by Jim Savastio | Oct 30, 2024 | Practical Theology
The quickest and surest way to bring about change in a society is to instill a sense of panic. In a nation, in a community, and yes, in the churches, if you can convince people that we are in peril, that their very survival is at stake, that things have never been worse, they will welcome many changes that under more normal conditions would not be tolerated.
For some time now church leaders have been hitting the panic button and issuing dire warnings about the future of the church in our society. “We must get our heads out the sand, see what is happening and above all else respond with appropriate change. We can’t do things the old way, we must either confront or retreat, transform our doctrine or change our practice.”
The statistics regarding the number of churches closing and the rate of declension in membership among American bible-believing churches should certainly have our attention.
Some time ago I came across these words on the internet written by a prominent pastor. This is what he said to his congregation, “Our lot is cast in an age of abounding unbelief, skepticism and, I fear I must add, infidelity. Never, perhaps, since the days of the early Roman persecution of the church was the truth of revealed religion so openly and unblushingly assailed — and never was the assault so speciously and plausibly conducted.”
And then carefully consider this warning given by another prominent pastor, “It is come to be taken for granted by many people, that Christianity is not even a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at length assumed to be fictitious. And accordingly, they treat it as if, in the present age, this was an agreed point among all people of discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of…ridicule, for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world.”
Ready for a pop quiz? What prominent pastors wrote these dire warnings and when did they write them?
The first prominent pastor I quoted is J. C. Ryle. He wrote those words in 1879. The second quotation is from a man known as Bishop Butler who wrote in 1736.
When Paul wrote to Timothy he exhorted him to be steadfast in the faith and to faithfully preach the Word. These exhortations came against the prospect of great changes coming to the church. People would not want sound doctrine. They would heap up for themselves teachers who would give them what they wanted to hear. If Timothy continued to simply give them sound doctrine he could anticipate that some of the flock would likely go elsewhere and find preachers and teachers to give them what they wanted.
To be sure, there are churches that need to change. Some need to change drastically. The Bible calls for repentance and for reformation. Churches who are unfaithful to their calling and commission must change. Churches that become aware of sin in their midst and compromise in their doctrine or practices must change. But we must not change due to fear of irrelevance and we must not alter our course due to the pressures of society. Every pressure we feel to change must be produced by the weighty pressure of exegesis and not the enormous pressure of an empty pew or ministries that are growing by some other means. Before we push that panic button, let’s remember that button has been there for a long time.
Jim has been with RBC since 1990. He was set aside by the church for full time ministry in November of 1991. Jim was brought to faith as a teenager and soon began to experience a desire to preach God’s Word. He trained for the ministry at Columbia Bible College in Columbia, SC (now Columbia International University) and at the Trinity Ministerial Academy in Montville, NJ. He married his wife, Becky in 1989 and they have been blessed with three daughters and one son.
by Timothy Decker | Oct 29, 2024 | New Testament
TEXTUAL ODDITIES OF THE TEXTUS RECEPTUS IN 1 JOHN
Part 4: Strange Textual Readings in the TR
In the previous article, we noted that while the TR typically follows the Byzantine text, there are occasions, especially in 1 John, where it departs from it. This article will do the opposite–it will observe the Byzantine and TR together in 1 John. However, we will note a somewhat unique feature in 1 John—the uncharacteristic shorter readings of the Byzantine and TR readings.
Uncharacteristic Shorter Readings
The Byzantine Textform and the TR tradition are known for having the longer and (sometimes) conflated readings. Some of these are well-known “longer reading” passages such as the longer ending of Mark (Mark 16:9–20), the women caught in adultery (John 7:53–8:11), and the stirring of the water at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:4) just to name a few. In 1 John, the TR (though not the Byzantine text) would include the longer but poorly attested Comma Johanneum of 1 John 5:7–8.[1] However, there are at least 3 occurrences in 1 John where the TR uncharacteristically follows the shorter reading, and each time it seems to be a mistake. What is more, some of these shorter readings can prove to be interpretively devastating.
1 John 2:4
We begin with a rather inconsequential omission at 2:4 that is nevertheless a shorter reading and uncharacteristic for the TR. And here, I don’t mean that it is uncharacteristic only because it is a shorter reading. It is also uncharacteristic because the word missing in the TR at 2:4 (ὅτι; hoti) when introducing a quotation, is present throughout the rest of 1 John when introducing a quotation.
For example, 1 John 1:6, 8, and 10 are all hypothetical scenarios prefaced with the same phrase “if we say that [ὅτι] we…” (ἐὰν εἴπωμεν ὅτι + 1st person plural verb). Notice that each time, the quote is introduced with ὅτι/hoti. It may be argued that the difference between the quotes at 1:6, 8, and 10 versus 2:4 is the difference between indirect quotes in ch. 1 and a direct quote in 2:4. If that is the case, though ὅτι/hoti does not require one or the other necessarily,[2] then one could argue that its omission was intentional to differentiate the kinds of quotations and to indicate a direct quotation at 2:4. On the other hand, 1 John 4:20a (“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar…” NKJV) is unquestionably a direct quotation just as our disputed text 1 John 2:4. Yet that direct quote is introduced with ὅτι/hoti: ἐάν τις εἴπῃ ὅτι ἀγαπῶ τὸν θεὸν / “if someone says, ‘I love God…’” without any textual variant. Further, if we consider 1 John 4:15 to be a spoken confession (“Jesus is the Son of God”), then it could also be included as a direct quotation introduced with ὅτι/hoti: “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” NKJV. Therefore, it is normal for the TR to introduce a quote in 1 John with the inclusion of ὅτι/hoti. Yet at 1 John 2:4, it follows a shorter reading by excluding it.
