Sabbath Observance

How should Christians observe the Sabbath? This is a thorny question, which is way of saying that Christians hold an array of views on the subject. Let us look at some relevant texts and, hopefully, come to a position on the matter, even if there remains a tentative element to the position. 

Ten Commandments 

The law regarding Sabbath observance is on the list of ten commandments that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai. Jews count 613 commands in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). The fact that the law regarding Sabbath day observance is one of the ten commandments is a clear indicator of its importance.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.  (Exodus 20.8-11).

One example of Sabbath day requirements showed up the process for collecting manna (the primary food for the Israelites when they wandered about for 40 years in the desert). The people were instructed to collect manna on a daily basis, but only in the amount needed by each household for that day. On Friday they were to collect a double portion. On Saturday (the Sabbath) they were not to collect anything. 

Another verse from the Old Testament Law augments what we read in Exodus 20: There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord. (Leviticus 23.3). Including this verse, the fundamental ideas of Sabbath, as expressed in the O.T., are: observe a Sabbath in order to honor and identify with the Creator; the Sabbath is for sacred assembly; the Sabbath is for rest. 

 Jewish Misunderstanding

Jesus was born in Israel roughly a thousand years after Moses.He had a number of run-ins with the religious leaders of Israel. In fact, he offended them so much they had the Romans crucify him. One of the items of contention between Jesus and the religious leaders was Sabbath day observance. Many Gospel events take place on the Sabbath, which is due in large part to the fact that, rather than working, the Jewish people were out and about, visiting the synagogues, the Temple, and spending time with each other. Jesus teaching on the Sabbath, though he said many things the leaders did not like, was not, strictly speaking, a problem. His healing of the sick was. This was work! For the religious leaders this was clear evidence that Jesus was a false teacher. 

Jesus was not willing to let this accusation pass, though. First, he pointed out that there had always been exceptions to the work rule. He asked them, “If your ox or your son fell into a pit on the Sabbath, would you not immediately come to the rescue?” One time, when walking through a field, some of his disciples began helping themselves to some of the grain. This was not considered theft—it was demanded by Jewish law that farmers would leave some of their crops standing in the fields so the poor would have means to feed themselves. Some Pharisees (strict followers of the Jewish Law) objected on the basis that the disciples were working on the Sabbath. Little doubt, they had the story of manna in mind. But Jesus responded with two extraordinary statements. The first was to claim himself to be Lord of the Sabbath. In short, what he was saying was, “If you want to know what is lawful activity on the Sabbath, ask me. I am the one who sets the rules.” 

He also said this: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” This is a statement with mammoth implications. One implication is that keeping the Sabbath is not a matter of following a strict rule set. The religious leaders of Israel had effectively changed Judaism from a religion of people who wanted to be with God and like God, into a religion of rule-following. The rules had come to replace God. Judaism and Christianity fail when people begin to congratulate themselves on how wonderfully they follow God’s rules. Closely associated with this is the false belief that being good is the means of achieving heaven. When religion gets to this point, it is a religion of man; it is a religion like all the rest of the world’s religions and ideologies. It is a religion that says that humans can save themselves by being good enough. Jesus was clear that people are incapable of being good enough; salvation is a work that God must do.  

Jesus said that the rules relating to the Sabbath are a gift from God. This is true of all of God’s laws. Neither the ten commandments, nor the 613 rules are arbitrary, nor are they some kind of test. Observance of the Law is not a burden; it is a blessing. 

What is the blessing of the Sabbath? The Sabbath is similar to sleep; it is restorative. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm127.2). We live in a harsh world. Work is necessary. It is good for the soul, and the bi-product of good work is the service it provides. We grow crops for food; we build houses for shelter; we manufacture clothes; we educate; we govern; we entertain. But work can be hard, too. It can be dull and repetitive. It can place us in situations with very difficult people. Sometimes our best efforts fail. Sometimes we become exhausted. God says to us: “Take some time off. You’re running yourself into the ground. Don’t do that. Consider your health. Consider your relationships, including your relationship with me. Take a day off each week to rest”. 

Implied in this command is that it is possible to do so. Some people are driven by fear that they will not have enough to provide for their needs. Some people are driven by fear that they will not be able to accumulate enough to keep up with the Joneses. God says, “Don’t worry about the Joneses and don’t worry about having enough. That’s my problem.” I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6.25,26). If we look again at the manna provision, the implication is that God promises to give us as much provision from six days of work as if we had worked seven days. It also suggests that God does not want our lives to be filled with ambition or to seem like drudgery. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 10.10).

