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Observance of The Sabbath

The Sabbath was instituted by God through Moses for His people as part of the covenant Law (see below). It was established in Exodus 16. Note how Deuteronomy 5.15; Ezekiel 20.10, 12; Nehemiah 9.13, 14 all emphasise that the idea of the Sabbath was established in the wilderness. Those who strictly require observance of the Sabbath as compulsory are putting themselves under the Law. They are making themselves liable to keep the whole Law. For them Christ is dead in vain. (Galatians 2.21; 4.8-11). For the Jew who claims to be under the old covenant the Sabbath is compulsory. But we must remember that Jesus stressed that He was ‘Lord of the Sabbath’, and insisted that petty regulations should not be applied. Furthermore He made clear that compassionate activity for the good of men must be allowed on the Sabbath Day. We should also not that if we demand strict observance of the Sabbath we must also of the Passover and the other ordinances.

But the first thing that we must emphasise is that according to Paul the Christian is not bound to keep any specific day to the Lord. Paul made quite clear that it is up to each one to decide for himself whether he wishes to keep a specific day to the Lord or whether he wishes to keep all days 'as to the Lord'. The third alternative, not keeping any day to the Lord, is not, however, said to be acceptable.

In Colossians he says 'let no one judge you -- in respect of a holy day or a new moon or a sabbath' (Colossians 2.17), and to the Galatians he said 'you observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you lest by any means I have bestowed labour on you in vain (4.8-11).' In both these cases people were telling them that in order to be satisfying to the Lord they had to observe certain specific time periods as sacred to God and that without this they could not be good Christians. And whether they were really Christians would be judged by whether they did so. To these people Christianity had become a matter of doing certain things and observing certain ordinances. In their view that was how you could tell who was a Christian. Paul told hem that that was not so, and that Christianity was concerned with spiritual attitudes, affairs and activities and not with such ordinances and requirements.

Indeed there was no alternative to sucha position. Christian slaves who were not Jews and who tried to observe the Sabbath would be severely beaten or even put to death. They would not be allowed to observe the Sabbath as the day of complete rest. The Sabbath could only be strictly observed where it was accepted by the ruling authorities as binding. It was a Jewish Law not a universal one.

Paul specifically confirms that he did not see the Sabbath as binding on all Christians in Romans 14.5 following, where he says, 'One man esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. He that regards the day regards it to the Lord, and he who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord, and gives God thanks, for none of us lives to himself and none dies to himself. For whether we live, we live to the Lord, or whether we die, we die to the Lord, whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's.'

We note, however the distinctiveness with regard to attitude between observing a day and eating certain foods. The choice is between honouring one day as the Lord’s day and observing all days as the Lord’s days. The alternative of observing no day is not mooted.

Then he goes on to say we should not judge each other on these matters because each is responsible to the Lord. So each of us lives to the Lord and is responsible to the Lord and it is between Him and us whether we observe any particular day to Him and no one else has any right to a say in the matter. It is quite clear that Paul accepts that both the viewpoints he mentions are acceptable.

He had shown earlier that the Old Testament ordinances had been done away in Christ and that they therefore no longer had any binding power over us. In other words to say that Sabbath observance (on any particular day) is a Christian essential is to put ourselves above the Gospel. Furthermore it makes clear that each person can choose which day he will observe to the Lord, and this was what happened. The Jewish Christians continued to observe the Sabbath because they were Jews, and many went along with them, although the church also clearly treated the first day of the week (Sunday) as special too (Acts 20.7; 1 Corinthians 16.2). But Gentile Christians were not so bound and could, and did, choose either.

We know that in the second century all three positions were held, Sabbath observance (especiallyby Christian Jews), Sunday observance and joint observance of both days. Indeed the matter was discussed for a number of centuries. Some observed the Sabbath, some observed the ‘first day of the week’ or the 'eighth day' and some observed both. But one important point was made later, even by those who did observe the Sabbath. It was not to be observed in the Jewish way as a day of rest from labour, it was to be observed as a day of doing good. Thus the Old Testament method of observance of the Sabbath was excluded by all.

