KEEPING THE SABBATH

The Sabbath law is a good law that comes from a good God. God requires of man to set aside one day a week for physical respite and spiritual refreshment. When we come to worship the Lord on Sunday, do we not find our bodies and spirits recharged for a new week of physical work and spiritual battle? The Sabbath is not to be a burden but a delight. It is not a holiday but a holy day (Isa 58:13–14).

Today, we keep the Sabbath on Sunday, the Lord’s Day (Rev 1:10, Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 16:2) commemorating Christ’s resurrection. On this day, we gather for worship and service. The Seventh-Day Adventists, however, keep it on a Saturday just like in the Old Testament.

Why do we as Christians keep the Sabbath on Sunday and not Saturday? Since the first century, believers from all over the world have been keeping the Sabbath on a Sunday. That is because Christ resurrected on the first day of the week, ie, Sunday. Sunday became “the Lord’s Day” (Rev 1:10). It became the Christian Sabbath and replaced the Jewish Sabbath as a “holy day,” a day of rest and worship. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q 59) teaches this: “From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian sabbath.”

That early Christians regarded the first day of the week as the day for Christian assembly is clear from the New Testament. The Apostle Paul for instance arranged for churches to observe the first day of the week as the time for Christian assembly. In 1 Corinthians 16:1–2, he issued an order, “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” According to Dr J Oliver Buswell, “These words could hardly be understood without the assumption that there was a regular assembly on the first day. The thesauros in which each one was, by himself without compulsion, to deposit his offering, must have been the treasury of the church, because Paul adds, ‘so that there may be no collections when I come.’ If each one had put something away in private storage, then public collections would have been quite unnecessary when Paul came. There are frequent references in Paul’s writings to regular assembly at times evidently understood by all.”

Hebrews 10:25 says that the church in those days had the habit of meeting regularly. It is likely the assembly was for worship and fellowship on the first day of the week. At Troas for instance, “Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow” (Acts 20:7).

The Sabbath truth remains the same, but the Sabbath day has changed. In the New Testament it is on Sunday, not Saturday, commemorating the Lord’s resurrection. The early church kept the Sabbath on the first day of the week. Ignatius, shortly after AD 100, wrote of those who “have come into the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the [Old Testament] Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day on which also our life has sprung up again by him.”

How Should the Sabbath Be Observed?

Although the Christian Sabbath in principle is observed on the first day of the week, the keeping of it should not be one of legalistic ceremonialism. The Lord’s Day should not be more important than the Lord Himself. It is the Lord, not the day, that we worship. Paul made it clear that salvation comes not by the observation of a day (Gal 4:10–11; Col 2:16–17; Rom 14:5–6). Salvation comes from the Lord (Jon 2:9).

Paul’s anti-legalism was exactly in line with the teachings of Jesus. Jesus and Paul did not abrogate the law of the Sabbath; they gave it its true meaning. Paul was not against the Sabbath truth when he said, “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Rom 14:5) with regard to a religious day. A believer who truly loves the Lord and who fully understands the scriptural meaning and practice of the Sabbath, has liberty in applying the principle to the details of his life.

In the New Testament, the essence of the Sabbath and the Old Testament sacraments remains the same but the administration of them is different. The Old Testament Sabbath was meant to be “a shadow of things to come” (Col 2:17). Just as the Lord’s Supper takes the place and has all the value of the Passover (1 Cor 5:7–8) and the sacrifices which involved the shedding of blood and the eating of unleavened bread; and just as Christian baptism takes the place of circumcision (Col 2:11–12) and the rituals prescribed in Leviticus 12; so the Lord’s Day takes the place and has all the value of the Jewish Sabbath.

When we keep the Sabbath, we do not keep it with a pharisaical and legalistic attitude. In Mark 2:23–24, the Pharisees charged Jesus and His disciples for breaking the Sabbath. According to the Pharisees, the Sabbath law was broken when the disciples plucked and rubbed the wheat grains in their hands. In their extra-biblical rabbinical laws, they listed the following as work forbidden on the Sabbath: “The main classes of work are forty save one: sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing or beating or dyeing it, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying [a knot], loosening [a knot], sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two stitches, hunting a gazelle, slaughtering or flaying or salting it or curing its skin, scraping it or cutting it up, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters, building, pulling down, putting out a fire, lighting a fire, striking with a hammer and taking our aught from one domain into another. These are the main classes of work: forty save one” (Mishnah, Shabbath 7.2). The disciples were considered to have done #3 and #5 of the 39 activities. Jesus was culpable because He did not stop His hungry disciples. Was the Master wrong?