Jewish Context

In our consideration of the requirements of the law, we should recognize some differences of the Jewish context. Exodus 31.14 reads as follows: You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. We certainly no longer put to death anyone who fails to observe the Sabbath, whatever the observance may entail. Some of the Old Testament requirements strike us as harsh. But Israel was in a very different situation. Israel was a small nation that God was incubating as a holy people. The surrounding nations were everything but holy. There were many “walls” that marked the Jews as separate from the surrounding nations. One of those distinctions was Sabbath day observance. A similar distinction is found in the ritual of circumcision. Jewish boys were all required to undergo circumcision when they turn 8 days old. Interestingly, roughly 1/7 of Jewish boys would have been circumcised on the Sabbath, then.  

However, the New Testament church had serious debates about the requirements of circumcision for Christians. The conclusion was that circumcision was no longer necessary for Christians; it no longer served as a sign of belonging within the nation of God’s people. Why? Because God’s people were no longer to be identified according to ethnicity or by any sign of the flesh. Instead, they were to be identified by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and by their confession of faith in Jesus. 

This gives us some reason to look at Sabbath day observance a little differently as Christians than as Jews. The Jews were members of a theocracy. That is, their nation was governed fundamentally by God’s laws. When everyone in the nation ceases working on the Sabbath and, instead, dedicates the day to rest and to sacred assembly, following the regulation is much easier. In Israel, Sabbath day observance was swimming with the current. In the world today, following such regulations is swimming against the current. 

Being difficult to keep is not grounds for not keeping laws, of course. However, when we live in a country where much business continues on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) or the Christian Sabbath (Sunday), even if you want to be legalistic in your observance, the choices you make can become moral dilemmas. When I was younger I worked as a hospital cook. I had to work every other Sunday. People in hospitals have to eat. In fact, they are more likely to really need to eat than are healthy people. But remember the manna again. While the Israelites were not allowed to collect manna on the Sabbath, they were allowed to eat. Should I have looked for another job that would spare me from having to work on Sunday? Someone would have had to do my job, regardless. It strikes me as a kind of hypocrisy to say, “I’m not going to do such-and-such because I am a Christian, but it’s fine for you to do it because you are a pagan.”

It’s easy to get bogged down in making rules about what constitutes proper Sabbath day observance. When Jesus lived, the Jews had developed a long list of sub-rules that were intended to give clarity on the question of what constituted work. One fun one is that they determined a limit on how far a person could travel on the day. This was called a “Sabbath-day’s journey”. The limit was 2000 cubits from the edge of town (roughly 3000 feet, or 6/10 of a mile). (Most of us would have to change churches in order to meet this regulation.) Apparently there was a work-around, though. A traveler could carry a tent with him and at 2000 cubits, pitch it. This would create a new starting point for him as it was then considered the location of his “home”. He could keep this up all day. This approach would, of course, be quite a lot of work. You’d have to be awfully desperate to go somewhere to put in so much work. But it was seen as a means to keep the Law. However ridiculous this may seem, it is actually very common for people to manipulate rules in ways that allow them to look good while doing whatever they want to do. This is called satisfying the letter while ignoring the spirit.   

Christian Sabbath

The very idea of a Christian Sabbath is a bit strange, but there needs to be some acquaintance with it. Western culture has maintained the Jewish calendar in the sense that the first day of the week is Sunday, while the seventh is Saturday. Unsurprisingly, Jews continue to observe the Sabbath on the seventh day, as they were commanded by God. 

It is also not surprising that Christians have a soft spot for the first day of the week—it is the day of the resurrection of Jesus. Easter is always celebrated on a Sunday. The custom of gathering together on Sunday mornings to celebrate Christ’s resurrection began soon after the resurrection, and has continued for twenty centuries. It’s not clear when it came about that Christians began to look at Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. However, in 321, Constantine, the Roman emperor, who was a Christian, proclaimed Sunday to be the Sabbath. The shift has stuck for almost all Christians. 

This raises a question, though. How is it that Christians believe it is okay to alter one of God’s laws? If he commands us to rest on the seventh day, why do we believe it is obedience to rest on the first day? The celebration of Christ’s resurrection makes all the sense in the world. Taking time to celebrate on Sunday and resting on Saturday, no doubt, created some practical difficulties. But sometimes God’s commands are inconvenient. Obeying God when it is convenient to do so but disobeying when it is inconvenient, well, this is a policy that should give Christians pause to wonder whether they are Christians, at all. 

