Should I obey all Ten Commandments, or just the ones I like?

Question

Exodus 20:8-11
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
Exodus 31:15
"For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. "

I work the Sunday shift. This sounds rather serious-- is there some clever interpretation of "must be put to death" that I'm missing?
I suppose it doesn't really matter, Deuteronomy's already condemned me to death a few times over. One more won't hurt.

Awesome, Rance. You grab your shotgun, and I'll meet you down at IHOP this Sunday morning and we can do the will of the Lord.

Answer 1

The Ten Commandments are part of the Old Covenant made between God and the Israelites. The Sabbath referred to here is actually Saturday, the Jewish day of worship. The New Covenant made between Jesus and his disciples (the beginning of Christianity) did away with the Old Covenant laws (several hundred in number) and instead he laid down two.
1. Love Me with all your heart, mind, and soul
2. Love eachother
In essence, every day should be spent with God, it doesn't even need to include "religious" activities. How many times have you gone to church and not had a secular thought? Or how many secular activities have you done where you were thinking of God? The best possible thing to do is to spend every day with God, the day doesn't matter.

Answer 2

Well a lot of people have to work on Sunday's like firemen and the police. I don't think God is going to condem them for doing such an important job.

We've had this situation in our family. My sister works in retail, and she always has to work on Sunday, she is not married and is totally on her own, so she can work or be unemployed. She's managed to strike a deal with her employer so that she can go to church in the morning and then comes to work in the afternoon. When she is home on Sundays she trys to make the most of the day by reading the scriptures, resting, writing letters, and so on.

As for Deuteronomy, it's the Old Testament, there are many things that good old Deuteronomy talks about that are not done anymore. Rememer this book was written for the ancient Jews as a guide on how to live the Law of Moses. Christ fufilled that law and gave us the New Testament. Now that is not to say we should ignore what is in the Old Testament, but I would say you have to take some of the things in there with a huge grain of salt.

God knows the intent of your heart, but if you have to work to support yourself our your family, that is what you have to do.

Answer 3

There's a passage in the new testament (and I tried but can't find it right now) that talks about having the freedom to regard each day the same... if you take the 10 Commandments in context with the new testament information, it appears that we are commanded to observe A day of rest, but it does not have to be a particular day. Our bodies were designed by God for 6 days of work, not 7.

The 10 Commandments are quite difficult to keep, aren't they? Especially lying and committing adultery, which Jesus said was broken if you even lust.

It is a good thing He loves us enough to make an alternative way to achieve righteousness before Him.

Answer 4

Saturday is the seventh day.

Why wouldn't you like all of the ten commandments? they're not exactly offensive, are they?

The ten commandments were from God. the rest of the law was written by Moses....and he kind of missed the point of "thou shalt not kill" by his repeated death sentences. Probably the biggest argument atheists have against the bible.

How would you like the world to be?

Only break the commandments that you want others to break with regards to you. e.g. only commit adultery if you really want to be betrayed by everyone you are ever involved with. You can then, of course, expect to be distrusted by all your friends but I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem for you.....or would it? The commandments are there to make our lives easier not harder.

If everybody obeyed the ten commandments, there would be no murder, no war, no paedophiles, no rape, no greed, no back stabbing, jealous neighbors. I guess you have to choose which side you are on. What do you really want the world to be? The only place you can begin to make the changes are inside yourself, with your actions and your life.

And don't bow down to anything but God Almighty. Why would you want to anyway?

Worry about what God said in the ten commandments not what Moses said in the rest of the first five books.

Answer 5

Collosians 3 says, let no man judge you if you do not worship on the sabbath day... If you love God and live a good life according to the Bible, read your Bible and worship only him,I think you'll be okay.Your Sabbath can be any day.In some countries, Monday is the first day and Sunday is the seventh day.

Answer 6

Mark 2:27 NIV
Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. "

Take this how you like, but ultimately you shouldn't be "working" on the Sabbath. The Sabbath also doesn't have to be Sunday for you, but if you change your Sabbath, Keep it that day, don't go back and forth. And this also depends on your job. If your doing something you truly believe needs to be done, like Jesus healed on the Sabbath, then it won't be sinful.

Answer 7

First Timothy 1:8 Stats that the law of moses is good. It is not negated at by the new testement. Read all of the bookl before you spew out half truths about Jesus fulfilling the old law.

Answer 8

There are some jobs that require to work Sundays. I have to work one out of three, which I would rather not do - but the type of job I do calls for it. I know I am in the job the Lord wants me in at this time. Some places have to run, such as I work in a rehab house with addicts. We are all Christians that work there (except one).

Answer 9

okay - the idea here is to set aside a day for worship and to rest your body. Matthew 2 27...then he said to them...THe Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Answer 10

Well - as long as your not working on Saturday you are not breaking the day that the original meaning of the Ten Commandments gave as the day of rest - sounds like your doing fine.