Should Christians “Keep the Lord’s Day Holy”?

The commandment says, “Observe the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.” The Sabbath Day is Saturday, from sundown Friday evening to sundown Saturday evening.  The New Testament makes clear that this commandment, according to its terms, is no longer applicable in the Kingdom of God.  Respecting holy things is still commanded, but separating out the whole of Saturday as holy is not.

Before we take up the question in the title, a brief primer on holiness. The term “holy”, in the first place, refers to the presence of God, whether in a place, or at a time, or in words or things or people.  It is axiomatic that the presence of God makes things holy. Secondarily, the term “holy” refers to the practice of separating, or setting apart places, times, words, things or people on account of the presence of God.  It is in this second sense that the Sabbath Day was called holy. God did not imbue the Sabbath Day itself with His presence, but the Sabbath Day was meant for things which do involve His presence.  This presence of God in places, times and things was to make it possible for the Israelites to draw near to Him. That’s why the Sabbath Day exists, and why Jesus said the “Sabbath was made for man”. The Israelites were to do no work on the Sabbath Day. Why not? Because there were six other days to work, but this day was to be different, separate, not like the other days. It was a day for drawing near to God, and therefore to be kept holy.

Let’s look at this more carefully.  A day is not holy in itself but on account of what happens in it.  If a whole day is to be completely devoted to holy things, then that whole day is holy. That whole day is therefore to be kept separate, and distinguished from other days. If a day looks and feels the same as every other day, it is not being kept holy—either because God is not present in any places, times, words, things or people on that day, or if He is, His holy presence is not being respected. The holy is not being segregated and distinguished from the common and ordinary. Mixing the holy and the ordinary. The Law of Moses forbids that. So does the New Covenant. 

As an aside, what can be said for a day can also be said for an hour.  The “hour of worship” is to be set aside for the presence of God, for the drawing near to Him.  It is to be distinguished from other hours in the day or week, and kept separate.  One should not be scrolling though one’s emails or surfing the internet or thinking about lunch during this holy time. There are twenty-three other hours in the day for that.  This hour is set apart from those hours on account of the presence of God. Therefore, it is to be kept holy.

Certainly our time in worship is to be kept holy.  But the question I now raise is this: Should Christians set aside a whole day—in the fashion of the Sabbath Day—as holy?  For the sake of what happens in the Divine Service (which is holy in itself), should we set apart the entire Lord’s Day—let’s say, sundown Saturday until sundown Sunday—and keep the whole day separate and distinguishable from every other day?  We are not required to do this, of course, but neither are we forbidden. Perhaps we ought to consider whether doing this would be a good and wholesome observance, and what it might entail.

First, the purpose of a holy day is drawing near to God. In general, the Word of God brings the presence of God and sanctifies times, places and things. The Word of God should have preeminence on a holy day, and a day without it is not a holy day. The Word of God is the One Thing Needful to make a day holy. The Divine Service, and especially the Sacrament itself, is the epitome of the presence of God and drawing near to Him. Therefore the Divine Service should ordinarily be the centerpiece of the Lord’s Day, and should not be omitted without good reason.

What about questions of work and rest and leisure and what we should or should not do on a holy day? Ordinary work should be avoided, especially if it compromises the Divine Service.  By ordinary work, I mean work that can and routinely is done on other days. That said, the day is not made holy merely by resting either, and leisure activities that routinely are done on other days may be no more appropriate for a holy day than ordinary work. But resting is more conducive by far to the contemplation of God than is work. Furthermore, the holiness of a day is not only about what we do not do on that day. It’s about maintaining separateness. Some leisure or family activities might well be set aside only for the Lord’s Day. A special meal, for example. That’s another way of setting the day apart.

But we stand warned: “The Sabbath was made for man,” Jesus said, “not man for the Sabbath.” The purpose of setting aside the whole day as holy is to honor God and facilitate drawing near to Him, not multiplying opportunities for guilt. There is no end of hairsplitting on such questions as how much work is too much work and what kind of work is or is not appropriate or whether some chore could really have been done on another day. The same kind of hairsplitting and guilt multiplying can occur with respect to questions of leisure and rest and any other activity. This is the trap the Pharisees fell into.  We don’t want to go there.  Also, there is no need to make the “perfect the enemy of the good.” Even if our effort to sanctity the whole day may not always be practicable, and though we often will fall short of what might have been desirable, still, God can be glorified and we can be blessed merely by doing better.

Finally, it might be helpful to think about the good in keeping the whole Lord’s Day holy by considering what has been lost by our not doing so. Think about how many people now have to work on the Lord’s Day. No one bats an eye about this. Think about how often a load of chores are left for Sunday merely because we felt free to do so. For many Christians, Saturday night is going out time, and Sunday morning becomes (if we’re not careful) sleeping in time. Even the Divine Service, once the centerpiece of a whole day devoted to God, must itself be squeezed in, or else squeezed out!  It doesn’t have to be this way, and it would be better if it weren’t.

True, gone are the days when stores were closed on the Lord’s Day, and we couldn’t shop even if we wanted to. Those days are not coming back.  But that doesn’t mean we Christians have to shop on Sunday. We don’t have to do ordinary chores on that day.  We don’t have to treat that day as one more day in the week.  We can keep it separate—if not perfectly, then at least better than we tend to do now.  “Man was not made for the Sabbath.”  True again. But “the Sabbath was made for man,” to draw near to God, to glorify Him, and to be blessed by Him. Just because sanctifying an entire day is not commanded in the New Covenant, that doesn’t prohibit Christians from embracing such a practice anyway.  The presence of God is Holy. Let us clear a wide path to draw near!

James D. Burns
Pastor, First Lutheran Church (LC-MS)
Benton, Arkansas