The Lord's Day: A Day to Keep

Dear brothers and sisters,

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I write to you concerning the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, which so many in our age treat as a day like any other. The subject is forced upon us. The minds of many are agitated by questions: Is the observance of a Sabbath binding on Christians? Have we any right to tell a man that to do his business or seek his pleasure on a Sunday is a sin? To these questions we ought to be able to give a decided answer.

J.C. Ryle, in his tract “The Sabbath: A Day to Keep,” pleaded with professing Christians to contend earnestly for the whole day against all enemies, both without and within. “It is worth a struggle,” he said. My sentence is the same. Let us keep it holy.

The Authority of the Lord’s Day

First we must settle on what authority the Sabbath stands. Many say the day is a mere Jewish ordinance, that we are no more bound to keep it holy than to offer sacrifice. They say the observance of the Lord’s Day rests upon nothing but Church authority and cannot be proved by the Word of God. I believe those who say such things are entirely mistaken.

The observance of a Sabbath day is part of the eternal law of God. It is not a temporary Jewish ordinance. At creation we read:

“So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”Genesis 2:3

The Sabbath appears in the very beginning. At Sinai, one whole commandment out of ten was devoted to it, the longest and most detailed of all. The Ten Commandments were spoken in the hearing of all the people, written on tables of stone by God Himself, and placed inside the ark. The law of the Sabbath stood side by side with the law against murder, adultery, and theft. I am unable to believe it was meant to be only of temporary obligation.

Our Lord Jesus Christ never spoke a word in discredit of any of the Ten Commandments. He said He came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it (Matthew 5:17). When He spoke of the Sabbath, it was always to correct the superstitious additions of the Pharisees, never to deny the holiness of the day. He no more abolishes the Sabbath than a man destroys a house when he cleans the moss from its roof. He took for granted its continuance when He told the disciples to pray that their flight from Jerusalem be not on the Sabbath day (Matthew 24:20).

The apostles, when planting the churches, kept one day of the week as a holy day. We read of them gathering on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 20:7), and of collections taken on the first day (1 Corinthians 16:2). John speaks of “the Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10). The day was changed from the seventh to the first in memory of our Lord’s resurrection, but the spirit of the Fourth Commandment was not interfered with in the smallest degree. It remained a day of rest after six days’ labour. As Ryle wrote: the observance of a Sabbath day is part of the eternal law of God. It was a rule intended to be binding on all the children of Adam.

For What Purpose the Day Was Given

Some speak as if the Sabbath were a heavy yoke, a burden. But the Lord’s Day is God’s merciful appointment for the common benefit of all mankind. Our Lord said the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27). It is not a burden but a mercy.

It is good for the body. We all need a day of rest. The human frame will not stand incessant work without regular intervals of repose. It is good for the mind. Wilberforce testified that he could attribute his own power of endurance to his regular observance of the Lord’s Day; he had seen mighty intellects fail suddenly, and he was satisfied that in every such case the true cause was neglect of the Fourth Commandment. It is good for nations. A people that rests one day in seven will do more work and better work in a year than a people that never rests at all.

Above all, the Sabbath is good for the soul. The soul has its wants just as much as the mind and body. In the midst of a hurrying world, its interests are constantly in danger of being jostled out of sight. There must be a day set apart for examining the state of our souls, a day to test whether we are prepared for an eternal heaven. Take away a man’s Sabbath, and his religion soon comes to nothing. As a general rule, there is a regular descent from no Sabbath to no God. Ryle was right: the prosperity or decay of organized Christianity depends on the maintenance of the Christian Sabbath.

How the Day Ought to Be Kept

Two general rules are laid down in the Fourth Commandment, and by them all questions must be decided.

First, the day must be kept as a day of rest. All work of every kind ought to cease as far as possible, both of body and mind. Works of necessity and mercy may be done. Our Lord teaches us this; He pointed to David and the priests in the temple (Matthew 12:3–5). Whatever is necessary to preserve life, or to do good to the souls of men, may be done on the Lord’s Day without sin.

Second, the day must be kept holy. It is not to be a carnal, sensual rest, like that of the worshippers of the golden calf who sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play (Exodus 32:6). It is to be emphatically a holy rest. The affairs of the soul are to be attended to, the business of another world minded, communion with God and Christ kept up. It is “the Sabbath of the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:10).

I am no Pharisee. I do not object to a quiet walk on the Lord’s Day, provided it does not take the place of public worship and is truly restful. I do not say a man must pray or read Scripture every moment without cessation. I say that God ought to be kept in view, God’s Word studied, God’s house attended, and the soul’s business specially considered. Everything which prevents the day from being kept holy in this way ought as far as possible to be avoided. Nor do I want the Lord’s Day to be a day of gloom. I want every Christian to regard it as the brightest, most cheerful day of the seven. If we cannot enjoy a holy Sunday, the fault is not in the day but in our own soul.

Ways in Which the Day Is Profaned

We must name the ways the Sabbath is profaned, so that we do not sin from ignorance.

There is the private kind: making the Lord’s Day a day for dinner parties, for looking over accounts and making up books, for unnecessary journeys and worldly business, for newspapers and novels, for politics and idle gossip. In short, a day for anything rather than the things of God. All this is wrong. It is a plain breach of the Fourth Commandment. It is the sort of thing that prevents men from communing with God and getting good from His day.

There is the public kind: shops open, buying and selling, pleasure excursions, places of public amusement opened on the Lord’s Day. These are not works of necessity or mercy. To heal a sick person or pull an ox from a pit is one thing; to travel for amusement or go to concerts and theatres is quite another. The difference is as great as between light and darkness. And such practices inflict a cruel injury on the souls of multitudes. Trains and entertainments cannot run without employing thousands. Those who serve them have immortal souls and need a day of rest as much as anyone. For them, when the Lord’s Day is profaned in public, Sunday becomes no Sunday at all.

Ryle wrote: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” My advice to all Christians is to contend earnestly for the whole day. It is worth a struggle.

“If you turn back from following the Lord your God and do not keep his commandments and his statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land that he has given you.”Joshua 23:16

Let us not treat the Lord’s Day as a small matter. Let us keep it holy, for our good and for His glory.

Your brother in Christ and fellow labourer in the Ozarks,

Ozark Doctrine