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Which is the Third Commandment?

Thou shalt sanctify the holy-day.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God that we may not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.

1. "Thou shalt sanctify the holy-day," that is the Third Commandment. We Christians have a holy-day. We celebrate as our holy-day the first day in week, Sunday. We do not do this because God has commanded us to keep this day or any other day holy, more sacred than the rest of the week. In the Old Testament, before Christ came into the world, God had given His people a certain day as a holy-day, the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath. In the New Testament, after Christ was born, God has given no such commandment. The Church, the Christians themselves, has chosen a holy-day. The Church chose Sunday, because it was on a Sunday that our dear Lord, our Savior and our King, arose again from the dead. Every Sunday should remind us of the resurrection of our Savior, of His victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil.—We also keep other days holy, for instance, Christmas, New Year's Day, Easter, and other festival days. Can you name some other Christian festival?

2. Why do we Christians celebrate certain days as holy-days though God has not commanded us to do so? It is God's will that His children should come together for services of preaching and hearing His Word, that they should come together in their churches for public worship. In order to do this, it is necessary to set aside a certain day. That is the reason why the Church celebrates Sunday and other feasts. We celebrate them not by divine command, but in order to have time for public worship, for going to church, for services of preaching and hearing the Word of God. To the question, "What does this mean?" namely, to sanctify the holv-day, our Catechism rightly answers: "We should fear and love God that we may not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it."

3. We should not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, that is the will of God according to the Third Commandment. Remember, it is His Word, the holy Word of our heavenly Father, whom we should fear and love. It is God Himself who speaks to us in His Word, in the Bible, when we read it. It is God Himself who sends His messengers to us, our pastors and teachers, to preach His Word that we may the better understand it. Our Savior says concerning His messengers: "He that heareth you heareth Me; and he that despiseth you despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me." Luke 10, 16. In despising His Word, we despise our Lord, yea, our God and Father Himself. A child does not despise the words of his respected and beloved father. How deeply would we, then, offend our heavenly Father by despising His Word!—If we really fear and love God, we shall not despise His Word, but hold it sacred. We shall not forget that we are hearing our dear Father's voice when we are reading our Bible. When God's Word is preached to us in our churches, we shall hear and receive it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. 1 Thess. 2,13.

4. When is this done? When do we not despise God's Word, but rather hold it sacred? God's Word is preached to to us in public worship. We despise the preaching of His Word when we do not go to church at all, or only now and then, at long intervals, because we prefer to stay at home to do our work or to amuse ourselves. We despise preaching when we go to church, but hear the sermon carelessly when we do not pay attention to the pastor. He that will not hear God's Word is not of God; such a one cannot remain God's child. John 8,47.—If we keep the preaching of God's Word sacred, we shall go to church regularly every Sunday, unless sickness, or something else that we cannot avoid, hinders us. We shall go to church in order to hear the sermon, to listen attentively to it. We shall hear the Word willingly and gladly and rejoice that we may again hear the dear Gospel of the love of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We shall rejoice and say: "Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honor dwelleth." Ps. 26,8.—God's Word is also preached and taught us in our day- schools and Sunday-schools. Come to your school regularly, hear the lessons from the Word of God diligently and attentively and you will hold His Word sacred; you will do the will of your Father.

5. God's Word is not only preached, God has also given us the Bible, His written Word. He wants us to read His Word in our homes. "Search the Scriptures," John 5,39, our Savior says. We should not only read it, but read it carefully and often, read it with prayer to God that we may more thoroughly understand it. The Word of God should dwell among us richly, abundantly. Col. 3,16. If we do not read and study our Bible at home, we are despising the Word of God.

6. We should not only hear and read the Word of God, and hear and read it gladly; our Catechism also tells us that we should learn it. Like Mary, the mother of Jesus, so we, too, should keep all these words and ponder them in our hearts. Luke 2,19. We should try with the help of our Lord to live more and more according to God's Word. "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Ps. 119,105. If we do this, we are holding God's Word sacred and shall be blessed by it. "Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it." Luke 11,28. Remember Hannah, the mother of little Samuel, 1 Sam. 1,2; Mary sitting at Jesus feet and hearing His Word, Luke 10,39. Remember especially how our Lord loved His Father's house. Luke 2,41-52.

7. There is one thing we should not forget: to keep God's Word sacred. God sends His messengers to us, our pastors and preachers. We should honor and esteem and love them for their work's sake. We should obey them when they preach God's Word and pray for them. We should help that the blessed Word of God may be preached to all nations, to all men, that all may hear it and be saved by it.

8. In the First Commandment we learned that throughout our life we should fear and love God and trust in Him with our whole heart; in the Second, that we should not misuse His holy name, but use it to the praise of God and the salvation of our neighbors and ourselves; in the Third, that we should diligently hear and learn God's Word, so that a11 our actions, our entire life, may be ordered according to it. These three commandments relate to God. They teach us the love of God. Now follow the other seven, which relate to our neighbor, whom we should love as ourselves.

REMEMBER:—

1. We sanctify our holy-day when we fear and love God that we may not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred.

2. The fear and love of God will induce us to hear and read God's Word, not carelessly, but diligently and gladly, to learn it and to live according to it.

MEMORIZE:—

He that heareth you heareth Me; and he that despiseth you despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me. Luke 10,16.

Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honor dwelleth. Ps. 26,8.

Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Gal. 6,6.

QUESTIONS.

1. Which day did God institute in the Old Testament as the holy-day of His people? 2. Did God in the New Testament give us a certain day as our holy-day? 3. Why does the Christian Church choose a holy-day, though God did not command us to do so? 4. What is God's will concerning His Word? 5. What is necessary that Christians may come together to preach and hear God's Word? 6. How do we, therefore, sanctify our holy-days? 7. Why should we not despise God's Word, but keep it sacred? 8. How do we show that we do not despise the preaching of His Word? 9. Whose voice do we hear in the sermon? 10. As whose word should we, therefore, hear and accept the sermon? 11. Where do we also hear the Word of God? 12. In which book do we find the written Word of God? 13. How should we us our Bibles, the written Word of God? 14. What does it mean to learn God's Word? 15. How must we, finally, show our love of God's Word? 16. To whom do the first three commandments relate? 17. What does the First Commandment teach us? 18. The Second? 19. The Third? 20. What is the sum of these commandments? 21. To whom do the other commandments relate? 22. How should we love our neighbor?