When comparing the MSS evidence, I would say that the inclusion of the ὅτι/hoti reading has a stronger pedigree and is the better reading. The CNTTS apparatus (along with the NA28 in brackets where not included) provides the following:
The ECM adds more than 50 other minuscules for the inclusion and longer reading not cited in the CNTTS apparatus: 6 33 81 88 94 104 206 254 323 326c 378 424c 429 431 436 442 459 467 614 621 630 642 808 876 915 1067 1127 1292 1359 1409 1490 1501 1523 1524 1563 1611 1718 1799 1831 1822 1842 1844 1845c 1852 2138 2147 2200 2243 2298 2344 2412 2464 2492 2541 2544 2652 2805 l596. Three of these are corrections (all from the tenth or eleventh century), indicating that it would have been very easy to skip the word as it is not grammatically necessary and the ligatures of the surrounding words are very similar to one another.
GA 424 with corrector adding ὅτι
For reasons unknown to me, none of the apparatuses (NA28, CNTTS, ECM) cited for the omission majuscules K/018 and L/020. However, I checked and verified that they indeed followed the shorter reading.[3] Nevertheless, from this evidence, we can see that the inclusion or longer reading has important majuscules and minuscules from various textual clusters, while the exclusion of ὅτι/hoti is localized to the Byzantine text almost exclusively. Therefore, the TR being characteristically Byzantine, would follow this shorter reading. Yet it is the weaker of the two options.
1 John 3:1
We switch now from a small and rather insignificant textual variant (insignificant except for textual scholars) to a textual variant a bit longer and far more important. And this one can be observed in translation and interpretation.
The two words not included in the TR of 1 John 3:1 have significant interpretive value to convey assurance to the believers (arguably the theme of 1 John!). The move from the subjunctive mood of possibility “that we might be called children of God” to the indicative mood of assertion “and we are!” conveys a comfort to the readers knowing that they currently have eternal life and enjoy the adoption as sons. That is not to say that the TR teaches the opposite, but it does leave out a key portion of 1 John in just two simple Greek words—καὶ ἐσμέν, kai esmen, “and we are.”The shorter reading found in the TR, Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform (ByzT), and Hodges & Farstad Majority Text (MajT) is very weak, even weaker than the shorter reading above at 1 John 2:4. To be as extensive as possible, I’ll use the Text und Textwert series, which counts the MSS excluding the two-word expression at 431 (mostly Byzantine minuscules) to 74 MSS that include it in some form.[4] Those MSS that include the longer reading, though in the minority from a numerical standpoint, are nevertheless fairly overwhelming (ECM and [CNTTS] lists the following):
Additionally, the longer reading also has the support of nearly all the Latin witnesses (both the Old Latin and many Vulgate MSS), Syriac, Coptic, and other ancient translations. It also has strong support from church fathers such as Justin, Augustine, Bede, and Theophylact. The point being, this longer reading is geographically diverse, represented in the Byzantine, Western, and Alexandrian textual clusters, and continues a stable transmissional history. Indeed, some of the longer readings overlap in the same minuscules for both 1 John 2:4 and 3:1.[5] On the other hand, the shorter reading is exclusively late and restricted to the Byzantine text. This is why it appears in the Robinson-Pierpont ByzT and the Hodges & Farstad MajT. This is also why the TR follows this shorter reading, as it typically follows the majority Byzantine reading.
The likely creation of this omission is due to homeoteleuton (“like ending”) wherein the same three letters that ended just before the two words in question have the same ending as the 2 words often omitted—κληθῶμεν, καὶ ἐσμέν. Originally, it would have looked like this:
As the scribe was copying the words ἵνα τέκνα θεοῦ κληθῶμεν, lit. “that children of God we might be called,” onto the new manuscript, his eyes returned to the vicinity of his exemplar manuscript that ended with the -μεν. However, as it would happen, he returned to the wrong -μεν location, skipping over the two words και εσμεν “and we are,” and continued on copying as though he had not erred. Instances such as these are very common, especially in 1 John.[6]
On the other hand, it is hard to imagine how or why “and we are” would be inserted. One scenario is that it began as a marginal note of praise that a later scribe, erring on the side of caution, included in the text just in case it was meant to be part of the original. But this is only hypothetical.
The Rare and Illusive Shorter and Non-Byzantine TR readings
1 John 4:16
This last example is another one-word omission found in the TR; however, it is not a Byzantine reading. Therefore, this variant could also be listed in the previous article as the TR departing from the Byzantine or here as being the shorter reading. In that way, this rendering in the TR at 1 John 4:16 is doubly odd as it is both the shorter reading and does not follow the Byzantine text.
