Calling the Sabbath a Delight: Recreation and the Sabbath

by Rev. Douglas Kuiper

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Rev. Doug Kuiper is pastor of Randolph Protestant Reformed Church in Randolph, WI.

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Introduction

What place may recreation have in the life of the child of God on the Lord’s Day?

One’s answer to this question is determined in large part by his answer to two others.

The first is: what is recreation? Rev. K. Koole writes: “In common PRC parlance it refers to things connected with games and sports.” (Standard Bearer, 83:441) We recognize that the term “recreation” literally means a “making anew,” and that both the true spiritual rest of the Sabbath as well as the physical rest from earthly labor can rightly be considered recreation in this sense. For our purposes, then, it will be necessary to distinguish between recreation which has one’s own entertainment and pleasure as its object, and activities which might be considered recreational, but which are consciously performed to God’s glory.

The second question is this: has the Old Testament Sabbath been completely abolished, so that it has no true New Testament counterpart, or is the Lord’s Day the New Testament Sabbath? If Sunday is the Lord’s Day (a day to worship and commemorate Christ’s death and resurrection) but not the Sabbath (the day of rest commanded by God) then all sorts of recreational activities and pursuits are permissible on Sunday; at least, I can find no Scripture passage that would forbid such. But if the Lord’s Day is the New Testament Sabbath, then numerous Scripture passages indicate that it is a day for worship, not for recreation (in the sense of earthly entertainment).

Demonstrating that one’s position regarding the Sabbath determines one’s answer to the question about what place recreation may have in our life on the Lord’s Day, A. T. Lincoln writes:

Sabbath-transference theology requires that once the change of day has been assumed, the Mosaic Sabbath and the Christian Sunday should be seen to have the same principle at the heart of each and so traditionally it has been held that both are a day of rest for worship. (Carson 393)

Because Lincoln considers Sunday to be the Lord’s Day but not the Sabbath, he makes allowance for the child of God to engage in recreation on Sunday. To allow recreation on Sunday (as I understand it, he means recreation in the sense of game and sport) is “more humane” than to forbid it; to forbid it “leads to all sorts of legalism”; and Lincoln is happy that many who consider Sunday to be the Sabbath are “inconsistent at this point.” (Carson 394)

Happily for confessing Reformed believers, the issue whether Sunday is merely a day for worship or also the Sabbath day of rest is settled and binding. Our Heidelberg Catechism calls the first day of the week “the Sabbath, that is, . . . the day of rest” (Answer 103). Also for the Presbyterian branch of Reformed churches the issue is settled and binding. Chapter 21, article 7 of the Westminster Confession says that God

hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.

Admittedly, these statements are made by fallible men. Yet they are grounded not only on various Scripture passages which indicate that the New Testament church set aside the first day of the week to worship (Acts 20:7, I Corinthians 16:2), but also on the clear teaching of Scripture that none of the ten commandments have been abolished, but that each remains in force for God’s people throughout the New Testament. They were, after all, written on stone with the finger of God (Exodus 31:18); and Christ Himself says that He came, not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).

The thesis of this paper, and conviction of this writer, is that because Sunday is the Sabbath day, it is not a day for recreation with a view to one’s own pleasure and entertainment. It is not a day for such recreation instead of the worship of God; and it is not a day for such recreation in addition to the worship of God. Certain activities which might be called recreational are permitted, however, provided they be consciously done in the service of God.

Both officebearers in the Protestant Reformed Churches and members of PRCs must be reminded of this, lest we desecrate, or tolerate the desecration of, the Sabbath day.

History

By both synodical decisions and confessional statements, Reformed and Presbyterian churches have clearly adopted the position that the Sabbath is not a day for recreation. Because we view these synodical decisions and confessional statements as means by which God has providentially guided His church into all truth, we consider ourselves obligated to proceed on the foundation they have laid, and do not consider ourselves free to disagree with them in this forum, or to take a completely new approach.

The forefathers of Presbyterianism were quite clear on their understanding of the relationship between recreation and the Sabbath.

They stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 21, article 8:

This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs before-hand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations; but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.

Answer 117 of the Westminster Larger Catechism also indicates that the Sabbath “is to be sanctified by an holy resting all the day, not only from such works as are at all times sinful, but even from such worldly employments and recreations as are on other days lawful; ...” Answer 60 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is substantially the same.

Significantly, the Biblical passages which are footnoted as supporting these ideas include the fourth commandment of God’s law, and Isaiah 58:13f. To this we will return.

In the section “Of the Sanctification of the Lord’s Day,” the Presbyterian document The Directory for the Public Worship of God stipulates that

The whole day is to be celebrated as holy to the Lord, both in public and private as being the Christian Sabbath. To which end, it is requisite, that there be a holy cessation for resting all that day from all unnecessary labors; and an abstaining, not only from all sport and pastimes, but also from all worldly words and thoughts.

To facilitate this, the time between or after public worship must

be spent in reading, meditation, repetition of sermons; especially by calling their families to an account of what they have heard, and catechising of them, holy conferences, prayer for a blessing upon the public ordinances, singing of psalms, visiting the sick, relieving the poor, and such like duties of piety, charity, and mercy, accounting the Sabbath a delight.

Without question, the Presbyterians were strict Sabbatarians, drawing the charge that they came “perilously close to pharisaism.” (Carson 327)

The Reformed standards are certainly more concise in their treatment of the Sabbath. Indeed, the Canons of Dordt does not even mention it, which is not surprising in light of their particular concern to refute the five points of Arminianism. Nor does the Belgic Confession treat it. And, as we well know, Answer 103 of the Heidelberg Catechism limits its explanation of the fourth commandment to two positive statements: that it is our calling to worship God publicly on the Sabbath, and that it is our calling to cease from sin and yield ourselves to the Lord every day of our life, thus beginning the eternal Sabbath in this life.

This is not to say that our Reformed tradition leaves us without any guidance in the matter of recreation on the Lord’s Day. At its 164th session, the afternoon of Friday, May 17, 1619, the Synod of Dordt made 6 statements concerning keeping the Sabbath, of which the sixth is most pertinent for us: “This day must be so set aside for worship that on it people may rest from all ordinary labors (excluding those which love and present necessity demand) together with all recreations that hinder worship.” (De Ridder 187)

This official position of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches was taught and defended by many throughout history.

In his sermon on Deuteronomy 5:12-14, Calvin himself states that recreation is not the purpose of the day: “If we turn Sunday into a day for living it up, for our sport and pleasure, indeed how will God be honored in that? Is it not a mockery and even a profanation of his name?” (Calvin, Sermons, 109)

That the Puritans taught and lived accordingly is well known. “Because the vital core of the Puritan Sabbath was the sanctification of the day to the worship of God and service to others, the Puritans vigorously rejected recreation as a worthy Sunday pursuit.” (Ryken, 131; emphasis Ryken’s). Read any Puritan writer on the subject of the Sabbath, and this point will be illustrated.

This position is defended today by preachers in the PRC, with, I trust, appropriate warnings against viewing the day as one of pleasure. Also in printed form this position is defended and warning is given:

There is the growing practice of missing the worship services, now and then, because they interfere with our pleasures, e.g., our vacation plans. The Lord’s Day is completely forgotten. It is used for traveling or for sightseeing, just as though it did not belong to the risen Christ, but to ourselves. The strange notion is found in the Church that the Fourth Commandment may be broken occasionally. (Engelsma 9-10)

Not only those recreations which take us away from worship, but also those which we might “sneak in” between services are not proper Sabbath activity:

The man who spends all of Sunday afternoon wrapped up in the ball game cannot bring the evening sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to the house of the Lord. Very likely, he will not attend the second service. . . . If he does hurry from the end of the ball game to church, he does not come with a heart filled with the wonderful works of God in Jesus and with affections set on the things above, where Christ Jesus sits on the right hand of God. (Engelsma 12)

Scripture

Because our final authority for matters of life and faith is not what churches have declared, nor what men have taught or done, but the Scriptures, we turn to the teachings of Scripture to demonstrate that Sunday is not a day for personal recreation.

