Shorter Catechism Qs. 57–62

This is the first part of the 3-part series on the Fourth Commandment. You can see Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

Q. 57. Which is the fourth commandment?

A. 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.

Q. 58. What is required in the fourth commandment?

A. 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.

Q. 59. Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly sabbath?

A. 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.

Q. 60. How is the sabbath to be sanctified?

A. The sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.

Q. 61. What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?

A. The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission, or careless performance, of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing what which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about worldly employments or recreations.

Q. 62. What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment?

A. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are, God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the sabbath day.

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"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 the 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." (Exod 20:8-11)

"For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." (Heb 4:8-13)

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The Shorter Catechism's teaching on the fourth commandment is longer than any other commandments'.[^commandments] That means the Westminster Divines (i.e. theologians) who drafted the Confession of Faith and the Catechisms in the first half of the 17th century felt a great need to emphasize the importance of the fourth commandment. But why? And we also need to ask whether they were right to draw a straight line connection between the Old Testament Sabbath (the subject of the fourth commandment) and the New Testament Lord's Day. In this first part of our fourth commandment study, we will focus on the reason why the Westminster Divines felt so compelled to emphasize the fourth commandment, and why it is wise for us to learn from them. Part two will then focus on the connection between the Old Testament Sabbath and the New Testament Lord's Day. For now, we are simply going to assume the connection they made between the Old Testament Sabbath and the New Testament Lord's Day was both biblical and pastorally wise.

Indeed, the Westminster Divines were, first and foremost, pastors who rightly sensed a great opportunity to glorify God and minister to people. The 17th century England was no different than the past or the present. Then as now, too many people regarded the Lord’s Day as just another day, and did not see anything special about it. This, of course, was a common attitude among the OT people when they were straying from the Lord, as it is today. In addition, it was possible to argue that the fourth commandment did not apply to the religion of the New Testament.[^possible]

But the real issue here is the mindset that doing God’s will, obeying his Law, is harmful to our soul. We first heard this lie in Eden when the Serpent tempted Eve, and then through her, Adam. The Serpent's not-so-subtle insinuation was that honoring God by doing what he commands will only lead to loss, that what God teaches us is not what is best for us. Indeed, this is the root of all temptation. But you _do_ remember how things turned out for Adam and Eve when they listened to this lie, don’t you? As long as we buy into this lie, celebrating the Lord's Day is always going to feel like a burden and a chore.

Understanding the root problem as outlined above, we can see the pastoral wisdom of the Westminster Divines who emphasized the Sabbath-nature of the Lord's Day. Sabbath, after all, means God's blessed rest. And God's blessed rest will not harm our souls. Rather, the blessed rest of the Lord's Day will make our souls whole.

That is, what God requires from us is that we present ourselves before him in order that he may bless us and make us whole. The fourth commandment, in other words, is the Lord calling us, "Come, and I will give you rest."

[^commandments]: For this reason, our lesson on the fourth commandment is divided into two parts.

[^possible]: Yes, possible, but not very plausible or convincing.