The shorter reading here is the omission of the final verb μένει, menei, “remains/abides.” As the difference in translation indicates, the verb can either be stated or implied, but the meaning is the same. And perhaps this is why the less redundant reading of the TR which excludes the verb μένει is the cleaner of the two. And yet, there are times when the TR renders the more redundant and repeated reading, such as 1 John 4:2–3.
Scribal error is very unlikely to be the cause of the one-word exclusion in 1 John 4:16. But the TR would make intrinsic probability inconsistent. That is, if we follow the TR, it seems the author of 1 John (whom I believe is the apostle John) was inconsistent in his repeating redundant words. However, this inconsistency is removed had the TR followed the longer Byzantine reading in both places.
As it happens, I believe the longer and redundant reading in both 1 John 4:3 and 4:16 has the better external support. It also fits with the Johannine style, rife with redundant expressions. Here, we will focus our attention to 4:16 and the longer reading.
The Byzantine text is divided at this point. Therefore, both the ByzT and the MajT would rely upon internal evidence in order to decide upon the longer reading. Leaving off the final verb may have been in keeping with the very similar phrasing at the end of 1 John 4:15, “ὁ θεὸς ἐν αὐτῷ μένει, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ θεῷ,” (“God abides in him, and he in God”) when compared to the end of 4:16, “ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ, ἐν τῷ θεῷ μένει, καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἐν αὐτῷ μένει” (lit. “the one abiding in love, abides in God, and God abides in him”). In that case, just as the final verb is left unstated and implied in v. 15, it could have been omitted either accidentally based on the memory of the verse prior or purposefully as it was not necessarily fitting John’s style just one verse prior. Or it could be just as likely that a scribe would purposefully omit a redundant verb, believing the parent copy was incorrect, due to the fact that the previous verse (v. 15) left the verb unstated and implied. However, for a scribe to insert the verb at the end of v. 16 but not at the end of v. 15 seems highly unlikely. And while there is no MSS evidence for a longer reading at v. 15 (e.g. there is no variant that includes a stated verb), the pedigree of the longer reading at the end of v. 16 is quite strong:
The support for the longer reading has widespread testimony, being represented early and later in both Alexandrian and Byzantine MSS. Interestingly, GA 1 was one of the MSS that Erasmus would use for his initial TR edition. And while it included the longer μένει reading, Erasmus did not. On the other hand, the Complutensian Polyglot was the only edition among the TR tradition to include it.
A rare papyri fragment of 1 John might lend aid. Papyrus 9 (𝔓9), a 4th century papyrus, may or may not include the final verb μένει. However, the horizontal line just at the bottom-right may indicate that an abbreviated version of it was original, as just two lines above another line was used to possibly abbreviate και to κα. The third abbreviated horizontal line (counting from the bottom) is a nomen sacrum for Christ:
GA 𝔓9 of 1 John 4:16
The INTF transcription of this papyrus fragment reads:[7]
The dot under the mu of line 10 indicates uncertainty. The note for the word in question (at the end of line 10) says “Kürzungsstrich für μενει?” which means “Abbreviation stroke for μενει?” The truth is, the very next words of v. 17 could be the start of what is lacking in this fragment, and so we cannot be certain.
To be fair, the manuscripts that support the shorter reading represented in the TR also has some strong witnesses to its credit. The NA28 list the following:
Of these, A, 33, 1735, and 1881 are important MSS for 1 John. However, the original hand of 1881 included the longer reading, only for a corrector to erase it off. We cannot be sure if it was the same copyist or a later editor. But most of these MSS are very Byzantine in their clustering, thus limiting the omission to one specific textual stream. Nevertheless, the Byzantine is not completely unified, as the Robinson-Pierpont ByzT indicates in the margin of their text. Until a full transcription of all the minuscule manuscripts of 1 John are completed, exact numbers are difficult to come by without individually inspecting each one.[8]
There are some notable manuscripts not yet mentioned. Codex Sinaiticus, א/01, was not included in the ECM’s initial list because of its strange spelling of the verb μένει as:
making it impossible to discern if the present tense form μένει was meant over GA 330’s future tense form μενεῖ. This spelling is mostly limited to the three occurrences in 4:15–16 (yes, I checked them all in 1 John).[9] I am not entirely sure what accounts for this strange spelling at vv. 15–16 of א/01. Notably, the first and third occurrences of misspelling split the word in half, with one line ending with: 
and the next line beginning with:
Regardless of this misspelling, this important uncial should be included with those MSS that represent the longer reading. Uncials 04/C and 025/P have a lacunae; that is, they are missing a page that contains this verse. Uncial 048 has damaged portions of this page, including the part of 1 John 4:16 under question.
Regardless, the TR, following the shorter reading, seems to be of weaker support.
Conclusion
The purpose of the third and fourth article in this series is to demonstrate that the TR of 1 John is odd in that it departs from its own standard practice of including the longer readings and following the Byzantine text. Yet, in several cases above, we saw the TR stray from its normal pattern (shorter readings and/or non-Byzantine readings). And in each case, it seems that such TR oddities led to many readings that were unlikely to be original to 1 John. In the next article, we will look at some other peculiar TR readings of 1 John that are of a dubious sort.
[1] For an excellent overview of the MSS that contain the CJ, see Elijah Hixson, “The Greek Manuscripts of the Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7–8),” Evangelical Textual Criticism blog, accessed: http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-greek-manuscripts-of-comma.html.
