Should i observe sabbath as christian

Alongside eating unclean food, ignoring the sabbath was the worst kind of covenant disloyalty conceivable. The rationale behind why these particular stipulations were chosen is not entirely clear, but the most likely explanation is that they have something to do with not offending the sensibilities of the Jewish people among whom the Gentile Christians lived and worshiped.

Another suggestion is that this amounted to the avoidance of pagan feasts. Next, we turn to Romans — The former are those who have not yet developed maturity in their thinking with regard to the freedom we have in Christ, and its proper use. The strong are those who have. It is clear that he is referring to weekly sabbath observance, although he may have in mind other special holidays as well.

You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. Rather, the problem addressed here appears to be that these things were being held out as prerequisites for salvation, or at least as warning signs that they are in danger of doing so. So Galatians 4 is only somewhat relevant to the matter at hand. If it were simply a matter of the command not being reiterated in the New Testament, a decent case could be made to the contrary. However, in view of the three passages we have seen in Paul, especially Romans 14 and Colossians 2, and in view of the strange silence of the Jerusalem Council, we have reason to believe that, for the Christian, sabbath observance is optional at best.

But What About the Ten Commandments? Standing against this is the very good point that sabbath observance is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. The obvious merit of this argument is that at least eight of the other commandments are regarded by Christians as ethically obligatory and are practiced as such i.

The exception to this would be the second—the command against carved images. Part of this, no doubt, is owing to ambiguity as to what exactly is forbidden by the second commandment. And of course, there have been some enclaves of Reformed Christians who have taken it quite seriously, while other branches within Christendom pay it wanton disregard.

What is a problem for this view, however, is that there is no biblically sound way of singling out the Ten Commandments as somehow different from the rest of the law of Moses when it comes to its applicability to Christians. Whatever happens to the rest of the law in light of its fulfillment in Christ happens to the Ten Commandments as well. True, the Ten Commandments are given a place of prominence—they are uttered and written by God himself and are the first stipulations of the covenant, and they are cited as primary though not ultimate by both Jesus and Paul.

But this does not obscure the fact that they are still part of the Sinai Covenant, and any attempt to single them out for special treatment is arbitrary and without biblical basis. The same is true of attempts to categorize various laws as moral, civil, and ceremonial and to uphold or discard them by virtue of their placement under this schema.

We should also note that anyone practicing sabbath observance on the basis of its presence in the Ten Commandments ought to be doing so on Saturday. Two similar arguments in favor of sabbath observance for Christians are likewise problematic.

The first of these is an appeal to the sabbath as a creation ordinance. Most prominent among these are the sanctity of both work and marriage.

Any appeal to the seventh day in Genesis —3 must also acknowledge that there is no indication in the text itself that God intends his act of seventh-day rest to be extended to mankind, especially with the force of a morally-binding command. On the face of it, then, the claim that this passage makes the sabbath a creation ordinance seems clearly an example of eisegesis—reading into the text what is not actually said in an effort to get it to say more than it does.

When we consider the Sabbath, we must do so in light of the context in which the mandate was given. In Exodus 20, Moses is given the ten commandments.

Here we see the Sabbath decree clearly mandated. 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. The Sabbath mandate is clear in Exodus However, Exodus 20 is not the first time we see the Sabbath mentioned.

As I stated above, the Sabbath rhythm goes back to creation. The Lord rested, not because He was tired; He rested as a model for humanity. We ought to pause to remember God and be thankful to Him.

At its core, this command was designed to remind the Jews that they were not in control. It was good for the Jews to take this weekly break, to remember the Lord.

God models a good pattern for us. It is good for humans to work, to create, to cultivate. And then, it is good for humans to break from their normal work rhythms in order to rest and honor the Lord. We all have busy routines. Life is taxing and hard. Breaking from our normal busyness is good. As stated earlier, the New Testament clearly teaches that the precise expectations of the Old Testament do not apply to Christians in the same way that they applied to the Jews in the Old Testament.

Specifically, the laws of the Mosaic covenant do not apply to modern-day Christians unless they are restated or reiterated in the New Testament. Interesting fact: Nine of the ten commandments are clearly restated and reiterated in the New Testament.

The only one not restated: the command to honor the Sabbath. So, on one hand we see that Sabbath rhythms are good for us. On the other hand we see that we are not necessarily obligated to follow the Sabbath mandate. How do we reconcile this? We examine the reasons as to why God gave the commandments in the first place. When we do this, we see lessons that are valuable for Christians today. When we do this exercise, we learn that God had very good reasons to command the Jews in the way he did.

God had several motivations for these laws. In some cases they were for health and safety. In other cases they were to teach the Jews benevolence.

In other cases they were for social order and economic prosperity. And the ultimate reason why the Mosaic law was given, as the Apostle Paul tells us, was to expose our desperate need for a Savior cf.

Romans However, one other important motivation for many of the Old Testament laws was that the law served to force the Jewish people to stand out from the other nations around them. The nation of Israel was surrounded by pagan nations. God wanted his people to righteously stand out. Many of the things that the Jews were told not to do were things that the pagan nations did, and God prohibited those things so that his people would stand out.

This is something modern-day Christians ought to seriously consider. While the Bible is clear that the individual Old Testament mandates may not apply to us, the motivation behind the precepts certainly do still apply to us. The Gospel tells us that Jesus had a lot to say about the Sabbath and the true rest that God intends for his people. Jesus responds with an argument that redefines the Sabbath, asserts his role as the promised Messiah, and points to his divinity Matthew The Pharisees are understandably upset by this.

But to Jesus, Sabbath observance pointed to something greater. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

All this talk of rest right before a passage that deals with Sabbath? This is no mistake. What is Matthew trying to communicate here? The people were in need of rest, both in ceasing from hard work shabbat and being present together with God nuakh. Jesus ushered in the promise and reality of both. Jesus taught that the Sabbath was about mercy and was purposeful. When followers of Jesus observe the Sabbath, we live as if this restoration has already taken place.

We take a break from the broken rhythms of hustle and hardship to set aside a time of submission to his rule and enjoyment of his presence and to extend these things to the world around us. So what does this look like practically? Does it mean attending a weekend church service, or turning off work emails, or volunteering at a soup kitchen?

Does it matter what day you observe Sabbath? Your Sabbath could certainly include those activities, and it could take place on the same day every week! But the text seems to emphasize the purpose of the Sabbath, rather than telling us rules for how to observe it. As followers of Jesus, we aren't required to follow the laws given to Israel by God exactly. These were given at a specific time to a specific people group for a specific purpose.

Yet the wisdom of those laws is enduring, and the law of the Sabbath is pure gold. Sabbath rest is an invitation to practice for eternity. When we practice this intentional stop, we make room for him to take up residence in our individual lives. Even better, we are taking part in this new creation story, setting the stage for God to make his dwelling place, his resting place, right here. She loves to wrestle with Scripture until it lives in her in a way that she can communicate it with others richly.