A Sunday School lesson on Jesus’ activities on the Sabbath in the book of Luke led to a discussion afterwards about what Sunday activities were allowed as we were growing up.

I didn’t grow up in a church-going family, so Sunday was like any other day at home. Most stores and restaurants weren’t open on Sundays back then, and those who were had to obey “blue laws” that didn’t allow certain things to be sold on Sunday.

I became a Christian as a teenager and started attending church regularly for the first time. Sundays were pretty busy with Sunday School, church, choir practice, Sunday evening services, and often fellowships afterward. But I didn’t give much thought about what was or wasn’t allowed on Sundays.

As I read the Bible more, learned more, and then went to college and was exposed to a variety of beliefs on the issue, I began to wonder. My beliefs and practices went back and forth over the years.

I don’t remember the progression of what conclusion I came to when. But one point was the realization that Sunday was not the Sabbath. In the Bible, the Sabbath was Saturday, the end of the week. I believe it was marked from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. The pattern was based on God’s resting the seventh day after creating the world.

In the book of Acts, Christians began meeting on Sunday. Since the earliest Christians were Jewish, they celebrated both the Sabbath on Saturday and Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday. It took a long while to sort out how to view the OT law in light of Christ’s death and resurrection, and much of the NT discusses these issues.

When Gentiles started believing on Christ, too, more questions arose. Were they required to keep the OT law? A council of Christian leaders met in Acts 15 to discuss the matter. They concluded that they didn’t want to place “a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear” and only required that Gentile believers “abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.”

Then we have the fact that all of the ten commandments are repeated in the NT except the one concerning the Sabbath. In the gospels, people were still under the OT law, so we have reference to its observance there. But we’re not commanded to keep it like we are the others.

Why might that be? Colossians 2:16 and 17 say, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” These things pictured Christ and were fulfilled in Him.

Romans 14:5-6 goes on to say, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.” The emphasis on things the Bible doesn’t spell out exactly are to do whatever you do as unto the Lord and not judge someone who does something different if the Bible doesn’t forbid it.

There’s so much more that could be said about the Sabbath. Jesus said He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Someone said years ago that Jesus broke the law in the name of love, but that’s false. He never broke His Father’s law. He fulfilled it down to the smallest jot and tittle. He did, however. break the Pharisee’s add-ons.

Hebrews 4 talks about Sabbath as a picture of the rest remaining to the people of God. Verse 9 says, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” Because Jesus perfectly fulfilled God’s law, and as an innocent lamb took on our sin and punishment, we have spiritual rest. We don’t work for or earn salvation. It’s a free gift. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Yet in all the discussions of the Sabbath I’ve heard and read over the years, one element is rarely discussed.

At the end of Isaiah 58, God says, “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.”

Yes, the Sabbath was about rest from labor. But it wasn’t just about a day off or rest as an end in itself. It was a day to delight in the Lord.

How hard it is to be distracted with duties and pleasures and forget to just delight in Him as a person.

Does this mean we should spend all of Sunday reading the Bible and praying? That’s hard to do, especially if you live with other people.

The Bible tells us not to neglect assembling together. So that’s the first priority. When we’re too busy with other things, even good things, and we end up too tired to go to church, we may need to adjust our schedules.

Then Acts 2:42 tells us the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” when they met together.

Jesus performed acts of mercy on the Sabbath.

And He also said that, under OT law, if an ox fell into a ditch, it was allowable to get him out on the Sabbath. So some acts that aren’t necessarily spiritual in nature might need to be done

For us personally, as a general rule, we do try to make Sunday a day of rest. Since the principle of God’s resting one day in seven preceded the OT law, we feel it has bearing. We certainly need the rest, and we view it as a gift.

It’s also an act of faith, just like sleeping at night or giving part of our funds to the Lord. All our time and all our things belong to Him, but we give Him a portion in faith that He will provide what we need.

But we’re not legalistic about it, examining every action as to whether it’s “work” or not. The NT seems to give great freedom as to the particulars of what we do on Sundays, after meeting together for teaching and fellowship and prayer.

Whatever we do, however, let’s not forget above all to delight in the Lord.

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