First, because we are convinced that the moral aspect of the fourth commandment is in force today, we can turn to the commandment itself as the basis for this view. It is well known:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work... For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11)

Clearly, the commandment requires all work to cease on the Sabbath day. The Israelite was to rest from his work, in order to devote his attention to God, and to give God thanks for deliverance (Deuteronomy 5:15).

“Work” in Exodus 20:8ff refers first of all to productive activity, to the kind of work by which one makes a living. But by implication, it includes any and all earthly pursuits. I use the word “pursuits” deliberately here. I am not saying that the commandment forbids all earthly activity. Of course we must be physically active on Sunday. But to have as our goal on the Lord’s Day the carrying out of earthly things which we are free to do the other six days - whether work, side jobs, hobbies, or recreation - is forbidden by this commandment. Sunday is a day to pursue the enjoyment of life with God, and to be strengthened in grace by faith.

To say that the fourth commandment implies this is to treat the fourth commandment in the same manner in which we treat the others. The fifth requires us to honor our father and mother; but we understand it to apply to all in authority. The sixth through eighth commandments forbid killing, adultery, and stealing; but we understand these words to refer not only to the grossest form of the act, but to include all actions, words, gestures, motives, and thoughts of the heart, which would tend in the direction of murder, sexual uncleanness, and theft. So when we say of the fourth commandment’s prohibition of work that it includes the prohibition of all earthly pursuits, we treat it in the same fashion as the others.

Therefore, the more to devote ourselves to God, to praise and thank Him for His grace toward us, we must refrain from recreation for its own sake on the Lord’s Day.

A second passage is the well known and clear word of God in Isaiah 58:13-14:

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD...

Clearly, the passage applies to recreation, for in recreation we do our own ways, and find our own pleasure. Through Isaiah, God refers to a doing of our ways and finding of our pleasure, which is not wrong in itself. We may busy ourselves pursuing our goals and carrying out our plans, subject to. His will, and aiming at. His glory in them. Or, to put it differently, “God is not opposed to fun properly used. Moderate recreation on the other six days is a gift from God.” (Pipa 21) But on the Sabbath day these may not be done; God calls us to do not what we want, but what He wants; to delight ourselves not in our own pursuits, but in the Sabbath itself!

To engage in recreational pursuits on the Sabbath is to snuff at the Sabbath, to demean it, to say that it does not bring us enough joy, that the proper keeping of it is boring; and to say all of this is to say, according to God, that we do not delight in Him!

Third, the words of Jesus in Mark 2:27-28 are applicable: “And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”

Jesus speaks these words in defense of his disciples, who picked corn on the Sabbath in order to eat it. In other words, this passage can be put to good use opposing a legalistic approach to the Sabbath - which is, for the moment, quite the opposite of our purposes. But the principles it teaches can be used as well to oppose a loose view of Sabbath keeping.

Jesus teaches here that God first created man (on the 6th day), then instituted the Sabbath (on the 7th day). This order indicates that the Sabbath serves a purpose for man. Man needs the rest which the Sabbath provides, and God provided for that need in giving man the Sabbath. Man is, therefore, to use the Sabbath in the way in which God intends him to, and may not devote the day to his own purposes, that he may enjoy the true Sabbath rest.

Christian Liberty

Thus far we have seen that Sunday is not a day for recreation and entertainment.

Positively, the day is for the worship of God and spiritual activities. This positive purpose of the day is a significant and major point; but I do not develop it here, because it was the topic of our second sectional this morning.

The question arises: does the Christian have any liberty in how he observes the Sabbath? To answer it, let us briefly be clear on what Christian liberty is: “I would define Christian liberty as the privilege and the ability to serve God in love with our whole life and being” (Rev. C. Hanko, Standard Bearer, 54:184). And: “...liberty for a Christian is to be conformed to the law of God and to rejoice in that law” (Rev. J. Kortering, Standard Bearer, 49:491).

