Sunday the Sabbath?

Last week I promised that we would discuss the rationale for our (modern day Christians) Sabbath rest taking place on Sunday, instead of Saturday, as the Jewish nation was taught by God.  This is not the easiest question to answer, and in fact, has caused me to do some real soul searching!  There are lots of places on the web to do research; Bibles with commentaries and Bible commentaries themselves all have opinions. 

However, the Bible itself is silent as to the right-ness or the wrong-ness of the decision by early Christians to worship on Sunday.  The Bible simply refers to those Christians worshiping on Sunday.  Period.  According to kencollins.com, "In the early centuries, Christians everywhere worshiped on Sunday. We know that from Christian writers who described ancient worship, such as Justin Martyr, who died in 157. All ancient churches, from Gaul to Armenia, had their main worship service on Sunday."

He goes on to say, "Sunday was the universal day of Christian worship because it is the day of the Resurrection, the day after the Sabbath, and the Feast of Firstfruits—which is why Paul calls Jesus’ resurrection the firstfruits of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20). Since it is the first day of the week, it is also the eighth day of the previous week, the day of the new creation (the allusion in 2 Corinthians 5:17)."

 Interestingly, Collins points out something I had not noticed before.  The Sabbath commandment does not require worship, it prohibits work.  Let's look at the commandment again:  ⁸ "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."


Synagogues (Jewish houses of worship) were originally created for instruction, not worship.  This was during the Babylonian captivity (again, according to Ken Collins).  In the first century, many Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, continued to attend synagogue instruction on the Sabbath and then attended Christian worship on Sunday. Later, Jewish leaders excommunicated the Christians and inserted wording into the synagogue liturgy that would make Christians very uncomfortable, even if they did attend. So we were left with just Sunday.

The Sabbath, of course, is Saturday and only Saturday.  Although Christians sometimes refer to Sunday as the Sabbath, it is clear the the declaration can only be made about Saturdays.  However, Sunday is often referred to as the Lord's Day, because Jesus rested in the tomb on the Sabbath and rose on Sunday. Therefore the principal day of Christian worship has always been Sunday.

So, in a way, our way of life can be an argument for both the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.  A typical work week (those of you who work weekends - sorry that this argument does not apply!) is Monday through Friday.  On Saturday we refrain from work and on Sunday we worship God.  Now, I'm not telling those of you with non-typical hours (is there such a thing anymore?) to tell your employers that working on Saturday is against your religious beliefs!  But I do see the benefit of a truly restful weekend, where we cut back on our busy-ness, focus on the love of the one who created us, and direct our energies toward overflowing God's love to others.


Finally, let me quote from Ken Collins once again:  "There is no day of the week on which you must NOT worship!"  In other words, worship isn't a church thing, it's a life thing!  It's always appropriate to worship God, your creator, your everything.  God wants you to do it, you NEED to do it!  Your heart longs to sing His praises every day of the week!