Work and Leisure...Continued from page 8

The way to avoid all this legalism is to remember that the Lord's Day is for celebrating the freedom that we have in Christ. Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). This does not mean that anything goes. A call to freedom, like the one we are given in the fourth commandment, is never an excuse for seeking our own pleasure (see Isaiah 8:13). However, the freedom we have in Christ does mean that for the Christian, the Sabbath is not a strait jacket.

Keeping the Lord's Day holy begins with working hard the rest of the week. In America we usually work at our play and play at our work, but God has given us six days for the ordinary business of life, and we are called to use them for His glory. Christians ought to be the most faithful and diligent workers. Our industry is an important part of our piety, while sloth is a very great sin. To waste our time is to squander one of the most precious resources that God has given us.

The duty to work is for everyone, not just for people who get paid. It is for housewives, for retired people, for the disabled and the unemployed - all of us are called to do something useful with our time. Even if we don't need to earn an income, we need to glorify God in whatever work we do. Today many Americans assume that they will work for the sixty years of their lives, and then take the rest of their lives off. That's not the biblical view of work and leisure, because the Bible calls all of us to maintain the rhythm of work and rest that is essential to our humanity.

The work week begins with the Lord's Day. This is not a day for inactivity, but a day for worship, mercy, and rest. One of the best summaries of how to keep the day holy comes from the Westminster Confession of Faith: "This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs before-hand, do not only observe an holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy" (XXI.8). The choice of the word recreation is unfortunate, because one purpose of the Lord's Day is to refresh us in the joy of our Creator. It is a day to "catch our breath," which can include God-centered recreation. But the Confession is right that this is not a day for worldly recreations.

The Lord's Day is for worship. It is a day for attending corporate worship, for enjoying fellowship with the people of God, for catching up on our spiritual reading, and for spending the whole day in ways that really make it the Lord's Day. In order to worship well, we need to be prepared. Thus keeping the Lord's Day holy also means getting ready the night before. Thomas Watson wrote, "When Saturday evening approaches, sound a retreat; call your minds off from the world and summon your thoughts together, to think of the great work of the approaching day.... Evening preparation will be like the tuning of an instrument, it will fit the heart better for the duties of the ensuing Sabbath." 12