The Right Use of Sunday

GOLDEN TEXT: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” —Exodus 20:8

EXODUS 20:8-11

OUR Seventh Day Adventist friends insist that it is quite improper to speak of “Sunday” as being the sabbath referred to in the Fourth Commandment. Sunday, they say, is the first day of the week, whereas the sabbath is the seventh day. Besides, there is quite a difference in the meaning of the two words; “Sun”-day being derived from the worship of the ancient sun god, while “sabbath” simply means rest.

Up to this point we agree with the Adventists, but feel at the same time that for us there is a far greater significance attached to the Fourth Commandment than simply refraining from manual and other labor during the seventh twenty-four hour period of each week. The Lord explained to Moses, for example, that the “sabbath” was made holy because he himself had rested on the seventh day. If this is a reference to an ordinary day on which God rested following the completion of the creative work, the implication would be that he has continued to rest every seventh twenty-four hour period since. But we think that there is a better, more comprehensive viewpoint to be had.

If this is what it means, and the Lord’s people today are to rest during the same hours God is resting, some difficulties present themselves. The Jewish sabbath was from sundown to sundown, but as one moves east to west over the globe the sun goes down one hour later approximately every thousand miles, or a little less; that is, at the equator. Moving either north or south from the equator, this varies.

Beyond the arctic circle the sun does not go down at all during the summer period; and the same is true below the antarctic circle during our wintertime. Obviously, this means that those who keep the seventh day in Australia, would have difficulty in resting during the same twenty-four hours as those who observe the seventh day in America. And, does God rest on the Australian seventh day, or the American, or the seventh day of Palestine?

We call attention to this, not because we desire to criticize, but to emphasize the need of a larger viewpoint of what really constitutes Christian sabbath keeping. The Apostle Paul gives us this, in Hebrews 4:10,11, which reads: “He that is entered into his [God’s] rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

Obviously the apostle is not referring to the ordinary idea of sabbath keeping. He implies that God, having finished the creative work, “rested,” and that he has been enjoying that rest ever since. Then the apostle admonishes us to enter into a similar rest; that is, a ceasing from our own works, as God did from his. A Christian ceases from his own works—that is, he ceases to endeavor to justify himself by the works of his own righteousness—and rests in the finished work of Christ on his behalf.

When God crowned his work with the creation of man, and then saw man fall into sin and death, he placed the work of recovering this “lost sheep” into the hands of the Logos, his only begotten Son. Through redemption and restoration, the human race will be restored to “that which was lost.” This will be at the end of the greater “seventh day” on which God has been resting, a “day” which in reality will be seven thousand years in length, as were each of the preceding six days of creation. The Jewish week of seven literal days was merely a picture of this larger cycle of time.

MARK 2:27, 28

THERE are two important thoughts in these verses. First, that the sabbath was made for man; and second, that the Son of Man is the Lord of the sabbath. The first is simple of understanding, for it explains that when the Lord enjoined upon Jews the keeping of one day in seven as a day of rest, it was not done with the idea of imposing a ritual upon the nation which would be burdensome, and to which the people should become slaves. Rather, it was to be for their good, for the Lord knew that they would need this rest from labor in order properly to maintain their health and their dignity as individuals and as a nation.

We are inclined to think that the “sabbath” of which the “Son of Man” is Lord, is that larger one of seven thousand years, the period during which, in the service of the Creator, he is the Lord, or director, of the work of redeeming and restoring mankind to life. As a matter of fact, this larger sabbath was also “made for man,” for he will be the beneficiary of the great plan of redemption so faithfully executed by “the Lord of the sabbath.”

LUKE 4:16

IT WAS the custom, this text declares, for Jesus to go into the synagogue on the “sabbath day.” This was, as it were, an extension of the original purpose of the sabbath, not especially authorized by Jehovah, but one of convenience and evident appropriateness. To some extent, we may assume, the custom of going to church on Sunday is based upon this developed habit of the Jews to use their sabbath day as a time for religious worship in their synagogues.

However, the meeting together of Christians on Sunday, the first day of the week, seems to have originated primarily with the apostles and others in the Early Church, who gathered on each first day of the week apparently in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus. There is nothing in the New Testament to indicate that it was observed by early Christians as a day of rest.

They “broke bread” on these occasions. We have a record of one such meeting which clearly indicates that it was held in the evening. It was in Troas, and was the occasion when Paul preached all night, “even till break of day.” (Acts 20:7-11) It would hardly seem likely that this meeting began before the evening, which might suggest that the brethren were not in the habit of ceasing from their regular employment on the first day of the week.

This is not the place to examine the subject in detail, but we refer interested readers to the book, “The Everlasting Gospel,” which does treat the sabbath question exhaustively. We will merely say here, that there is nothing in the New Testament to indicate that Christians are to observe any particular day in the week as one of rest. We do think, however, that it is very appropriate to do so, especially since it affords such an excellent opportunity for the Lord’s people to meet together for fellowship and to praise the Lord.

LUKE 13:10-17

HERE again we find Jesus teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath day. There he found a woman who “had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.” “He laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.”

The ruler of the synagogue was angry with this, and accused Jesus of breaking the sabbath, claiming that healing this women was “work.” Jesus called him a hypocrite, for this man would not have hesitated to rescue his ox or his ass on the sabbath day, so there seemed no reason for him to say it was wrong to restore a human being to health. It was especially appropriate, we think, that this work of restoration, or “restitution,” should be done on the typical sabbath day; for it is a wonderful reminder of the divine plan to restore all the sick, and even to awaken the dead, ere the larger sabbath of which Jesus is “Lord,” shall have ended.

QUESTIONS

In what way does the Sunday of the churches differ from the sabbath of the Jews? How do the two correspond?

Was the “seventh day” on which God rested a period of twenty-four hours?

In what way is Christ’s rest similar to God’s rest?

Of what sabbath is the Son of Man the Lord?

Did the original command concerning sabbath keeping require attending synagogues on that day?

How did the Christian practice of meeting for worship on the first day of the week originate?

Why was it especially appropriate that Jesus should heal the sick on the sabbath day?

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