Christian liberty means first that, being righteous before God in Christ, we are freed from the curse of the law. Second, it means that Christ lives in us by His Spirit, so that we are free to obey the law. That is, we are able to obey, and desire to obey, and do obey, God’s law. Third, it means that God’s law which we are free to obey is the law of love, the ten commandments; and that we are freed from bondage to the letter of the Old Testament ceremonial and civil laws.

The whole third section of our Heidelberg Catechism spells out what that liberty is. It is, in sum, a freedom to do good works - works which proceed from a true faith, are performed according to God’s law, and are done to God’s glory (Heidelberg Catechism, Answer 91).

What Christian liberty is not is a license to sin, to ignore or profane the Sabbath day, or to serve myself.

We must understand the prohibition of recreation on the Sabbath in the light of this doctrine.

Doing so, we assert that our liberty in Christ does not permit us to use the day for ourselves, and to pursue our own earthly goals. God’s law requires us to seek and serve God, and to be busy in spiritual things on the Sabbath. We are free to do this; freed from sin’s bondage. And we desire to do this, in gratitude to God. We are free to go to church; we are free to worship God in the home as families; we are free to read good literature, to visit the sick and widows, to instruct our children, and do many more such things.

There are times, we know, when God in His providence prevents us from doing these things at all (perhaps we are sick), or from doing them as much as we would like (perhaps the weather confines us to our homes). But it would be wrong of us, when we have the opportunity to do these things, not to take advantage of the opportunity, because we think that our annual vacation began when we awoke Sunday, so we must prepare for our departure; or we think it ends Sunday evening, so we are busy returning home from it; or we are enjoying recreation, sport, and entertainment at the ball park, or watching the game on television.

But is it wrong to take a walk on Sunday? Wrong to ride a bike? Wrong to ride a motorcycle, horse, or snowmobile? Wrong to be temporarily living in a RV in the campground while on vacation? Inherently wrong to hunt or fish? Wrong to turn on the television? Wrong to shoot hoops or throw footballs? Inevitably, when trying to live according to God’s fourth commandment, and relating it to Christian liberty, such questions come up.

The answer is first that we can make no list of right or wrong actions. I say this on the basis of the following: first, the fourth commandment’s prohibition of work does not mean that bodily inactivity is commanded; rather, we must still be busy in the body on Sunday. Second, Jesus Himself worked on the Sabbath by teaching and doing miracles, as does God on the Sabbath by upholding and governing His creation. So Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17). Third, Jesus indicates that works of necessity must be performed on the Sabbath - the ox must be watered (Luke 13:15) and the ox or ass, having fallen into the ditch, must be retrieved (Luke 14:5).

Any action not expressly prohibited by the law is indifferent in itself. It is the motivation and goal of the act that make it right or wrong.

So, secondly, our answer to the above questions is simply this: why am I performing this action? Am I doing it for myself, or for God? Rev. Koole says:

With every activity engaged in on the Lord’s Day the question should be asked, am I by this activity trying to stimulate my physical heart or my spiritual heart. That is, is one doing what one is doing primarily with one’s spiritual heart and vigor in mind? And then give an honest answer to your Lord. (Standard Bearer, 83:441)

Am I hunting and fishing on Sunday, and in the process missing church, because I decided I needed a day to myself? Is the television on because I have too much time on my hands on Sunday, and wanted to fill the time somehow? Or because the Super Bowl game is too fascinating to miss? Am I not merely living in a RV in a campground on Sunday, but dispensing with worship altogether, as though it is not the Lord’s Day? All such is wrong.

Or am I watching television, either because I was unable to go to church or because I desire to spend my time between and after services wisely, and on television is a religious program, perhaps even a PRC worship service on the local cable channel? Am I hunting and fishing for the same reason the disciples picked corn on the Sabbath - because, being busy in the Lord’s work, I have become hungry and need food, and I have none in the house? I realize that this latter example speaks of a situation which Christians in 21st century America hardly ever face. Yet it makes the point that the activity as such is not the issue; our reason for doing it is the crucial question. If we remember this, we will be convinced in our own mind how we personally must spend the Lord’s Day. And if we remember this, we will realize that if another spends the Lord’s Day somewhat differently, but remembers that it is indeed the Lord’s Day, he is not sinning.

