Encumbering Others – The Fourth Commandment

Encumbering Others

The Fourth Commandment

We must not cause others to work on the Lord’s Day.

Exodus 34:21

^“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest.  In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.”

Exodus 23:12

“Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.”

Exodus 35:2, 3

“Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD.  Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.”

We must not be a cause of others having to work on the Lord’s Day. Even if they are servants or aliens to God’s covenant, the way we keep the Lord’s Day must not encumber them with work. They need rest as well, and, while unbelievers typically feel no compunction about breaking the Lord’s Day, this does not free us to participate in their disobedience.

No work is so urgent—save those of necessity and mercy—that it may be allowed to corrupt the one day God has set aside to Himself. Imagine the powerful witness to a befuddled world if the followers of Christ could begin to practice the Lord’s Day as God intends!

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.