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Dear Sabbath:
The Ten Commandments are the basic
principles for proper living with God and
with other people. They were given to us
by God Himself.
When God's Son, Jesus, lived among
us, He endorsed the Ten Commandments
(Matthew 5: 17, NIV). Among other things,
He taught further about their depth,
breadth and reach, explaining that they
go beyond forbidding certain acts to forbid
certain sinful thoughts as well. So, for ex-
ample, the Seventh Commandment that
forbids adultery (the external act), actually
forbids even thinking about engaging in
adultery with another (the sinful thought).
Your question involves the Fourth
Commandment, in which God tells us to
keep the Sabbath day holy, specifically
instructing us to do our work six days of
the week, resting from that work on the
seventh.
While there are different schools of
thought on this command, we can see
that it is based in the creation story, and
is not a command limited to the young
Jewish nation: "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" (Exodus 30:11).
Following the tradition of the Church,
The Salvation Army celebrates the Sab-
bath on Sunday, in part to celebrate each
week the Resurrection of Christ and to
distinguish it from Judaism. The Salvation
Army's Position Statement declares,
"Salvationists will exert every influence
possible to make and keep Sunday as
a day of worship, rest and family." Our
Founder, General William Booth, stated, "
...this commandment has never been
repealed, and is binding on us today"
(War Cry, 1901).
We acknowledge there are some jobs
in society that are essential and must be
carried out over Sundays, such as medical
care, police activities, responding fire-
fighters, night managers for residential
care facilities, etc. Some would like to
honor the Fourth Commandment by not
working on Sunday, but fear the loss of
their only means of livelihood should they
ask for the day off.
Two questions must be considered if
you are a Christian working on Sundays:
Is your job so essential that it would
negatively affect someone's care or pro-
tection if it were not performed? If it isn't,
how much do you trust God to provide
another job for you?
A third question is also helpful to con-
sider: How is your Sunday different from
the other six days of the week? How are
you honoring the Christian Sabbath?
Even if you do not work on Sunday, do
you make it profitable for businesses to
remain open on Sunday by shopping and
conducting business that could be done
on other days of the week? If professing
Christians honored the Fourth Command-
ment, many businesses would close on
Sunday because it would not be profitable.
Sadly, we contribute to the problem by
selfishly serving our wants of the moment
rather than reserving Sunday as a day of
worship and rest.
Dear Aunt Sally:
One of the Ten Commandments
tells us to honor the Sabbath
and not to work on it. How does
this apply to people working
on Sunday at grocery stores,
gas stations, etc.?
--
To Sabbath or Not to Sabbath
Need help with relationship problems, spiritual questions, parenting situations?
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regular mail at Ask Aunt Sally, Salvation Army Publications, 615 Slaters Lane, Alexandria, VA 22313.
Questions appropriate for printing in the War Cry will be answered through this column.
The War Cry | MAY 2014