Some would argue that the Sabbath law is binding because, they say, the Sabbath was not part of the Mosaic covenant. They say it was instituted at Creation. However there is nothing in Scripture to support this, and we must recognise that Paul clearly did not see it like this (nor as we saw above did Moses, Ezekiel and Nehemiah). It is important to recognise that Genesis 1.2 does not mention the Sabbath. It is neither instituted nor recommended. All we are told is that God 'blessed' the 'seventh day' of the series of days of creation and 'set it apart' because it was the day on which creation was finished. It was a day which demonstrated that God's work of creation was complete, and that the future was to be one of fruitfulness. But that is the after-comment of the writer.

It is noticeable that God does not 'speak' in blessing as He does on all previous occasions of blessing in chapter 1. And we note that there was no evening and morning of the seventh day. It still continues. Creation was complete. And in fact we are not told what God's blessing involved nor are we told when He hallowed it. We are only told that at some stage He did it because of this event. That particular seventh day was blessed as a memorial, as a sign that creation was completed. It does not say it was the Sabbath. In the same way there was a seventh day every year at the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread but that too was not the regular Sabbath. The day it was on changed through the years as the actual day of the Passover changed. It was a sabbath but not the Sabbath. We cannot say 'seventh day = the regular Sabbath day'. (Passover probably happened to be on a Friday in the year Jesus died. It was not so every year).

We do know that such a hallowing of a day took place in Exodus 20 based on the creation pattern, but not ruled by it. We also know that the Sabbath was seemingly not a clearly fixed demand at the time of Exodus 16, for there the rulers came to Moses perplexed at people keeping twice the amount of manna on the sixth day and Moses had to explain to them the law of the Sabbath (verses 22-27). Thus while it may have been a recognised custom among some it was clearly not firmly instituted as a specific and recognised demand on all. Indeed that particular seventh day was determined by when the manna started not by the days of creation. (God makes clear His strict requirements).

So we do not know that this sabbath was on the seventh day of a previously recognised week. They were to count six days after the first appearing of the manna. That would fix the new Sabbath. It was Exodus 20 that finally established the sabbath as being permanently the seventh day of the week, on the basis of the day sequence fixed in the giving of the manna, to be perpetuated as a covenant sign for the future, on the basis of the pattern of the creation account, but not determined by the days of creation. There is no hint of a Sabbath at all in Genesis nor any hint that a Sabbath was kept.

This is confirmed in Ezekiel 20.12 where having said that He gave Israel His statutes and ordinances it says, ‘I gave them my sabbaths to be a sign between me and them’. All this was in the wilderness. So according to Ezekiel the Sabbath was given at the time of their deliverance as evidence that God was with them. In support of this Deuteronomy 5.15 indicates that the purpose of the giving of the Sabbath was as a reminder to Israel of their bondage in Egypt. So the Sabbath was a sign to Israel that they were His people. And because of this they must legally require that all citizens observe the Sabbath rule which applied throughout Israel and that none from highest to lowest must labour on the Sabbath under Israelite jurisdiction. The obligation did not arise out of creation.

However having said all this there are good grounds why Christians should in fact set apart a special day for God, so that the principle is not to be overlooked. This principle is firmly established by Isaiah in 58.13 where he argues for a day when we do not seek our own pleasure. In his case he had of course the Sabbath in mind for he lived in 'Israel', but the principle as far as we are concerned is, as Paul says, that we should set aside a day for God when God is all important. But the day we can choose may very much depend on our circumstances.

On the other hand, as Paul points out, if a Christian genuinely sets apart all days for God and for God alone he could have no quarrel with that. What all would have been appalled at would have been someone who sets aside no day for the Lord. Indeed such a person can hardly be called a Christian, for our time is His and if He is not all important to us how can we claim to be His?

So if I was worshipping with people who observed the seventh day I would observe the seventh day. If I was worshipping with people who observed the first or eighth day I would observe the first or eighth day. But if any authoritative body demanded as a condition of my being a Christian that I had to observe it in a certain way I would have to demand to be able to utilise my freedom in the Gospel and claim the right to observe it to the Lord as I saw fit, as God has informed us through Paul.