The justification I have heard most often is that God’s concern was that we follow the seven-day pattern, and that which day is of no concern for him. Interestingly, many Christians who accept this explanation feel quite differently about following other regulations associated with the Sabbath. It’s a posture of interpreting according to the “spirit” some of the time, while interpreting according to the letter at other times. It’s an inconsistency that does not bear up well when examined. 

Let’s consider for a moment Eric Liddell’s famous stance against competing in the Olympics on a (Sunday) Sabbath. Eric was what is commonly called a “Sabbatarian,” believing in strict Sabbath day observance. In the movie, “Chariots of Fire”, he even admonishes a young boy for playing soccer on Sunday. I have two reactions to Liddell’s stance.

The first reaction is admiration. He took his stance to honor God. He was willing to sacrifice something he had long worked for. In all likelihood he would have won the 100 meter race, which has long been the standard for determining “the fastest man in the world”. He knew many people would respect his stance, and he knew many people would think him a fool. But his decision was based on what he believed God would think of him. From this perspective, Liddell absolutely did the right thing. 

But, as is often the case in life, there’s another side to the story. Setting aside the question of whether Sunday actually is the Sabbath, the more important question we must ask is: What does God actually command about the Sabbath? It is one thing to make a public stance about acting in obedience to God, but when one makes such a principled stance, it is also important that one stands in the right spot. A Muslim may be filled with zeal for Allah when he blows himself up in a crowded marketplace but such a zeal is solid evidence of faith in a false god. When Jesus told the disciples that he was going to be killed by the religious leaders, Peter “rebuked” Jesus, saying that such a thing would never happen. Jesus responded to Peter in anger: “Get behind me, Satan!” Peter meant well, but he had no idea what he was saying. God’s offer of salvation was only possible through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Zeal is not a good thing unless it is guided by correct understanding. Is it possible that Liddell was a conveying a message about God as curmudgeon, rather than the God who established the Sabbath as a kindness towards humans?

Not for show

Whatever we understand about Sabbath observance, we know we should not be doing it for show. Jesus was particularly impatience with those who imagined themselves religious, who made a great display whenever they gave to the poor or when they prayed. He called such people “hypocrites”. Another good word for it is “posers”. We may hear about it in social media as “virtue signaling”. Sabbath day observance should be based on sincere love for and trust in God, not for the sake of impressing others. This does not mean we hide our beliefs and actions about Sabbath day observance; it simply means that making a show of our observance is unacceptable.  

Not for the Letter

Christians are no longer “under the Law.” Conservative Christians have largely taken this to mean that we are no longer bound to Jewish ceremonial and civil laws, but are still bound to moral laws. (I think this position is untenable.) Liberal Christians take a position that is closer to society’s: we must follow our own consciences, as given light by our evolving society’s greater insights. (Such a view is clear heresy.) 

I believe the point is that it is not the letter of the Law that should be our focus. Rather, it is the Writer of the Law who should be our concern. Jesus told us that the entire Law is summed up in this way: “Love the Lord your God, and your neighbor as yourself”. This trumps the Ten Commandments. Essentially, Christianity has two commandments, then. This doesn’t mean that we toss the Ten, or that we toss the 613. Rather, we are bound by the two, and we use the 613 to guide us in understanding what it is that God wants. Some will tell me I’m on dangerous ground here because I have put too much weight on subjective interpretation. It’s a worthy warning. On the other hand, we are equally in danger when take it on ourselves to follow the 613 (or whatever the number of the laws that someone figures out to be “moral”. My problem is that all of them seem to address morality). If we follow the 613 without considering their common intent of loving God, loving our neighbor, and loving ourselves, we must necessarily misinterpret them. So, no matter what, there is danger. But God addresses this, too. He says, “I have given you talents and I want to see you go out and put them to use.” We interpret according to our best understanding; we hold our interpretations in a loose hand, in order that we might be corrected by God’s messengers, be they a pastor from the pulpit, a passage from Scripture, or a talking donkey. We don’t have the right to absolve ourselves from wrestling with scripture…we cannot default to the decisions of a conclave of theologians from centuries past.  

The New Testament, while it contains many references to the Sabbath, contains no exhortations about how Christians are to limit their activity in it. In fact, there are passages that suggest that, like circumcision, special Sabbath day observance is not necessary. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. (Romans 14.5,6). You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authoritiesand put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2.13-17).

