I got a letter asking about Christians and the Sabbath. Here’s the letter, and I wonder What do you think?
If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words – Isaiah 58:13
I’ve been taught the Sabbath is just a day off for rest, worship, and fun. But this makes it sound like I can’t do anything I want to do like play or whatever. I’ve read a lot of commentaries online and to be honest they aren’t extremely helpful. What is your take on this?
There are three basic views:
1. Sunday = Sabbath, and these folks are sabbatarians. Sunday is for church and worship and rest. No work, no entertainment, so sports — it’s for church and family, family and church. It’s for study of the Bible, prayer, and spiritual formation.
2. Sunday is not Sabbath, and the two are completely different: Sunday is for worship (for Christians), Sabbath is for rest from work (and is for Jews, not Christians).
3. Sunday is the Christian updating/revision of Sabbath, so it involves rest from work but also worship, but is to be kept sacred from other things as well (like entertainment, sports, etc).