On Sabbath

I have never been one who, in the words of Paul, "regards one day above another", but always among those who "regard every day the same".
I should explain that there was never an issue in my mind concerning what day, if any, ought to be so regarded. The arguments for an "eighth-day" Sabbath, that by His resurrection Jesus moved the Sabbath one day, struck me as completely unsupported in the New Testament, and indeed contrary to what was suggested there. God's Sabbath was the seventh day, the day on which He rested, and that was still Saturday. First century Christians worshipped together seven days each week. In First Corinthians Paul suggests that they collect the offering on the first day of the week, but far from saying that the Sabbath had been moved this text tells us that it had not been: that phrase in Greek reads "the Sabbath plus one", that is, "the day after the Sabbath", and because Jewish believers were still adhering to the Law they would not have handled money, the instrument of commerce and thus of labor, on the Sabbath, even to contribute it to the support of the church. The Sabbath was Saturday for anyone who observed the Sabbath. I, however, was among those who did not. To me, what mattered was that I found time to fellowship and worship; the day of the week was irrelevant.

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Then God, in His infinite humor, sent me to a Seventh Day Baptist church. Despite my rather broad exposure to denominational beliefs and practices, I had not even heard of the Seventh Day Baptists prior to discovering this church. How God arranged this particular assignment is not what this page is intended to address, but this was where God wanted me to be.
In the late Spring/early Summer of 2008, a question arose within the church concerning just exactly how we, as a church, were to observe the Sabbath. This arose because of some rather practical problems, such as the day gravediggers were using rather noisy heavy equipment in our cemetery during our Saturday morning worship service. The question of what ought to be permitted in church facilities was the underlying issue, but it stimulated the question of how individuals who claim to respect the Sabbath ought to reflect that respect.
Many of the proposed answers were, for me, uncomfortably legalistic. However, I knew that there was a valid place for Sabbath-keeping within Christian liberty, and I had a pretty solid idea where to find it.
The following outline was composed to help some in the church think through these issues. I have decided subsequently that it might be of value to others who do not understand the concept of Sabbath keeping on any day, and so have posted it here for your benefit.

--M. Joseph Young

On Sabbath: A Perspective

Romans 14:5f: One person regards one day above another, another regards every day [alike]. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord….

Paul is speaking about Sabbaths and Holy Days, days set apart as in some way special. He says that different people have different attitudes, and that each ought to be firm in his own belief on the matter.

Paul is not a relativist; he does not believe that some things are true for some people but not true for others. Things either are true or they are not. Yet on this point, he seems to be saying that some people need to observe Sabbaths and Holy Days and others do not need to do so.
Paul is not a legalist; he opposes any system whereby we make ourselves pleasing to God by obeying rules, insisting instead that we live the Christian life by expressing our love for God and each other through our actions. Thus the notion that there is a rule about keeping Sabbaths and Holy Days seems contrary to his preaching fundamentally.
At the same time, it appears that Paul himself may have kept the Sabbath every Saturday, and regarded the Jewish Holy Days as celebrations to be observed. We have only hints of this, but it appears that he twice put himself under a Nazirite Vow and made the sacrifices, once in Acts 18:18 and again in Acts 21:20ff. He circumcised Timothy in obedience to the Law of Moses. Further, the meeting recorded in Acts 15 to determine whether Gentile believers had to keep the Law to become Christians makes no sense unless we understand that Jewish believers like Peter and Paul were themselves keeping the Law—underscored by the Acts 21:20ff passage, where Paul goes through the vow to prove to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem that he is still keeping the Law. Further, he made a point of being in Jerusalem in time for the Jewish celebration of Pentecost, according to Acts 20:16. He regarded some days special, and that probably included the recognition of a seventh day Sabbath.
All of this raises questions how Christians ought to treat the Sabbath.

This is within the context of the discussion in Romans 14 of what we call the Weaker Brother, a summary of a larger discussion in I Corinthians 8ff.

