told to remember their slavery and God’s deliverance by keeping the Sabbath. As slaves, they served a pharaoh who always asked for more labor, but God isn’t a slave master, and Israel is not to act that way towards themselves or others. God commands rest for His people, His people’s people, His people’s animals, and even the land, which is to have a sabbath every seven years according to Leviticus 25:3–6, 26:34–35.

Jesus teaches us about keeping the Sabbath in Luke 13:10–16 when He is criticized for healing a woman with a disability on the Sabbath rather than any other day. He responds by reminding the crowd that they have no issue with untying an animal to lead it to water on the Sabbath, so why shouldn’t Jesus unbind this woman who is a daughter of Abraham? In other words, Jesus tells us that the Sabbath isn’t given to us to bind us but to set us free.

So, in asking the question “Are we bound to the fourth commandment?” I want to change it to a better question: “How are we set free by the fourth commandment?” If we keep the Sabbath in a way that binds us or wounds us, we aren’t keeping it the way God intended. God wants us to mark a day as holy and spend that day resting as a sign of our trust in Him. 

Jews keep the Sabbath on Saturday as the seventh day of the week while Christians mark the first day of the week as the holy day due to the Jesus’ resurrection. Yet many ministers and church volunteers work on Sunday in order to serve the church. Rather than become dogmatic about how we keep it, we should see the Sabbath as a principle to live by. Part of this is learning to stop on a weekly basis and refresh in the presence of God. The world doesn’t need us going 24/7 for it to keep running, so let’s put our trust in God, because He’s got this.

If you choose to lie to protect someone innocent, you must make sure you aren’t really just protecting yourself. You must be prepared to answer to God for your lie. But if someone is trying to find the truth just so they can hurt someone else with it, they will be the one who ultimately answers to God for making lying the less evil option.