I’ve been trying to work through what it means to observe the Sabbath in two previous posts and have so far been rather inconclusive. I want to pick up where I left off the last time, where I was talking about what it means to rest on the Sabbath.

The traditional understanding is that to rest on the Sabbath means that you refrain from most worldly pursuits—-working, shopping, eating out, recreation---and instead go to church, spend the day at home with family (typically), and idle away the hours over meals, an afternoon nap, or whatever. Certainly this is resting, but is it the type of rest that God intended when he commanded us to do so?

Mikey, in the comments to an earlier post, said that we have confused the idea of rest with the idea of not consuming goods, and I think he hits on a good point. If I am honest with myself, I would feel much better about sharing Christian fellowship over lunch at a restaurant with someone or a group of people than sitting in front of the television on a Sunday. One of the purposes of Sabbath rest means that we keep our minds on spiritual things, and I don’t think that watching the Packers mop the floor with the Vikings fits the bill. However, I do think that sharing fellowship with Christian brothers and sisters does.

Jesus engaged in “recreation” with his disciples on the Sabbath, walking through grain fields and even picking the heads off the grain. The Pharisees accused him of violating the Sabbath. He also healed a man on the Sabbath, also prompting the Pharisees to point fingers for breaking the law [Matthew 12:1-14, cf. Mark 2:23-28 and Luke 6:1-11]. This is what the Westminster Larger Catechism points to when it says that we are to spend the day in worship “except so much of it as is to be taken up in works of necessity and mercy” (WLC Q&A 117).

Seeing as how my tradition adheres to the Westminster Standards as their confessional statements, I thought I’d go a little farther. While I do not wish to submit the Standards as final authority here (obviously Scripture is), I find the concise nature of the following helpful. Here is what Q&A 119 says, asking the question, “What sins are forbidden in the fourth commandment?” The answer:

The sins forbidden in the fourth commandment are, all omissions of the duties required, all careless, negligent, and unprofitable performing of them, and being weary of them; all profaning the day by idleness, and doing that which is in itself sinful; and by all needless works, words, and thoughts, about our worldly employments and recreations.

So what is to be gleaned from all this? First of all, I believe firmly that the day must be set aside for worship---that we must gather together with God’s people to bow before his throne and offer him praise, here his word, partake of the sacraments, and present our offerings of gratitude to him. Second, we must refrain from our daily labors. This is where it gets tricky. What constitutes our daily labors? I believe our work/career/vocation is a daily labor, and that just as God rested from his work of creation on the seventh day, so must be rest from our work. However, does taking a walk, watching television, going out to eat, or changing the oil on our cars constitute our “daily labors”?

I still don’t know. I still don’t have the answers to this in my mind. However, I want to make this clear: this is not a life or death issue for me. Though I believe it is important that I learn what it means to properly observe the Lord’s Day and to engage in the type of rest that God commands, I will not hesitate to call those who understand these things differently than I do brothers and sisters in Christ. In fact, I hope that different understandings can be brought together to help figure all this out.

At this point, what observing the Sabbath is all about is what is in our hearts. Our ultimate intention in that day must be to focus all of ourselves on the worship of God, as he has explicitly commanded us to do. We must do it faithfully, reverently, and willingly. Our God expects nothing less.