Generally, this is in keeping with what we are taught in Romans 14, in which the Spirit instructs us regarding matters indifferent. What one may do, perhaps another may not; but each serves God in his own way. Knowing that our reason for and goal in all that we do on Sunday is God’s glory, we will be able to answer to our Master for ourselves: “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:12) To do this, we must be ready!

Responsibility

Turning particularly to my immediate audience, officebearers in the PRC, it becomes our responsibility to hold before our people a balanced view of the Sabbath day, and to instruct and encourage them to keep it accordingly.

That the Sabbath is not a day for our own entertainment and pleasure, we must hold before our people. Not only must this be preached from our pulpits, but when the elders have good reason to suppose that some treat the Sabbath this way, the elders must deal with the errant sheep.

That the Sabbath is a day in which we must devote all to the service of God, we must remind our people. This is the guiding principle in all of life, and it is certainly the guiding principle here.

In speaking of a “balanced” view of the Sabbath day, I mean that it is also our responsibility to teach our people how the principles of Christian liberty relate to it, so that they are not too quick to accuse one of sin, who performs a certain action. At the same time, we are to instruct them that Christian liberty is not to be confused with “antichristian deviltry” (Rev. J. Heys, Standard Bearer 70:243), and considered to be a day in which we revel with the world in all the pleasures that this life can afford.

Our people need this instruction. Our nature is either to fall into the one ditch of condemning others in matters in which we ought not, and making rules where we should not, or to fall into the other ditch of thinking that the Sabbath itself is abolished, and the fourth commandment does not apply. We need this instruction all the more in these days in which Sabbath desecration is so prevalent in the world, and even church world, around us.

The responsibility to promote this balanced view is not only that of the pastor, although of course he must do so; but is also that of the elders. That this is their responsibility also is implied in the fifth question asked of them, in their absence, at church visitation: “Do they try to prevent and remove all offense in the congregation, and try to comfort and instruct the members?” This responsibility can well be carried out, not only by formal discipline work if the need requires it, but also by a less formal visit to a member of the congregation who stands in particular need of instruction; or by making this a family visitation topic.

The promoting of this balanced view will certainly also require us to live in accordance with it. Let the elders have a high view of the Sabbath! Let us be the examples we are called to be! Let us keep the day holy unto God, attending public worship faithfully, being careful in how we spend the remainder of the day to cause no offense, and yet not legislating the lives of people beyond what the Scriptures allow.

Then we shall enjoy the true blessedness of the keeping of the Sabbath - joys which earth cannot afford, which earthly entertainments cannot give; and we will be the more ready to point our congregations to the way to experience the same joys.

Works Cited

Calvin, John. John Calvin’s Sermons on the Ten Commandments, edited and translated by Benjamin W. Farley. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1980.

Carson, D.A., editor. From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Investigation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1982.

De Ridder, Richard R. Translation of Ecclesiastical Manual including the decisions of the Netherlands Synods and other significant matters relating to the government of the churches, by P. Biesterveld and Dr. H. H. Kuyper. Grand Rapids, MI: Calvin Theological Seminary, 1982.

Engelsma, David J. Remembering the Lord’s Day. South Holland, IL: Evangelism Committee of the Protestant Reformed Church, 1984.

Pipa, Joseph A. The Lord’s Day. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1997.

Ryken, Leland. Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986.

The Standard Bearer. Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association.

The Three Forms of Unity. Grandville, MI: Mission Committee of the Protestant Reformed Churches in America, 1996.

Westminster Confession of Faith. Glasgow: Free Presbyterian Publications, 1976.

Noteworthy Works Not Cited

Chantry, Walter J. Call the Sabbath A Delight. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991.

Coldwell, Chris. Calvin in the Hands of the Philistines, Or Did Calvin Bowl on the Sabbath? Dallas, TX: Naphtali Press, 1998.