This word does not make the fourth commandment more important than the other nine. All are equally so. To break one is to break all (James 2:8-11). But the Sabbath commandment reminds us that the seventh-day Sabbath, as God’s appointed rest for man, goes back to the very beginning of human history and is an inseparable part of the creation week (Gen. 2:1-3; PP 336). The argument that the Sabbath was first given to man at Sinai is wholly without foundation (Mark 2:27; PP 80, 258). In a personal sense the Sabbath comes as a reminder that amid the pressing cares of life we ought not to forget God. To enter fully into the spirit of the Sabbath is to find a valuable aid in obeying the rest of the Decalogue. The special attention and devotion given on this day of rest to God and to things of eternal value provide reserve power for victory over the evils against which we are warned in the other commandments. The Sabbath has well been compared to a bridge thrown across life’s troubled waters, over which we may pass to reach the opposite shore, a link between earth and heaven, a type of the eternal day when those who are true to God shall put on forever the robe of immortal holiness and joy.

We should “remember” also that mere rest from physical labor does not constitute Sabbath observance. The Sabbath was never intended as a day of idleness and inactivity. Sabbathkeeping is not so much a matter of refraining from certain forms of inactivity as it is of entering purposefully into others. We cease from the weekly round of toil only as a means to the end of devoting the day to other pursuits. The spirit of true Sabbathkeeping will lead one to improve its sacred hours by seeking to understand more perfectly the character and will of God, to appreciate more fully His love and mercy, and to cooperate more effectively with Him in ministering to the spiritual needs of his fellow men. Whatever contributes to these primary objectives is appropriate to the spirit and purpose of the Sabbath. Whatever contributes primarily to the gratification of one’s personal desires or to the pursuit of one’s own interests is no more a part of true Sabbathkeeping than is ordinary labor. This principle applies to thoughts and words as well as to actions.

 The Sabbath points us back to a perfect world in the long ago (Gen. 1:31; 2:1-3), and reminds us of the time when the Creator will again “make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). It is a reminder also that God stands ready to restore within our hearts and lives His own image as it was in the beginning (Gen. 1:26, 27). He who enters into the true spirit of Sabbath observance will thus qualify for receiving the seal of God, which is the divine recognition that His character is reflected perfectly in the life (Eze. 20:20). It is our happy privilege once each week to forget everything that reminds us of this world of sin and to “remember” those things that draw us closer to God. The Sabbath may become to us a little sanctuary in the wilderness of this world, where we may for a time be free from its cares and enter, as it were, into the joys of heaven. If the Sabbath rest was desirable for sinless beings in Paradise (Gen. 2:1-3), how much more essential it is for erring mortals preparing to re-enter that blest abode!