The Sabbath

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 13, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 23.

The Day, the Duty

1. What is the Sabbath commandment? 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 man servant, nor thy maid servant, 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. Ex. 20:8-11.

2. Has this Sabbath law been either changed or set aside? Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matt. 5:17, 18.

3. How is a moral obligation “fulfilled”? If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. James 2:8, 9. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Gal. 6:2.

NOTE.—The foregoing quotation from James speaks of the “royal,” that is to say, the kingly law. It quotes from that law, and says that it is “according to Scripture.” And it furthermore shows that to “love thy neighbor as thyself” is to fulfil that law. Then to fulfil the law means the most perfect observance of it. In like manner the quotation from Galatians shows that to “fulfil the law of Christ” we must bear one another’s burdens. That is, we must reach to the very highest form of service in obeying the law of Christ, and in that way we fulfil that law. Nothing could be clearer than the manifest meaning of the foregoing texts. To fulfil the law of God is to fill it full of obedience; in other words, to fulfil it is to obey it perfectly. Christ perfectly obeyed His Father’s law. The Scriptures teach this plainly. And the Master taught, as is shown by the foregoing text from the fifth chapter of Matthew, that not a single jot (that is, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet) or a tittle (that is, the distinguishing corner of a letter) should pass from that law till it was all fulfilled or obeyed. All must come into harmony with the just and enjoyable requirements of that law, or else meet the fate of destruction that is promised for all incorrigible sinners.

4. Since the moral law is not set aside by Christ, what, then, does that law say about the day of the Sabbath? The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Ex. 20:10.

5. How has the Lord shown His regard for the Sabbath day? The Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. Ex. 20:11.

6. What specially precious promise has the Lord given to those who will observe His holy day of rest? If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Isa. 58:13, 14.

NOTE.—How could any one turn their foot away from the Sabbath unless they were trampling upon it? Observe that God offers a rich reward to those who will be sufficiently loyal to Him to “turn away” their “foot from the Sabbath.”

7. Who has laid claim to being Lord of the Sabbath? And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Mark 2:27, 28.

NOTE.—To sum up what the foregoing scriptures plainly teach, we have the statements that not a single jot or tittle shall pass from the law of Jehovah; that law plainly says that the seventh day is the Sabbath; the text from Isaiah is in reality a prophecy that the time would come when men would trample the Sabbath under foot, and it offers a rich promise to those who would turn the foot away from treading down that sacred day; the Master acknowledges the Sabbath by plainly saying that He is “Lord” of that day. Then is it not a perfectly plain duty for all who follow Christ to observe the day of which He says He is Lord, and from which He requests us to turn away our feet?