[2] See for example Wallac’s treatment of direct and indirect discourse both being preceded by ὅτι clauses. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 454–58.
[3] These two were included in the apparatus provided by CrossWire Bible called the SWORD Project VarApp. It can be accessed either at www.laparola.net/greco or www.stepbible.org/version.jsp?version=VarApp. This is not always a reliable source, but it is still very helpful.
[4] Aland, Text und Textwert der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments: Die Katholischen Briefe, 1:144-146.
[5] For those John Gill fans, see his comments on the presence and meaning of these two words.
[6] Comfort offers an explanation that it was intentionally removed due to the clunky and redundant style. However, this is not the norm for the Byzantine textform and not likely a reasonable explanation for its omission. Philip W. Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2008), 776. Metzger offers either accidental omission as explained above or intentional omission as Comfort as possible solutions. Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition (Stuttgart: German Bible Society, 1994), 642.
[7] Accessed at https://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/community/vmr/api/transcript/get/?docID=10009&indexContent=1John%204:14-17&pageID=20&format=html.
[8] This author is doing this very thing for 1 John 1:4. It is a slow, tedious, and laborious process.
[9] 1 John 2:6 has menin instead of menein; 2:27 has the imperative form (which does not fit) menete instead of the indicative meneite. The spelling is correct at 2:10, 14, 17, 24, 27; 3:9, 14, 17, 24 (2x’s); and 4:12.
Dr. Timothy Decker is one of the pastors of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Roanoke, VA, having joined them in 2018. He holds a B.A. and M.A. biblical studies from Carolina University (formerly Piedmont International University), a Th.M. in New Testament from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Capital Seminary and Graduate School. In his dissertation research, he examined the style of biblical Hebrew poetry in the New Testament. He has presented various papers at academic society meetings and authored numerous articles in several different scholarly journals. He is a member of ETS and IBR. When he is not reading or researching, he enjoys spending time with his wife and four children.
Courses taught at CBTSeminary: Elementary Greek I, Elementary Greek II
by CBTS | Oct 9, 2024 | Announcements
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9th, 2024.
CBTSeminary is pleased to announce the name of our main lecture hall in Owensboro, KY., “The Myers Lecture Hall.”
Howard “Mickey” Myers
(1952-2023)
Howard “Mickey” Myers was born on February 3, 1952, in Franklin Square, NY. He was born again on March 10, 1968, at 16 years of age. He attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO, and Grace College in Winona Lake, IN, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in 1976. Mickey became a student at Westminster Theological Seminary, where he met his theological hero, Cornelius Van Til. Unfortunately, he was not able to complete his master’s degree due to financial constraints.
After leaving Seminary, Mickey moved to Wayne, MI, where he assisted with a new church plant. Two years later, he was called to pastor Thornwood Baptist Church in Ada, MI, where he remained for 14 months. While at Thornwood, he met Pastor Ted Christman, who notified Mickey about a ministry opportunity in Marion, KY. He moved there in 1982 to serve as the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Marion. He served for 28 years until the church closed in 2010. Upon the closure of the church, the church voted to give the remaining finances and church building to Heritage Baptist Church and the Midwest Center of Theological Studies (now Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary). This was a vital gift at a critical time of need for the Seminary, sustaining its viability in the period of infancy.
In 2012, Mickey had a serious automobile accident that resulted in memory loss and the eventual amputation of his right leg in 2014. In 2018, he moved to Owensboro, KY, and became a member of Grace Reformed Baptist Church. Mickey was a faithful member of GRBC and a close friend of Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. He regularly attended evening courses and modules at CBTS and enjoyed attending conferences to represent the Seminary.
Mickey was constantly devoted to serving God in whatever way he could. He loved the Word of God and had a great desire to see young men called and trained for gospel ministry. He was a faithful husband and father, praying unceasingly for his family and seeking to be a helpful part of their lives.
In 2022, Mickey fell and suffered a broken bone in his neck. His friends feared that this could be the beginning of his final decline. Much to their astonishment, the Lord granted Mickey to recover greater health then he had enjoyed for several years. In this strength, Mickey stood on July 23, 2023, and delivered one last teaching on the book of Ecclesiastes. This would be his final time ministering to the people of God.
Through many trials and tribulations, Mickey remained faithful unto his death on August 26, 2023, at age 71. His exemplary rejoicing under tribulation impressed all who knew him well. Though he was never able to finish his own Seminary education, he had a great passion for seeing men trained for the gospel ministry. This legacy lives on within this classroom that bears his name, where he would undoubtedly still be if he was not in that “city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10)
*Thank you to the talented Marcos Rodrigues for drawing this portrait of Mr. Myers. For more information about CBTSeminary, please visit CBTSeminary.org
by Ben Carlson | Oct 7, 2024 | Practical Theology, Systematic Theology
1.) The Lord’s Day shows the world we are Christians.
There are many things that display our Christianity to a watching world. But a major display is our observance of the fourth commandment. It is a distinctive sign that marks us off as the people of God.