The original discussion centered on meat offered to idols, but the Romans summary ignores that, speaking of other matters such as vegetarianism.
Paul distinguishes stronger brothers from weaker brothers, saying in essence that weaker brothers make rules to protect themselves from temptation while stronger brothers do not need similar rules.

In regard to meat offered to idols, Paul affirms that Christians can eat such meat, but also that anyone who because of his past connection to idol worship sees in the meat the devotion to the idol should refrain from eating it, and no one should push such a person to eat that meat.
Ultimately whether you eat or do not eat is irrelevant, but only whether your choice to eat or not eat is based on your love for God.
By analogy, whether or not you keep the Sabbath is in itself irrelevant; the relevance lies in whether you do whichever you do based on your love for God.

Paul tells us that we are all weaker brothers in one area and stronger brothers in another—it is not a disgrace to see yourself as a weaker brother in regard to any one thing, nor is it a glory to be the stronger brother in regard to that thing. Recognizing your weakness is as much a mark of maturity as discovering your strength.

Paul does not say whether the recognition of Sabbaths and Holy Days is a mark of weakness or strength. However, the pattern established in connection with eating suggests that those who adopt rules to limit personal conduct are the weaker brothers and those who recognize their freedom to ignore such rules are the stronger brothers. It thus follows by analogy that those who keep the Sabbath do so from weakness.
Yet the concept of using rules to address weakness suggests that there is an underlying danger, that without the rule there would be a temptation to sin. It thus is important to understand what sin is avoided by keeping the Sabbath.

Jesus emphasized the freedom to work on the Sabbath.

The Synoptic Gospels contain several accounts in which Jesus emphasizes the freedom to work on the Sabbath.

In Matthew 12 there are two accounts in which Jesus addresses the matter of working on the Sabbath, and in both He asserts that it is acceptable to work on the Sabbath.

In Matthew 12:1ff His disciples pluck grain, thresh it in their hands, and eat it. The Pharisees object that this is harvesting grain, and not permitted on the Sabbath. Jesus responded that even within the Law the Law of the Sabbath is broken, and said, speaking of Himself in 12:8, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He made no distinctions about how much harvesting the disciples had done, but simply suggested that there was no reason they could not harvest grain on the Sabbath.
In Matthew 12:9ff Jesus heals the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath. Over the objections of the Pharisees, He asserts in 12:12, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

These accounts are repeated in Mark 2:23ff, continuing into the third chapter. There, in 2:27, Jesus says, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. This is a critical principle which points us to the essence of the principle.
Luke repeats these accounts in Luke 6:1ff, but he records a separate occasion on which Jesus healed on the Sabbath in Luke 13:10ff. In that passage Jesus said it was hypocritical to refuse to do good to someone on the Sabbath on the grounds that it would involve work. Jesus underscores this aspect in Luke 14:1ff, in discussion with the Pharisees.

Jesus heals others on the Sabbath in John's gospel.
- In John 5:2ff Jesus heals another man on the Sabbath. In this case, in 5:8, He directs the patient to break the Sabbath by moving furniture--carrying his bed. When the man is accused of breaking the Sabbath by carrying his bed, he explains that the healer instructed him to do this.
- Jesus heals another, a blind man, on the Sabbath in John 9:1ff. Not only did Jesus heal him, He also made the clay used for this purpose, manufacturing what was needed to help this man.
- In John 7:22f Jesus defends healing on the Sabbath by noting that the Law of Circumcision overrides the Law of Sabbath, that babies are circumcised on the eighth day even if it is a Sabbath.
Throughout the Gospels there is no place where Jesus instructed people to keep the Sabbath; rather, He is always instructing them that they are keeping it too strictly and need to recognize the freedom to help others on the Sabbath, and to receive help from others on that day.

There remains a principle of Sabbath

The fundamental principle of the Sabbath is embedded in Creation, where we are told in Genesis 2:3 that God set apart or sanctified the seventh day because He rested on it.

