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Yes, the Ten Commandment law
is "spiritual" and it is "holy," "just,"
and "good."
Paul is not talking here about the
ritualistic, ceremonial, sacrificial or
carnal laws contained in the law of
Moses. Rather, he clearly means the–
Ten Commandments (verse 7).
The "lesser laws" contained in the
law of Moses were a "yoke"-but not
the Ten Commandments. Rather,
they are caBed the "perfect
law of
liberty"
(James 1:25) . J ames .also
refers to the second great command–
ment as a "royal law" (James 2:8).
Clearly, in chapters one and two,
J ames is referring to the "spiritual"
law of God as contained in the two
great commands, and as further
amplified in the Ten Command–
ments.
Did James think
any
of the Ten
Commandments were "done away"?
" For whosoever shall keep the
whole
law,
and yet
offend
[transgress] in
one point , he is guilty of all" (James
2:1 0) . The Ten Commandments are
like a chain having ten links.
If
one
link (or one point) is broken, the
whole chain is broken.
·
How many
points
are there in this
law of which J ames spoke?
He mentions the commands
against adultery and killing (verse
11 ). Then he says that this "Jaw of
liberty" is the law by which we will
be judged (verse 12).
The Fourt h Commandment
The Bible clearly enjoins God's
people to keep the Ten Command–
meJ1tS. Many "Christians" at least
profess to keep nine of the ten, but
the fourth commandment is the one
thaf causes many to stumble. This in
spite of the fact that Jesus Christ and
His apostles kept God's Sabbath .
Christ plainly said: "The sabbath
was made for man" (Mark 2:27).
Jesus customarily kept the Sab–
bath- though not according to the
hidebound traditions of the Pharisees
(Luke 4:16; 6:6; 13:10-17; 14:1-6).
We know the apostles also kept the
Sabbath. And, of all people, Paul, the
apostle to the Gentiles, kept the Sab–
bath (Acts 13:14,42, 44; 17:2;
18:4).
Was the Sabbath changed from
the
seventh
to the
first day
of the
20
week, as sorne claim? Both Scripture
and secular history prove that the
early New Testament Christians
kept the Sabbath. Sunday obser-·
vanee carne into popular usage by
Christian-professing groups centu–
ries after Christ and His apostles
died. T he Emperor Constantine
fi–
nally made "Sunday" the official day
of worship in
A.D.
321-323. (Write
for our fre.e booklet
Which Day Js the
Christian Sabbath?)
Other Christian-professing teach–
ers attempt to spiritualize away the
fourth commandment. They claim to
keep the Sabbath every day of the
The Ten Commandments
are like a chain having
ten links. If one link (or
one point) is broken, the
whole chain is broken.
' '
week. Notice how this is explained by
one proponent of this false doctrine:
"Let us now turn our attention to the
seventh-day weekly sabbath. The
sabbath is a beautiful institution ....
But through Christ, the physical sab–
bath has been superseded by a perpe–
tua! one which Christ has given for
us to keep. We are now experiencing,
in a spiritua1 way, God's sabbath
every day of our lives."
Now this teacher does not olfer
scriptural
proof
that God made all
seven days holy. He does not have
any biblical authority for his unscrip–
tural assertions. He just makes dog–
matic human pronouncements- with
no scriptural validity whatsover.
Furthermore, this anti-Sabbath
teacher writes: "the Christian has
every day as a spiritual rest of sab–
bath-keeping, and there is no need to
return to the one-day-a-week physi–
cal sabbath which Israel was re–
quired to observe under Moses."
But this teacher has to explain
away a lot of scriptures: God says the
Sabbath is the seventh day. He
affirms it was made for man-not
just for the Jewish people. God shows
that this day was given as a day of
physical rest and relaxation, as well
as a day of spiritual rejuvenation
througb worship of one's Creator.
Those who teach against keeping
God's Sabbath must ignore the ex–
amples of Christ and Paul. They
vainly assume you can "keep" the
other six days "holy" when God has
not
made them holy. Remember, you
can' t keep water hot or cold until it is
first made either hot or cold. Like–
wise, you can't "keep holy" that
which has not first been made holy–
and
man
doesn't have the power to
make anything lioly! Only God can
make something (including
time)
holy!
Only Keep the Spirit
of the Law?
Sorne have concluded that we need
only keep the
spirit
of the law but not
the
letter.
What about it? Should a Christian
observe God's law according to the
letter, the spirit, or both?
The Bible makes it amply clear
that we are now to "worship God in
spirit and in truth," but this does not
mean we are to ignore the
literal
commandment- flagrantly violating
the
letter
of the 1aw.
Christ taught that we must not
only
not murder,
but learn to keep
the spirit of this commandment-we
must not hate-must not murder in
our minds and hearts.
Not only must we not commit
adultery, but we must learn to keep
this commandment according to its
intent-we
must not even lust in our
hearts. When we lust after a woman,
we thereby commit spiritual adul–
tery. And when we bate someone in
our hearts, we thereby commit spiri–
tual murder (1 J obo 3:15).
In order to keep the command–
ments in our minds and hearts (ac–
cording to the true intent and pur–
pose behind the law), we must also
keep the law in the letter. Can we
commit literal adultery or murder
and yet obey the spiritual intent of
these commandments? Of course
not.
And the same applies to the fourth
commandment. Truly, we should
keep the Sabbath in the spirit-not
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1979