This was true for the early church. It is said that early on Christians were made known to their Roman persecutors because of their observance of the Lord’s Day. Justin Edwards remarks, “Hence the fact that their persecutors, when they wished to know whether men were Christians, were accustomed to put to them this question, viz., `Dominicum servasti?’ -`Hast thou kept the Lord’s day?‘ If they had they were Christians. This was the badge of their Christianity, in distinction from Jews and pagans. And if they said they had, and would not recant, they must be put to death. And what, when they continued steadfast, was their answer? `Christianus sum; intermittere non possum;’-`I am a Christian; I cannot omit it.’ It is a badge of my religion, and the man who assumes it must of course keep the Lord’s day, because it is the will of his Lord; and should he abandon it, he would be an apostate from his religion.”[1]
Voltaire, the 18th century French Enlightenment philosopher, knew how important the Christian Sabbath was to the Christian religion. As one who despised Christianity, he wrote, “There is no hope of destroying the Christian religion while the Christian Sabbath is acknowledged and kept by men as a sacred day.”
And this is true of Christians today, especially for those of us who live in the Bible belt. In a culture that has been deeply influenced by Christianity for generations, there may not be a whole lot of differences between your life and the lives of your unbelieving neighbors.
Your neighbor may be a faithful husband, loving father, an honest employee, a social conservative fighting against the evils of homosexuality and abortion, and one who always lends a helping hand to someone in need. But one of the key differences may be what your lives look like on Sundays.
While you are getting into the car to drive to church, he is mowing his lawn. While you are giving God spiritual sacrifices in corporate worship, he is sitting on his couch watching the football game. While you are fellowshipping with the brethren about the things of the Lord, he is hanging out with his buddies talking about work and sports. While you sup at the Lord’s Table, he is eating at the sports bar and grill.
For observing the Lord’s Day properly, people may look at you like you are an alien from another planet. But this is the very thing that identifies you as a follower of Jesus Christ!
2.) The Lord’s Day tests our sanctification.
God tells us that one whole day is to be completely devoted to Him. He tells us to clear our schedules, cancel our appointments, put down the remote, turn back from doing our own pleasure, and leave the day entirely open to Him.
This really tests our trust, love, and commitment to our God! We may be tempted with questions like these: Will God take care of me if I can’t work one day a week? What will I miss out on if I have to put down ordinary things once a week? Will I waste a seventh part of my life? What am I going to do with all the time I have on Sundays? What will others think of me if I tell them I can’t work on that day or do recreational activities on that day?
John Calvin points out where all these questions come from: “Strange and monstrous indeed is the license of our pride! The Lord demands nothing stricter than for us to observe his Sabbath most scrupulously [Ex. 20:8 ff; Deut. 5:12 ff.], that is, by resting from our labors. Yet there is nothing that we are more unwilling to do than to bid farewell to our own labors and to give God’s works their rightful place.”[2]
Jeff Johnson comments, “keeping the Sabbath represents true freedom. The person who is unable to put aside his or her regular labors just one day a week is, by definition, a slave. The inability to lay aside sports and entertainment for a day means you are not free. Those things are your gods before whom you bow. They control you. When you have the ability to set those things aside and do so with delight to give yourself wholly to the purpose of the day, you have true freedom.”[3]
Brethren, instead of viewing the Sabbath as a day of drudgery and sacrifice (look at all the things I must give up!) and a burden to get rid of (Amos 8:5), may we see it as a day of blessing (look at all the things God promises to give me!) and call it a delight (Isaiah 58:13)!
Remember Jesus’ words: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). God has designed the Christian Sabbath to be a means of grace for us to draw us close to Himself, empower us to defeat our enemies, and fill our souls with the good and nourishing words of the gospel! Truly, it is “the market day of the soul”!
For some encouragement, listen to the words of Albert Barnes: “And it is easily capable of proof that no institution has been more signally blessed to man’s welfare than the Sabbath. To that we owe, more than to anything else, the peace and order of a civilized community. Where there is no Sabbath there is ignorance, vice, disorder, and crime. On that holy day the poor and the ignorant, as well as the learned, have undisturbed time to learn the requirements of religion, the nature of morals, the law of God, and the way of salvation. On that day man may offer his praises to the Great Giver of all good, and in the sanctuary seek the blessing of him whose favor is life. Where that day is observed in any manner as it should be, order prevails, morals are promoted, the poor are elevated in their condition, vice flies away, and the community puts on the appearance of neatness, industry, morality, and religion. The Sabbath was therefore pre-eminently intended for man’s welfare, and the best interests of mankind demand that it should be sacredly regarded as an appointment of merciful heaven intended for our best good, and, where improved aright, infallibly resulting in our temporal and eternal peace.”[4]
And Philip Schaff: “The due observance of it . . . is a wholesome school of discipline, a means of grace for the people, a safeguard of public morality and religion, a bulwark against infidelity, and a source of immeasurable blessing to the church, the state, and the family. Next to the Church and the Bible, the Lord’s Day is the chief pillar of Christian society.”[5]
3.) The Lord’s Day prepares us for the glory to come.
This day is also a day designed by God to get us ready for heaven. The ancient Jews supposedly described heaven as “the day which is all Sabbath”.[6] It is a continuous, eternal Sabbath Day. That doesn’t mean we will never do any work in heaven; but it does mean we will experience in full the peace, enjoyment, and rest that we only partially receive on the Sabbath Day here on earth.
