"REMEMBER the sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Ex. 20:8). So begins the fourth great commandment of the Decalogue. It seems hardly possible that any directive could be stated with more simplicity, clarity, or with more understandable intent. That its meaning is distinct and beyond question is borne out by the fact that the most successful strategy for attack on this commandment by the carnal mind has been to imply that it is now null. This, however, is not the case with any law of God. This law has never been repealed or modified. It remains, just as when originally affirmed, a moral requirement for the spiritual advancement of mankind.
There are those who conclude that because of his clashes with the religious authorities over the manner of keeping the Sabbath day, Jesus placed little importance on the literal implications of this commandment. This is, of course, pure conjecture. No instance is recorded of the Master's ever exempting the fourth commandment when he declared (Matt. 5: 17,18): "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. ... One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."
His enemies, however, thought they saw an opportunity to undermine his influence by purporting to give the lie to this stand. In using the Sabbath law as the tool with which to accomplish this, they relied not on the pure statement of the law, but on their own custom-designed precedent, a tactic not unfamiliar in our own day.
