The Sabbath: A 5-Day DevotionalSample

While Jesus never actually violated the fourth commandment in its original intention, his Jewish adversaries were assuming the validity of many such additional rules when they accused him and his disciples of “doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” When he healed on the Sabbath day or when his disciples plucked heads of grain on the Sabbath and ate them they were accused of violating the Sabbath, but Jesus and his disciples were in fact obeying the true sense of this commandment. In the post-Reformation period, those Reformed Protestants who thought the Sabbath commandment was still binding nevertheless taught that “works of necessity and mercy” were surely permitted by God on this day.