Therefore, each Sabbath Day in this age functions as a sneak peak of heaven and foretaste of glory. We should live Sabbath Day to Sabbath Day in anticipation of the eternal Sabbath Age to come.
Observing the Sabbath will help us stay on track in our pilgrimage. It will remind us that our eternal Sabbath rest has been won by Christ when He defeated death at His resurrection on the first day of the week. Since He has entered into God’s eternal rest, so will we! And it will make us long for the day when Jesus returns and brings us as well as all creation into that rest forever. As the hymnwriter says,
A few more sabbaths here
Shall cheer us on our way,
And we shall reach the endless rest,
Th’eternal sabbath day:
Then, O my Lord, prepare
My soul for that sweet day;
O wash me in thy precious blood,
And take my sins away.
4.) Those who find no delight in the Sabbath Day now would be absolutely miserable in the Sabbath Age to come.
Listen to these sobering words from Albert Barnes: “(4) they who do not love the Sabbath on earth, are not prepared for heaven. If it is to them a day of tediousness; if its hours move heavily; if they have no delight in its sacred employments, what would an eternity of such days be? How would they be passed? Nothing can be clearer than that if we have no such happiness in a season of holy rest, and in holy employments here, we are wholly unprepared for heaven. To the Christian it is the subject of the highest joy in anticipation that heaven is to be “one long unbroken” sabbath – an eternity of successive Sabbath hours. But what to a sinner could be a more repulsive and gloomy prospect than such an eternal Sabbath?
(5) if this be so, then what a melancholy view is furnished as to the actual preparation of the great mass of people for heaven! How is the Sabbath now spent? In idleness; in business; in traveling; in hunting and fishing; in light reading and conversation; in sleep; in visiting; in riding, walking, lounging, “ennui;” – in revelry and dissipation; in any and every way “except the right way;” in every way except in holy communion with God. What would the race be if once transported to heaven as they are! What a prospect would it be to this multitude to have to spend “an eternity” which would be but a prolongation of the Sabbath of holiness!”[7]
Conclusion
To conclude, are you ready for the “one long unbroken” Sabbath to come? The Day which is all Sabbath? The Day when you will purely and sinlessly take delight in the LORD, when you will ride on the heights of heaven, and when you will feed on all the blessings of the New Heavens and New Earth? Then remember the Christian Sabbath Day, to call it a delight and keep it holy!
[1] Justin Edwards, Sabbath Manual, 120.
[2] Calvin, Institutes, 2:3:9.
[3] Jeff Johnson, “Lawful Works on the Sabbath Day”, unpublished paper.
[4] Albert Barnes, comments on Mark 2:27.
[5] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church Volume I, 479.
[6] JFB, comments on Hebrews 4:9.
[7] Albert Barnes, comments on Hebrews 4:9.
Ben has been one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Owensboro, Kentucky, since June 2017. In February 2018, he received his Master of Divinity from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben has been married to his lovely wife Ali since September 2011. They have four children together: Liam, Luther, Cosette, and Maezie. In his spare time, Ben enjoys playing with his kids, coaching, doing yard work, and Friday family nights.
by Ben Carlson | Oct 7, 2024 | Systematic Theology
The Practice of the Sabbath Day
How are we to keep the Lord’s Day as the Christian Sabbath holy to the Lord? Paragraph 8 lays out two key ways:
1.) Due preparation: “The sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering their common affairs aforehand,”
Keeping the Sabbath holy to the Lord starts before the Sabbath begins. We shouldn’t stumble or sleepwalk into the Sabbath! We shouldn’t wake up and be surprised that it is Sunday! Instead, our hearts and our homes should be well-prepared for that great day. We should be prepared before we go to bed Saturday night, but this preparation should initially begin Monday morning!
In a sense, we should for the Lord’s Day like athletes prepare for game day. Think of the life of a college football player. The big day for him is Saturday. Everything he does after the game and throughout the week prepares him for next Saturday.
- Sunday: rest, light stretching and exercises, film from previous game
- Monday: weightlifting, film
- Tuesday: practice, weightlifting, film
- Wednesday: practice, film
- Thursday: practice, weightlifting, film
- Friday: walk through, meetings, check equipment, lay uniform out, go over game plan, get plenty of water and sleep
- Saturday morning: breakfast with team, warm ups, motivational speeches and videos, meditation, game time!
- REPEAT ALL OVER AGAIN!
The point is, he lives his life Saturday to Saturday, game day to game day.
In a similar way, Christians must schedule their entire week around the Lord’s Day. But instead of living Saturday to Saturday like the college football player or Monday to Monday like the American worker, as a Christian live your life Sabbath Day to Sabbath Day.
Since the Lord’s Day is the greatest day of the week and the corporate worship of God is the greatest event on earth, then everything else we do throughout the week should be done in preparation of it! Plan to do your vocation, commerce, grocery shopping, home projects, yardwork, schoolwork, hobbies and recreations, and family celebrations on other days so there will be no distractions or hindrances to observing the Christian Sabbath and keeping it holy to the Lord.
Westminster Larger Catechism states this: “we are to prepare our hearts, and with such foresight, diligence, and moderation, to dispose and seasonably dispatch our worldly business, that we may be the more free and fit for the duties of that day.”
