Should Christians Keep the Sabbath or Worship on Sunday?

Faithful Christians disagree about the day, and the Bible does not make it a condition of salvation: most churches worship on Sunday, the day of the resurrection, while Seventh-day Adventists and other Sabbatarians keep the Sabbath because they hold that the fourth commandment still stands. For both, salvation comes by grace through faith in Christ (Eph 2:8-9). Paul, in Rom 14:5-6, leaves the choice of days to each person’s conviction, though Sabbatarians read that passage differently, as will be seen below. Both sides cite Scripture seriously, and both deserve a hearing.

Three positions among faithful believers

Before the texts, it helps to see the answers side by side.

• The Sabbath, the seventh day: Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh Day Baptists, and other churches teach that the fourth commandment binds every believer, and they keep rest and worship from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday.
• Sunday as the Christian day of rest and worship: the Reformed and Puritan tradition, such as the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, keeps the commandment but holds that the day moved to the first day of the week because of the resurrection.
• Sunday as a day of worship, with no law of a day: many Christians hold that the Sabbath rest is fulfilled in Christ and that the New Testament imposes no day of rest. The church meets on Sunday because the New Testament mentions a gathering on the first day (Acts 20:7), because the later church settled on that day, and because that is where the resurrection is celebrated.

In the Baptist heritage of freedom of conscience, which this house embraces, we welcome as brothers and sisters both those who keep the Sabbath and those who worship on Sunday. What should be avoided is turning the day into a test of salvation or of faithfulness, from either side.

What supports keeping the Sabbath in Exodus 20 and Genesis 2

The Sabbatarian argument has a serious basis. The fourth commandment sits in the Decalogue: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exod 20:8-11). The reason given there is creation, since God worked six days and rested on the seventh (Gen 2:2-3). For Sabbatarians, that places the Sabbath before Moses and before Israel, as a creation order for all humanity. The Hebrew word shabbat is tied to the verb meaning to cease.

They add that Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, “as was his custom” (Luke 4:16), that Paul reasoned from the Scriptures with the Jews of Thessalonica for three Sabbaths (Acts 17:2), and that Isaiah pictures the new creation with worship “from Sabbath to Sabbath” (Isa 66:23). And they say they keep the Sabbath as a response to grace, not as a way to earn salvation.

Those who worship on Sunday answer with observations from the text itself. Gen 2:3 says God blessed and made holy the seventh day but records no command to Adam. In Deut 5:12-15, the reason for the Sabbath is the deliverance from Egypt, and Neh 9:13-14 places at Sinai the moment God made his holy Sabbath known. In Exod 31:13-17 and Ezek 20:12, the Sabbath is called a sign between God and Israel, though Exod 31:17 ties that sign to creation, and that is where Sabbatarians take their stand. Paul’s visits to the synagogue, for their part, can be read as missionary strategy: the Jews were there, and Christ was to be announced to them.

What Jesus, Colossians 2, and Hebrews 4 say about the Sabbath

Jesus did not come to abolish the law (Matt 5:17) and, at the same time, said that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” declaring himself Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27-28). That corrects a legalistic use of the day, but by itself it does not answer whether the day remains binding, and each side reads the passage in its own favor.

Colossians 2:16-17 is one of the texts most cited by those who do not keep the Sabbath: no one should judge a believer over food, drink, festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths, which are a shadow, while the body belongs to Christ. Sabbatarians reply that Paul is speaking of the ceremonial sabbaths of the annual feasts (Lev 23), not the weekly Sabbath. The others point out that the triad of Sabbaths, new moons, and festivals appears in the Old Testament with the weekly Sabbath included (1 Chr 23:31), and that the same order as in Colossians, festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths, appears in Ezek 45:17 and Hos 2:11, so Paul seems to include the weekly day as well.

In Hebrews 4, the author says a rest “remains” for the people of God (Heb 4:9-10). The word sabbatismos (σαββατισμός), which appears only there in the New Testament, is read by Sabbatarians as a call to keep the Sabbath. Others read it as the rest of those who trust in Christ and cease from their own works, already experienced today (Heb 4:3) and still to come. The text is disputed and cannot settle the question alone.

What the New Testament says about the first day of the week

All four Gospels place the resurrection on the first day of the week (John 20:1). John records the risen Lord appearing to the disciples gathered that evening (John 20:19) and again eight days later (John 20:26). At Troas, Luke tells us the disciples gathered on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 20:7), the only text that explicitly shows a gathering of the church on that day, and Paul asks the Corinthians to set aside their offering on the first day (1 Cor 16:2). In Rev 1:10, John says he was in the Spirit on “the Lord’s day,” in Greek kyriakē hēmera.

These texts mention the first day, but none of them commands worship on Sunday. Paul’s words in 1 Cor 16:2 are an instruction to set the offering aside, not to gather the church, and John 20:19 and John 20:26 record appearances of the risen Lord, not regular worship. Sabbatarians note this, read 1 Cor 16:2 as setting the offering aside at home, and suggest that Luke reckons the day the Jewish way, from sunset to sunset, which would make the meeting in Acts 20:7 a Saturday night by our count. Those who defend Sunday answer that the whole picture shows a Christian gathering that settled on the first day because of the resurrection, and that Justin Martyr, in the middle of the second century, describes it on the day pagans called the day of the Sun, which is Sunday. That testimony helps date the custom of Sunday gathering, but it is church history and does not replace Scripture.

As for Rev 1:10, the text does not say which day the Lord’s day is. Many interpreters understand Sunday, Sabbatarians understand the Sabbath, and some read the prophetic Day of the Lord, the day of God’s judgment. Here it is wise not to claim more than the verse says.

How to live with the difference without judging a brother

Rom 14:5-6 is the pastoral starting point: one person considers one day more important than another, another considers all days alike, and each should be fully convinced in his own mind, acting for the Lord. The word “Sabbath” does not in fact appear in Romans 14, and Sabbatarians understand Paul to be dealing there with food and with days of fasting or feasting. Even read that way, the spirit of the chapter applies here: Paul asks that no one judge or despise a brother or sister in matters where sincere Christians differ (Rom 14:10 and 14:13).

In practice, those who worship on Sunday do well not to call a Sabbatarian brother legalistic just because of the day, and those who keep the Sabbath do well not to treat the Sunday church as unfaithful. Two points stand firm for everyone: the church is called to gather (Heb 10:24-25), and true rest is found in Christ (Matt 11:28). Anyone who never stops working, on any day, should also hear Mark 2:27, which presents rest as a gift for the good of people. In concrete cases, such as a job that falls on the day of worship, the pastor of the local church is the best counselor.