Spirit of the Law

I like to use the STOP sign as an illustration about how we should approach the Law. A man comes to a STOP sign and comes to a complete stop, as required by the law. He then accelerates and crashes headlong into another car that has entered the intersection. Policemen are quickly on the scene. An officer, interviewing the driver, asks him to explain what happened. “I came to a complete stop, officer. I obeyed the law!” Little doubt, the officer would remind the driver that while the STOP sign only says “stop”, the law regarding STOP signs includes provisions about careful assessment of all traffic, and not proceeding through the intersection until it is safe to do so. So the first thing to do with the letter of the law is to make sure it is fully understood. 

A fuller understanding of the STOP sign law also gets us much closer to the spirit of the law. The letter says, “stop, then proceed when it is safe to do so”. The spirit of the law is about safety and traffic efficiency. The spirit really boils down to this: “love your neighbor as yourself when you are driving in your car”. We all want to get where we’re going as swiftly as possible, but if there is traffic, there is cross-traffic. For everyone’s sake, we need to take turns at intersections. For everyone’s sake, we need to avoid crashing into one another. It’s best if we don’t destroy one another’s property. It’s best if we don’t injure or kill one another when we’re out and about.

Obeying the law, then, is not really about stopping the car at the intersection, and it is not even about proceeding when it is safe to do so. It is about loving your neighbor and yourself as you drive. Driving regulations help you understand what it means to love your neighbor. Still, stopping at stop signs, observing speed limits, and using your turn signals are not the point. These are all limiters and guides to help you understand what it means to drive safely. 

We should approach Sabbath day regulations with similar thinking. Whatever the regulations may be about the Sabbath, what we should be thinking about and practicing is the spirit of the regulations. 

Where To Land?

1. Christians are not bound by the letter of the Law. This means that there are no specific rules that we must follow regarding Sabbath day observance. 
2. Christians remain bound to the law of loving God, loving others, and loving ourselves. 
3. We are bound to honor God by being like him in our rest. Fundamentally this means that we should avoid earthly ambition that becomes an idol. Our lives should not be ordered in such a way that our activities push aside worship of God, push aside our church relationships, push aside our family relationships, or neglect our care of self. Our lives should be characterized by wise priority choices.

Treating the Sabbath (or Sunday) as a special day is not necessary. Nor is it crucial that rest follows a 7-day pattern. But we would be wise to recognize our human limitations. God’s recognition of our need for weekly rest suggests that, to the extent we are able to order our lives in this way, it is good for us to do so. Furthermore, since our lives are not lived in isolation but in community, particularly with the community of God, if we can order our lives such that we are able to assemble with the Church on Sunday, we should do so. If we are unable to do this, we should look for ways that provide for similar patterns. For example, some churches have Saturday evening services. Many churches have mid-week services. 

2. We should recognize that the pattern of special rest is a means of loving God, loving ourselves (because we need the rest), and loving our neighbors (because it encourages them to rest, and because our being rested enables us to be better neighbors to them). With this in mind, we should look for ways to follow the pattern of rest, as God commanded the people of Israel. 
3. We should live our lives with a sense of moderation: we work hard, but we also take joy in the rest that God provides. We understand this balance as part of what it means to live abundantly. When the World pushes us, telling us to live sacrificially for its objectives (money, power, fame, glory), we may have to make decisions as Eric Liddell did. We may have to say, “Sorry, I am a servant of the Lord and you are calling me to serve two masters. Good-bye.” 

Do I believe, then, that you should discontinue your sports activities because many of them take place on Sunday? No, I don’t believe that, though I do find it irritating that many of these activities take place on Sunday mornings, even when the sports organizers are well aware that most church services take place on Sunday mornings. Such decision-making reveals disdain for God and the Church. 

Love your sports. Work hard at your sports. Have fun at your sports. I would say that sports are a kind of rest that God gives us. Just don’t be consumed by your sports. Don’t let sports sacrifice what it means for you to be fully human. What it means to be fully human requires time, experience, and many more discussions, but the critical ideas relating to the Sabbath are discussed above. 

So, sorry this is not a very black-and-white answer to the question. I much prefer black-and-white answers to questions. Many questions have black-and-white answers. This question, I believe, requires a nuanced answer. And it is an answer that you will have to re-visit over the course of your life. You will make some decisions about it, and then you will make some revisions to your decisions. God doesn’t always give us clear answers. But he does want us to wrestle with these questions. It’s part of what it means to grow into full maturity.