I want to encourage you that with some thoughtfulness and intentionality, you can get all your work done in six days without having it bleed into the Lord’s Day.
Other Applications:
- Go to sleep on time on Saturday night.
- Wake up early on Sunday morning.
- Eat a filling, nutritious breakfast.
- Spend time reading the Scriptures, meditating, and praying before leaving the house.
- Think upon the works of God, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the special presence of God in corporate worship, and the eternal Sabbath rest to come in the New Heavens and New Earth.
- Repent of any known sin and be reconciled to others who have something against you.
- Sing hymns with your family as you drive to church.
- Put down social media (or at least greatly limit it to spiritual matters).
2.) Right practice:
What should our Sabbath Day observance look like? How do we properly keep it? Negatively, we are not to profane it (Exodus 31:14; Nehemiah 13:17), meaning we are not to treat it as a common day, like the other days of the week. Positively, we are to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8; Deuteronomy 5:12), meaning we are to set it apart from the other days of the week as a special and sacred day.
This involves resting. “Sabbath” literally means “rest”. But we are not to rest from all work and be completely inactive. God is our great example in Sabbath keeping. On the seventh day, He rested. But He was not inactive. His rest meant He finished the initial work of creation. It also meant He delighted in all the works of His hands and He sat enthroned as King over creation. But He did not put Himself on “sleep mode”. Even on the seventh day, God as the Providential Governor was upholding and sustaining the universe by the Word of His power.
Jesus affirms this. On the Sabbath Day Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). Since the Father and the Son were busy at work on the Sabbath Day, so should we. But we must put down a certain kind of work in order to take up another. So, paragraph 8 goes on to tell us what exactly we are to rest from and what exactly we are to be doing in order to fulfill the requirements of the 4th commandment.
i.) What we are to put down: “do not only observe an holy rest all day, from their own works, words and thoughts, about their worldly employment and recreations,”
The holy rest we are to observe on the Christian Sabbath entails resting from our worldly employment and recreations. Resting from thinking about them, speaking about them, and doing them.
What are worldly employment and recreations? “Worldly” here doesn’t mean sinful. We are always to abstain from sinful things, not just on Sundays! It means things that pertain to this world or this present age. It includes lawful things having to do with our employments/jobs and recreations/hobbies. In other words, secular work and play.
God gives us six whole days to do these things. But on the Sabbath Day, all “needless”[1] works, words, and thoughts about them must be put down.
Here are several passages which teach us to rest from our worldly employment:
- Exodus 20:10: but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
- Deuteronomy 5:14: but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
- Leviticus 23:3: “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.
- Jeremiah 17:24: “‘But if you listen to Me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it,
- Nehemiah 13:15-22 (here Nehemiah rebukes the Israelites for buying and selling food and wares on the Sabbath Day and makes the needed reforms to keep it from happening again.)
What about worldly recreations? The classic passage which touches on this is Isaiah 58:13-14: 13“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; 14then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
Here we are told not to go our own ways and not to seek our own pleasure and not to speak our own words on the holy day of the LORD. In essence, this means to refrain from doing what we want to do and what pleases us. In fact, the LXX literally reads “not to do your will in the holy day”. This is a broad and far-reaching injunction that refers to both work and play. The point is, on the Lord’s Day we are to turn back our feet from doing even permissible things that give us delight and pleasure and only do what God tells us to do.
This means our Christian liberty is more restricted on the Lord’s Day than other days of the week. This is not only true during corporate worship but also throughout the whole day. D. Scott Meadows comments, “The point is that the Sabbath does not offer us the liberties we have on the other six days to do what we please in terms of innocent things like business or recreation; rather, the Lord claims His right to set the agenda for our Lord’s Day activities, as it is His holy day, and not an ordinary day like the others.” [2]
The Lord sets the agenda for His day. Since the day belongs to Him and since we belong to Him, He tells us what to think about, what to speak about, and what to do. As the Westminster Larger Catechism says, on this day God “restrains our natural liberty in things at other times lawful”.[3]
ii.) What we are to take up: “but are also taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.”
Instead of a specific list of dos and don’ts, the Confession gives us three categories or kinds of duties or works that must fill up our time on the Sabbath Day: works of piety, works of necessity, and works of mercy.
We see these three kinds of works perfectly displayed in the example of our Savior Jesus Christ. As the Keeper and Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8), what He did in the days of His flesh on the Sabbath Day carries divine authority and sets a good example for us to follow. Edmund Clowney says, “Jesus authoritatively defines what may and what may not be done on the Sabbath. Jesus defines Sabbath service”.[4]
A. ) Works of piety: “public and private exercises of his worship,”
- Luke 4:16: And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read.
- Matthew 12:5: Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?
Works of piety are works pertaining to the worship of God and the edification of our souls or the souls of others. These are the main and primary works we are to do on the Lord’s Day. Examples include private Bible reading, prayer, family worship, corporate worship, fellowship with the brethren, evangelizing, and Christian-themed activities.
It is important to state that the observance of the Christian Sabbath is much more than resting from worldly labors; it also entails taking up the sacred duties of worship. We rest from ordinary work precisely so we can worship our God.
We see this combination of putting down ordinary work and taking up sacred work in the OT observance of the Sabbath Day. Two passages make this clear: Leviticus 23 and Psalm 92.