One final thought. There was a certain island in the Pacific where the people observed a day to the Lord. Then the international date line was changed and thus the day they were observing changed. But they knew nothing of this. They continued with their seven day pattern. Which day then were they observing? The answer is that it did not matter. What mattered was that they were observing a day to God. This illustrates the fact that which day is the Sabbath is dependent on man's determination of the international date line. So you see unless we all live in Israel there is no common seventh day for all. On one side of the date line it could be the seventh day and on the other side the same day could be the first day - both at the same time! At one moment they were observing Sunday, and then suddenly, because of the change of rules by people they knew nothing about, they no longer observed Sunday but Saturday (or vice versa). How right Paul was to reject the possibility of such an absurd situation.

The Sabbath actually went from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, and strictly the Sabbath was not a day of worship but a day of total rest. It was a day of cessation from all work. That is always the emphasis in the Books of Moses. To the Israelites every day was a day of worship, and the morning and evening offerings were offered every day. In that respect the Sabbath was no different from any other day.

Clearly such a day of total rest was conducive to thoughts about God and Isaiah 58.13 speaks of 'honouring Him' on the Sabbath. But no legislation is laid down for its ritual observance. It is never stated to be the day of worship.

It was really the different exiles of the Israelites that centred their attention on worshipping on the Sabbath day. Far away from their own land the Sabbath (and circumcision) were reminders of the covenant and of their special relationship with God. Thus initially the study of the Law became something that was done on the Sabbath, and soon it became a time for communal prayer and hearing of the Law. This was probably when the synagogues were first established as places where this was done.

So the idea that the Sabbath was from the beginning a day of worship is in fact not Scriptural. Nor significantly is there any statute or ordinance indicating worship on the Sabbath day. It was simply that being a day of total rest it was a convenient day on which to worship.

While the church was mainly Jewish this situation continued, for the Romans recognised the rights of Jews to observe the Sabbath by doing no work on that day. It thus remained a convenient day for worship.

But once the church became predominantly Gentile in some places it had to gather at times when it was possible for slaves and others to have time off. And this was often on the first day of the week, the day of sun worship among the Gentiles. Slave owners recognised that they must allow slaves to worship their gods, for if they did not the wrath of those gods might fall on them. Thus the first day of the week would probably have been recognised by them as a day in which slaves could have time off for worship.

Certainly we know that the church in Troas met on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 20.7). So the first day of the week was clearly established by then as a day of worship, at least in that area. In that light 1 Corinthins 16.2 probably has that in mind.

The New Testament is mainly silent on when Christians should meet for worship because it would depend on the practical situation in each area. But nowhere is worship specifically enjoined on either the Sabbath or the first day of the week (as it never was from Moses to the Exile). And Paul makes quite clear that we are not to criticise people whatever the day that they choose to keep the the Lord (Romans 14.4-6).

Different churches went their own way on the issue simply because some chose one (especially the more Jewish) and some chose the other. But there does not appear to have been any disagreement about the matter. Thus:

Ignatius in Magnesians 9.1 tells us that at Antioch the first day of the week was observed when he declares, ‘no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death--whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master.’

In the Didache (early 2nd century AD, or even earlier) we are told ‘on the Lord’s day assemble, and break bread, and give thanks, having first admitted your sins’.

Elsewhere the Epistle of Barnabas (c. 130 AD) gives the reason for the celebration 'on the eighth day' as because it was the day on which the resurrection of the Lord took place. This was pobably from the beginning the predominant reason for the selection of the first day of the week in many churches.

Justin Martyr (c. 150 AD) says, ‘We hold our common assembly on the day of the sun, because it is the first day on which God put to flight darkness and matter and made the world, and on the same day Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead.’

What did undoubtedly change, however, was the attitude towards the Sabbath. It became a day for 'doing good works' rather than for doing nothing (which was described as 'idleness').

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