The principle is reinforced in the Ten Commandments, in Exodus 20:8ff and again in Deuteronomy 5:12ff, where Israel is instructed to obey the Sabbath by abstaining from work of all kinds, and by enforcing this abstinence on everyone within the borders of their land.

How this applies to the Christian is very difficult. There is reason to believe that we have been freed from the Law, and that none of this applies to us; at the same time, there is reason to believe that God expects our conduct to reflect the moral principles embedded in these commandments.

The previously mentioned Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 decreed that Gentile believers had no obligations to any of the commandments, and did not list keeping the Sabbath among the things Gentile believers ought to do.
The Commandment itself emphasizes in Deuteronomy 5:15 that the obedience of the Jews to the Law of the Sabbath is based entirely on the fact that God delivered them from Egypt. We do not share that deliverance, but do share an analogous deliverance.
Paul says in Romans 9:31f that the Jews failed to arrive at the righteousness under the law because they did not pursue it by faith but as though it were by works. He means that the Law was never intended to be a way of earning God’s approval, but rather a way of expressing gratitude for God’s salvation.

In light of this, it appears that the point of the Sabbath, the principle behind it, is that we need to rest and enjoy the salvation of God.

The stronger brother can do this seven days a week, never letting the pressures of life separate him from that assurance.
The weaker brother sets aside one day a week as a way of assuring himself that he will not forget this, not forget to rest and spend time in the presence of God.
The two approaches are equally valid; God does not approve one and reject the other.

The Stronger/Weaker Brother principle asserts that those who choose to keep a Sabbath do so out of gratitude to God, setting aside a special time to honor Him as a reminder that all time is His, while those who do not keep a Sabbath are able to keep in mind that all time is His without this reminder.

Keeping the Sabbath in Practical Terms

Just as the principle of the tithe is a way of recognizing that all of our money belongs to God, so too the principle of the Sabbath is a way of recognizing that all of our time belongs to God. What we do on the Sabbath reflects that principle by setting aside time for God.

It is clear from what Jesus said that we can do anything at all on the Sabbath, as long as what we are doing fits into our perception of giving the time to God.

It is clear from what Paul said that this will mean something different for each of us. For some, it will be perfectly acceptable to work in the yard or garden as an expression of love for all that God has given; for others, that will be labor, a distraction from devotion to God. Attending corporate worship is certainly a commendable way of giving part of that time to God, but so is spending time with family.

It is fair to adopt rules as long as the rules do not prevent us from doing good to others, and as long as we recognize that our rules are a way for us to ensure that we respect this principle of giving all of our time to God.

If the rules prevent us from doing good, they are in the way, and we are failing to keep the Sabbath as Jesus would have kept it.
The point of keeping the Sabbath is to remind us that all of our time belongs to God; if we think of the Sabbath as the time we are giving to God so that we can keep the rest of our time for ourselves, we have failed to keep the essential principle of the Sabbath.
The rules we adopt for ourselves are our own rules; we must never perceive those who do not follow our rules as disobeying God. It is the weaker brother who uses rules to keep his way straight, and the weaker brother is warned not to condemn the stronger brother who does not follow those rules.

This applies to those outside the community of Sabbath keepers, but it also applies within that community, that we must not judge each other for the choices made individually concerning how to respect and keep the Sabbath.

God expects us to live together in love, embracing each other despite our differences. The Sabbath is a way of reminding ourselves that He owns all of our time, but it is not the only valid way to recognize that. We are called upon to give Him everything, including our time, to do with as He will. What we do on the Sabbath is good to the degree that it is part of that. Specific rules concerning how to do that will always be an individual matter.

The rules established by the church for the use of church properties should reflect the fact that some of its members have more strict rules concerning Sabbath than others, and should be designed so as not to offend those members, while at the same time making it possible for all to use the Sabbath in ways which glorify God.

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