Leviticus 23:
Leviticus 23:3: “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.”
The Hebrew phrase “holy convocation/assembly” is used 15 times in the OT (Exodus 12:6; Leviticus 23:3, 7, 8, 21, 24, 27, 35, 36; Numbers 28:18, 25, 26; 29:1, 7, 12). On the Sabbath Day, the Israelites were to convoke or assemble together. They were to do so for a holy or special purpose.
So, the solemn rest is rest from ordinary work, not all work. On the Sabbath, the Israelites were to lay down their normal activities in order to convoke together for the special purpose of worshiping God. One thing they were to do was give offerings to the LORD in worship (which is evident in many of the other places this term is used).
Psalm 92:
Psalm 92 is entitled, “A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.” John Gill states, “It was made for the sabbath day, and to be used upon it;”.
This song tells us that on the Sabbath, these things would go on:
- Praising God for His works of creation and salvation (vv. 1, 4).
- Proclaiming the attributes of God in the morning and evening (vv. 2, 15).
- Playing music to God (v. 3).
- Participating in the worship of God in the house and courts of God (vv. 7-15).
Geneva Study Bible on Psalm 92 says, “Which teaches that the use of the Sabbath stands in praising God, and not only in ceasing from work.”
Calvin remarks, “There is no reason to doubt that the Jews were in the habit of singing this psalm, as the inscription bears, upon the Sabbath-day, and it is apparent, from different passages, that other psalms were applied to this use. . . . The reason why the Psalmist appropriated this psalm to the Sabbath is sufficiently obvious. That day is not to be holy, in the sense of being devoted to idleness, as if this could be an acceptable worship to God, but in the sense of our separating ourselves from all other occupations, to engage in meditating upon the Divine works. As our minds are inconstant, we are apt, when exposed to various distractions, to wander from God. We need to be disentangled from all cares if we would seriously apply ourselves to the praises of God. The Psalmist then would teach us that the right observance of the Sabbath does not consist in idleness, as some absurdly imagine, but in the celebration of the Divine name.”
And of course, the example of Christ makes this clear. On the Sabbath Day, Jesus did not stay home and sleep all day. Instead, it was His custom and habit on the Sabbath Day to worship God in the synagogue!
B.) Works of necessity: “and in the duties of necessity”
- Matthew 12:1: At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
- Luke 14:1: One Sabbath, when He went to dine [literally, to eat bread] at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching Him carefully.
Works of necessity are works pertaining to the performance of duties that must be done every day or done on the Lord’s Day.[5] Matthew Poole says they are works that are “either for the upholding of our lives, or fitting us for sabbath services”.[6]
Examples include getting dressed, taking a shower, eating food, driving to and from church, sleeping, and working occupations that are essential to the fabric and wellbeing of our society (soldiers, police officers, nurses, power plant supervisors, some forms of public transportation, etc.).
Here is a good rule of thumb: if the work can be done on other days of the week, it is probably not a work of necessity. If it can wait, let it wait!
C.) Works of mercy: “and mercy.”
- Matthew 12:7-8: 7And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
- Matthew 12:9-14: 9He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse Him. 11He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, how to destroy Him.
- John 7:23: If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with Me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well?
Works of mercy are works pertaining to helping others with pressing needs. This is what mercy means in the Bible. It is doing good to those who are suffering and are in need of great assistance. In the context of helping the hurting, Jesus said that it is lawful “to do good” (Matthew 12:12), “to heal” (Matthew 12:10), and “to save life” (Mark 3:4) on the Sabbath. Examples include feeding the poor, healing the sick, visiting the imprisoned, sheltering the homeless, educating the ignorant, showing hospitality to strangers, burying the dead, defending the weak and oppressed, and caring for your children and animals.
Conclusion
Not everything good to do is good to do on the Lord’s Day. The three categories of acceptable works to be done on the Christian Sabbath are works of piety, works of necessity, and works of mercy. When looking at the life of Christ, His Sabbath-keeping looked like this: He preached (piety), He ate (necessity), and He healed (mercy).
Think about what your life looks like on a typical Lord’s Day. Can you rightly place what you think about, what you say, and what you do in one (or more) of these three categories? Are your works pious? Necessary? Merciful?
If so, keep on doing them and excel still more! Even the greatest saint needs to grow in keeping the Christian Sabbath holy.
If not, repent and stop doing your own pleasure on God’s holy day! Make the necessary adjustments and changes to your Sunday routine that will enable you to perform the right kinds of works on the Lord’s Day.
[1] Taken from the Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 119 on the sins which are forbidden in the fourth commandment.
[2] Personal correspondence with D. Scott Meadows.
[3] Westminster Larger Catechism, Q&A 121.
[4] Edmund Clowney, How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments, 58.
[5] See Sam Waldron, Lectures on the Lord’s Day, 140.
[6] Matthew Poole, comments on Matthew 12:4.
Ben has been one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Owensboro, Kentucky, since June 2017. In February 2018, he received his Master of Divinity from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben has been married to his lovely wife Ali since September 2011. They have four children together: Liam, Luther, Cosette, and Maezie. In his spare time, Ben enjoys playing with his kids, coaching, doing yard work, and Friday family nights.
