# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1864_S324
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

324 The Doctrine of the Lutheran Church Concerning Sunday.

worn out. Although afterward they stretched this all too tightly and grossly
abused it, so that they even reviled Christ over it and could not tolerate
such works, which they themselves nevertheless performed on that day, as
one reads in the Gospel — just as if the commandment were fulfilled by
doing no outward work at all, which was, however, not its meaning at all,
but rather, in the end, that they should keep holy the day of rest, as we
shall hear. Therefore this commandment, in its crude sense, does not
concern us Christians at all, since it is an entirely outward matter, like
other statutes of the Old Testament bound to a particular manner, person,
time, and place, which have now all been set free through Christ. But, to
grasp a Christian understanding, for the simple, of what God demands of
us in this commandment, note that we keep holy days, not for the sake of
understanding and learned Christians, for these have no need of it at all,
but first of all also for the sake of bodily need and necessity, which nature
itself teaches and requires, for the sake of the common crowd, menservants
and maidservants, who have attended to their labor and trade the whole
week, so that they too may set aside a day to rest and refresh themselves.
Then, most of all, so that on such a day of rest (since otherwise one
cannot get to it) one may take room and time to attend to worship, so
that one comes home to hear and act upon God's Word, and thereafter to
praise God, sing, and pray. This, however (I say), is not bound to time as
it was among the Jews, such that it must be precisely this day or that; for
no day is in itself better than another; rather it ought properly to happen
daily, but because the crowd cannot manage that, one must set aside at
least one day in the week. But since of old Sunday has been appointed for
this, one should let it remain so, so that things proceed in harmonious
order, and no one causes disorder through needless innovation. This, then,
is the simple meaning of this commandment: since one otherwise keeps
holy days, that one should apply such observance to learning God's Word,
so that this day's proper office is the preaching office, for the sake of the
young and of the poor crowd; yet in such a way that the resting is not so
narrowly restricted that other incidental work, which cannot be avoided, is
thereby forbidden. Therefore, when one asks what is meant by: Thou shalt
keep the holy day holy, then answer: to keep the holy day holy means as
much as to hold it holy. What then does it mean to hold it holy? Nothing
other than to lead a life of holy words and works. For the day itself needs
no hallowing, since it is in itself created holy; but God wants it to be holy
for you. Thus it becomes