Jesus and His disciples did not violate the Sabbath law. What they broke were the extra-biblical, man-made, onerous laws of the Pharisees. In Mark 2:25–28, Jesus rebutted the accusations of the Pharisees by citing the example of David who ate of the shewbread that only the priests were allowed to eat. David was hungry, and Ahimelech the priest, knowing the law for sure, did not forbid David and his men to fill their stomachs (1 Sam 21:1–6 cf. Lev 24:9). Ahimelech “broke” the ceremonial law of Leviticus 24:9, but was blameless. David likewise “broke” that law by eating of the ceremonial bread, and was guiltless as well. If Ahimelech and David were innocent, how could Jesus be guilty? Moreover, Jesus Himself is the Lord of the Sabbath! The higher law of humanity overrides the lower law of ceremony. It ought to be noted that Jesus in this particular instance did not even depart from a God-given ceremonial law, but a man-made rabbinical tradition. The charges of the Pharisees were totally baseless and without merit. Jesus did not break the law but kept it perfectly — His active obedience.

Jesus laid down a wonderful principle for Sabbath-keeping when He said, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath was instituted not as a burden but as a benefit to man. Thus any legalistic application of the Sabbath law contradicts its God-given role for man (cf Luke 11:46).

Some ultra-puritanical ones, in their effort to safeguard the Sabbath, become legalistic. Instead of stressing on the spirit of the law, they put an undue emphasis on the letter of the law. Calvin has rightly commented, “The point of it is that it is wrong to turn the sabbath to man’s destruction, since God instituted it for his sake. The Pharisees saw Christ’s disciples busy in a holy work, they saw them exhausted and famished by their journey, yet they were angry that these hungry men should refresh their weary bodies with a few grains of corn. Is it not an ignorant perversion of God’s will to demand the observance of the sabbath to man’s hurt when God intended it to help him?” What insight and wisdom!

Westminster Larger Catechism on Sabbath Keeping

How do we keep the Christian Sabbath, which is the Lord’s Day, holy? Here are instructions from the Westminster Larger Catechism:

Q 116: What is required in the fourth commandment?

A: The fourth commandment requires of all men the sanctifying or keeping holy to God such set times as he has appointed in his Word, expressly one whole day in seven; which was the seventh from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, and the first day of the week ever since, and so to continue to the end of the world; which is the Christian Sabbath, and in the New Testament called the Lord’s day.

Q 117: How is the Sabbath or the Lord’s day to be sanctified?

A: The Sabbath or Lord’s day 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; and making it our delight to spend the whole time (except so much of it as is to be taken up in works of necessity and mercy) in the public and private exercises of God’s worship: and, to that end, we are to prepare our hearts, and with such foresight, diligence, and moderation, to dispose and seasonably to despatch our worldly business, that we may be the more free and fit for the duties of that day.

Q 118: Why is the charge of keeping the Sabbath more specially directed to governors of families, and other superiors?

A: The charge of keeping the Sabbath is more specially directed to governors of families, and other superiors, because they are bound not only to keep it themselves, but to see that it be observed by all those that are under their charge; and because they are prone ofttimes to hinder them by employments of their own.

Q 119: What are the sins forbidden in the fourth commandment?

A: The sins forbidden in the fourth commandment are, all omissions of the duties required, all careless, negligent, and unprofitable performing of them, and being weary of them; all profaning the day by idleness, and doing that which is in itself sinful; and by all needless works, words, and thoughts, about our worldly employments and recreations.

It is interesting to note that the Westminster theologians did not give a long list of specific do’s and don’ts in their exposition of the Sabbath command, but laid down certain biblical principles that we might apply to ensure we keep the Sabbath holy and wholly: (1) Put God first (Isa 58:13, Matt 6:33). “Worship is the mother of all virtues.” (2) The Sabbath is made for the benefit of man (Mark 2:27). Allowed on the Sabbath are the works of necessity, of mercy, of service to God. (3) Christian freedom and non-judgmentalism (Rom 14:4–8, John 4:21–24). Sanctifying the Sabbath is an attitude or a spirit we must cultivate. A spirit of desiring to please God in all that we do, and be a good testimony for Him on the Lord’s Day, and every day of the week.