The Fifth Commandment

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 3, 1878

The Fifth Commandment.

A CORRESPONDENT writes: “The question is asked, If I obey the fifth commandment and that only, when Jesus rewards every one according to his works, shall I possess the land promised? If I come up in the second resurrection and experience the second death, how can I receive that reward?”

We answer that if a person should break every other commandment but the fifth, no reward would be due him for any efforts to keep that; and it might just as well be added that if he should rebelliously break any other commandment, the result would be the same. James says that he that offends in one point is guilty of all. There can be no obedience that is not prompted by love. A mere compliance with the letter of the law, without this principle, God could not accept. But if a person knowingly breaks one commandment, he sets aside the authority of God and shows that he has no love for him, and all his outward compliance with the other commandments amounts to nothing. If a person steals on Friday afternoon, it matters not how sanctimoniously he may enter upon the observance of the Sabbath when it comes, he cannot keep it in any way that God will recognize while the guilt of theft is upon his hands. So with the fifth or any other commandment. All are kept or broken together.