Profanity

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). Profanity, in the Bible's sense, is making common what is holy. It is one of the sins named in the Ten Words, tied to the commandment to keep the Sabbath set apart. Yahweh worked six days, rested on the seventh, and blessed it and made it holy (Exodus 20:11). To profane something is to treat as ordinary what God has set apart for Himself. Paul lists "the unholy and profane" among the lawless for whom the Law was made (1 Timothy 1:9). This category is part of the series on the Ten Words, which looks at each of the ten sins Yahweh declared in His covenant with Israel. No separate articles have been posted here yet, so this page introduces the theme through the commandment itself. To go further, read "The Sabbath" in The Appointments, which explores the Sabbath as a rest from one's own labor, and the category on Sanctification, which explains what it means to be holy and set apart.