The Ten Commandments are often divided into two tables, one pertaining to the love of God and the other describing how we are to love our neighbor. The most traditional division is between the Fourth and Fifth Commandments. The Fourth Commandment, after all, requires the remembering and keeping of the Sabbath day holy, while the Fifth Commandment demands honor to be given to our parents. Thus, the Fourth describes an aspect of our obedience to God, while the Fifth commands us to respect our very first neighbors.

Pretty simple, right?

Well, I believe that the Fourth Commandment uniquely falls under both loving God and loving neighbor. Allow me to explain.

The Ten Commandments are listed twice in the Bible, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. There are very few differences between these two passages, except with regards to the Fourth Commandment. Consider the two passages back-to-back.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 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. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Exodus 20:8–11 ESV

Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 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. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 ESV

Both versions are clearly commanding the same thing: keep the Sabbath day holy. Yet notably both give a different reason for observing the Sabbath. In Exodus 20, the principle for remembering the Sabbath day is rooted in God’s order of creation. For six days, God created, but on the seventh day, He rested from His labor. The Sabbath rest for Israel, therefore, was both an imitation of God and a reminder of God’s mighty work in creation.

Deuteronomy 5, however, grounds the Sabbath command in their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Rather than being called to remember God’s rest from creation, they are told to “remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (v. 15). This call to remembrance is immediately preceded by another differing phrase: “that your male servant and female servant may rest as well as you” (v. 14).

Both passages command all people and livestock to cease from labor on the Sabbath day, yet Deuteronomy particularly notes that the Sabbath was for the Israelites’ servants as well. The Israelites were mercifully delivered from slavery; therefore, they were now expected to be merciful to their own servants. They had received grace. Now God demanded them to be givers of grace. God gave them rest, and they also were to be givers of rest. The Sabbath day, thus, was intended to be an act of both loving God and loving others.

Under the New Covenant, we gather together on the Lord’s Day for remembrance as well. Just as Exodus grounded the Sabbath Day in God’s order of creation, our worship is now rooted in the new creation that God is bringing through His Son. As Deuteronomy established the Sabbath Day in Israel’s exodus from Egypt, our observance of the Lord’s Day is founded upon the greater exodus, our deliverance from the slavery of sin. We hallow the Lord’s Day in remembrance, honor, and joyous celebration of our risen Savior.

As we gather together each Sunday, we are called to remember anew that Jesus is our Sabbath rest. He has given us rest from our vain efforts to atone for our sins by giving us forgiveness through His sacrificial death. As receivers of grace, our weekly gathering also calls for us to be gracious to one another. As recipients of mercy, we ought now to be instruments of God’s mercy to our neighbor. Since we bear a light burden and easy yoke from Christ, let us now shun placing heavy, legalistic burdens upon the backs of others. Having had our debts forgiven, let us now forgive the debts of others. May each Lord’s Day summon us all over again to love God supremely and to love our neighbor as ourselves.