Sabbath Keeping

Many people today believe that the Bible commands Christians to not work on Sunday. However, is that actually the case? Does the Bible really require believers to set aside Sunday as a day of rest?

Before we answer this question let’s take a look at some background information. At the time of Moses the Lord commanded the Israelites to honor the Sabbath day:

Exodus 20:8: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 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.”

First of all, it is very important to notice that the Sabbath day was the seventh day of the week. God was very clear about this: the reason He “hallowed” the last day of the week was because He created the entire world in six days and then rested on the seventh day. This means that the Sabbath is Saturday, not Sunday. There has never been a commandment to rest on the first day of the week. This means that our act of resting on the first day of the week has nothing whatsoever to do with this commandment. As Christians we do not have the liberty to take God’s commands and say “Well, we’ll just honor a different day of the week and call it the same thing”. There is not one verse in the Bible that says the Sabbath was somehow changed or moved to a different day of the week.

The reason Christians gather on Sunday to worship is to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, who rose from the dead on the first day of the week. It has nothing to do with keeping the Sabbath.

However, there is something else that should not be overlooked. This command was given as a sign between God and the Israelites. In other words, this commandment was specific to the Jews, not to all of mankind. It never applied to Gentiles. This is made clear in this passage:

Exodus 30:13: “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.
14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefor; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.”

Notice that three times in this passage the Lord clearly says that this command applies to the children of Israel. This was not said about the commandment to honor your parents, or to not murder, or to not commit adultery, or to not steal. It would have been easy for the Lord to say that this commandment applies to everyone or to all those who love Him, but that’s not what He said. He went through great pains to make it clear that this command only applies to the Jews.

The commandment is also extremely strict. Anyone who does any work at all on the seventh day of the week (which would be our Saturday, not our Sunday) was to be put to death. In other passages the Bible elaborated on what was meant by not being allowed to work:

Jeremiah 17:21: “Thus saith the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
22 Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.”

In this passage the Lord commanded the Israelites to bear no burdens on the Sabbath. Don’t go about your normal business; don’t carry things into the city; don’t carry things out of your house. In another passage the Bible goes even further:

Exodus 35:3: “Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.”

Notice that there is no exception made for winter weather! The Jews were not allowed to even start a fire in their own homes on the Sabbath. Even gathering sticks on the Sabbath to start a fire was punishable by death:

Numbers 15:32: “And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
34 And they put in in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
35 And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.”

Simply put, you were not allowed to do any kind of work whatsoever on the Sabbath. Now it is true that in the New Testament Jesus explained that the commandment was not intended to prevent people from helping each other. The Lord healed a number of people on the Sabbath, which angered the Pharisees a great deal. But any kind of work at all – even something as mundane as starting a fire – was strictly prohibited on punishment of death.

People today do not even come close to keeping this commandment. Not only do they rest on the wrong day (typically Saturday is very busy day filled with work!), but even when they rest they do all kinds of activities that would have gotten them executed in Old Testament days.

Another thing to notice is that the commandment says nothing about worship services, or going to the Temple, or anything of that nature. This was not a day where the Israelites set aside what they were doing so they could go to the Temple and offer sacrifices. Over and over the Lord says that He wants the Jews to keep the day holy by not working, not by singing hymns or listening to priests.

As a side-note, the Sabbath was not the only holy day in the Jewish calendar. Leviticus 23 gives an entire list of days that the Jews were commanded to keep holy. The Sabbath is simply the one that we are the most familiar with. The Jews were required to keep all of the various Sabbaths on their calendar. As Gentiles we are required to keep none of them.

If you search the New Testament you will find that many of the Ten Commandments are repeated and given to the Church. However, one commandment that is not given to the Church is the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. In fact, in all of the epistles to the churches the idea of the Sabbath can be found in only one of them. This is what it says:

Colossians 2:16: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

Notice that this verse says that we aren’t to judge each other on the basis of whether or not we keep certain holy days or Sabbath days. In other words, it is left up to our discretion what days we do or do not keep holy. This is a very far cry from executing someone for gathering sticks! In case we missed the point the same idea can be found in Romans:

Romans 14:5: “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and give God thanks.
…
10 But why doest thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”

Far from teaching that Christians must not work on Saturday, these verses say that Christians have liberty to do as they think best. If they wish to abstain from eating meat they may do so; if they want to not abstain then that is fine as well. If one man wishes to keep a particular day holy then that is fine; if another man wishes to not keep it holy then that is equally fine. This is not at all what you would expect the Scriptures to say if working on the Sabbath was a sin. You will not find any passages that teach that we have the same liberty to steal, or covet, or lust.

As a final note, some might point out that Jesus kept the Sabbath, and this is quite true. However, Jesus also kept the entire Mosaic law because He was under that law and was required to do so. That law did not pass away until after He died. If the New Testament church was required to keep the Sabbath then one would expect that to be mentioned somewhere in the epistles to the churches. However, what we find is something entirely different, as I have already discussed.

In summary, the law to keep the Sabbath was given to the Jews only and never applied to the Gentiles. As Christians we do not have to keep Saturday holy by not working on that day. God has given us the liberty to keep days holy or not, at our discretion. If we wish to honor God by setting aside a day of rest then we may do so, but if we do not do this then it is not a problem or a sin. What the Bible does say (in Romans 14:10) is that we should not judge each other on the basis of Sabbath keeping.