As with the Second Commandment, this is arguably violated by just about every Christian denomination and church in existence. The text makes it clear that one is supposed to work for six days and then rest on the seventh and final day of the week. For a week that begins on a Sunday, the seventh and final day of the week is Saturday.
This is the “day of rest” for Jews, for the earliest Christians, and for a very few Christians groups today — the Seventh Day Adventists is the largest such group and it is important enough that this particular feature is actually a part of their name. Sabbatarian denominations such as this argue that the Saturday sabbath was kept by all Christians until the 2nd or 3rd century and survived among most until as late as the 5th century.
The rest of Christendom today celebrates the sabbath on the first day of the week, Sunday. In one sense this isn’t entirely unreasonable because they continue to work for six days and rest on the seventh, so at least they are adhering to one purpose of the commandment. They are, however, violating another point which is to commemorate God’s creation of the universe. After all, God did not begin the creative process by taking a coffee break — God worked for six days and rested on the seventh and final day.
What happened? The date of the Sabbath was changed for Christians during the Council of Laodicea in 364 CE and at the instigation of Roman Emperor Constantine. Although he was a patron of Christianity and dispensed many privileges to Christian churches, the fact of the matter was that he wasn’t a Christian at the time. One must conclude then that an important Christian doctrine was altered under the influence of a pagan emperor and that Christians today continue to violate the Fourth Commandment.
Another aspect of Christians’ violation of this commandment is the manner in which they “remember” the sabbath and attempt to “keep it holy.” For orthodox Jews this means abstaining from all work of any sort. There is a large body of literature on the subject of just what qualifies as “work” and what doesn’t, with even things like lighting a fire for the sake of cooking being treated as work (thus Jews who are strict in their observance of the sabbath try to cook all food ahead of time).
Christians, though, don’t observe the sabbath in a manner that comes anywhere close to this strictness. In the past things were different and many Christians even believed that keeping the sabbath holy meant that one should abstain from recreation and things that were fun. Today, however, Christians typically participate in all manner of work or recreational activities without a second thought. People mow their lawns, cook food, do homework, watch sports games, etc.
Are such activities violations of the sabbath? One can make arguments either way of course, but the strongest arguments are probably on the side of these things being prohibited. The purpose of the sabbath (in a religious sense, at least) is to set aside specific time to remember the creative actions of God and God’s relationship with humanity. Going to church on Sunday may accomplish this for that limited period of time, but God’s command is to do this for an entire day, not for just a couple of hours in the morning.
Remembering the sabbath in the manner originally intended might be inconvenient in modern society, but how likely is it that Christians will admit that this is indeed what they are doing: ignoring or re-interpreting the Fourth Commandment because of culture and convenience?
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