Sunday, April 3, 2011

Which Sabbath?

Which “Sabbath” should be honored? The fourth commandment instructs us to honor the Sabbath, which is Saturday, the last day of the week, yet most Christians worship on Sunday and treat that like the Sabbath. Now there is a precedent for meeting to worship on Sunday. The early church met on Sundays for breaking of bread and apparently for worship (Acts 20:7) and Paul gave instructions for the collecting of gifts that were to be sent to Jerusalem to occur on Sunday, presumably because that was when the Christians congregated (I Cor. 16:2). The reason for Christians meeting on Sunday is because we commemorate Christ’s resurrection by worshiping Him on the day of the week that He arose. What of Saturday? Are we no longer to honor Saturday? After all, the reason the fourth commandment instructs us to keep the Sabbath is because that is the day God rested from His creation during the creation week. Has Christ’s resurrection exceeded the end of God’s creation in importance? I think that question is faulty because it presumes that only one day of the week can be honored. Why not honor both Saturday and Sunday? Our society already does this: Saturday and Sunday are the weekend, a time distinct from the rest of the week. The reason for the separation of Saturday and Sunday has been largely lost by our culture, but the template is still there: honor the weekend as special days distinct from the other days of the week.

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