Making others work for you on the Sabbath Day

[Robertson]

The commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy is well known. I'll just quote it here for easy access:

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates


Now please, this is not a thread to debate what day the Sabbath day is or what time it starts or ends. All that can be debate somewhere else. My topic of discussion on this thread is to try and understand why a lot of us Christians attend church and then almost as if it is tradition, go out to the breakfast café or to the lunch diner to make others work for us by cooking our food, waiting on our tables, and cleaning up after us.

The commandment clearly states that we are to not work nor have anyone working for us. Nevermind that the people who are working on the Sabbath day in our society are already breaking the commandment, but aren't we ourselves breaking the commandment by allowing them to work for us? What do y'all think?

 

[JB_Reformed Baptist]

The commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy is well known. I'll just quote it here for easy access:

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates


Now please, this is not a thread to debate what day the Sabbath day is or what time it starts or ends. All that can be debate somewhere else. My topic of discussion on this thread is to try and understand why a lot of us Christians attend church and then almost as if it is tradition, go out to the breakfast café or to the lunch diner to make others work for us by cooking our food, waiting on our tables, and cleaning up after us.

The commandment clearly states that we are to not work nor have anyone working for us. Nevermind that the people who are working on the Sabbath day in our society are already breaking the commandment, but aren't we ourselves breaking the commandment by allowing them to work for us? What do y'all think?

Are you a COG or an SDA? In either case an interesting case to put forward.

 

[HeRoseFromTheDead]

Many (most?) Christians don't believe that they are under the law of Moses, which is true. So to them the question is irrelevant.

Those who do think they are under the law of Moses are simply being oblivious, or are like pharisees who don't care that someone breaks the sabbath for their sakes, as long as they keep the commandments.

 

[Angelina]

Now please, this is not a thread to debate what day the Sabbath day is or what time it starts or ends. All that can be debate somewhere else. My topic of discussion on this thread is to try and understand why a lot of us Christians attend church and then almost as if it is tradition, go out to the breakfast café or to the lunch diner to make others work for us by cooking our food, waiting on our tables, and cleaning up after us.

The commandment clearly states that we are to not work nor have anyone working for us. Nevermind that the people who are working on the Sabbath day in our society are already breaking the commandment, but aren't we ourselves breaking the commandment by allowing them to work for us? What do y'all think?

Interesting... you say that this thread is not about "what the Sabbath day is", or "what time it starts or ends" yet you ask why Christians go out and socialize after Church and make others work or wait tables on this specific day... :huh:

Your premise assumes that your readers already agree in Sabbath keeping. Yet there are many here who do not. The bible says that Jesus came to fulfill the law Matthew 5:17 which he achieved. In regards to the Sabbath, Luke 6 says...
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. 2 Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

3 Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 5 Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” [also note Matthew 12:8]

The bible states that he is the Lord of the Sabbath, if he is Lord then we can rest in him every single day. The blood of animals that was required by the law, could never cleanse a man's conscience of sin. Hebrews 9:9.

Under the new covenant, Jesus came and did that very thing, Hebrews 9:14 once and for all. For all who believe in him by faith
Hebrews 9
15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Please note: The transgressions under the first covenant are covered by Christs blood. The commandments therefore are also fulfilled in Christ [including the Sabbath day].

Shalom!!!

 

[williemac]

The irony of this thread is that in the end, regarding salvation, Someone else did in fact do the work for us. Thanks for sharing Heb.9:15.

 

[mjrhealth]

Mat_11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mat_11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Heb_4:4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Heb_4:5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb_4:8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Heb_4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb_4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb_4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

But then

Heb 3:10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
Heb 3:11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

We simply rest in Christ..

In all His Love

 

[sniper762]

we have not MADE another to work on ANY day for over 150 years. they work by choice.

sure, they are enticed, but not made to

 

[JB_Reformed Baptist]

There are those who say the Sabbath, Jewish or Christian or otherwise is abolished. Yet they keep Sunday as religiously if not more than the others. They're the people who defend their right of change with as much vigor & dair to call or charge the sabbath keeping christians who keep the so-called Jewish sabbath, as a Judaizer.

Yet they can't see the irony nor the hypocrisy in their position. B)



NB: For those who think no day ought to be kept in Honour of our creator I say this. " "

 

[Angelina]

Hebrews 10
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Sunday seems to be an appropriate day to fellowship together since most believers are not working on this day....

 

[clark thompson]

We are starting to live in a time where people will repect your beliefs as long as you are not Christian. We should not expect the world to treat Christians well. They will do what is best for them if that is making one person work 7 days a week or making one person work 60 hours because it is cheaper than paying them overtime than paying for someone else to work another 20. Companies will also under work people so they will not have to pay them benifits.

 

[mjrhealth]

What!! only"one" day JB. there are some who keep everyday Holy to God He certainly deserves no less.

In all His LOve

 

[Dodo_David]

If you say that you want to keep the Sabbath commandment, then you are not keeping it if you are a customer somewhere on the day that you say is the Sabbath.

We Christians remain creatures of flesh while we have our mortal bodies, and our flesh desires to serve itself, which is why we make excuses for what we do even if what we do conflicts with the Bible's instructions.

We see our flesh at work when we say that we personally must not work on the Sabbath but then cause others to work for us by being customers in places of business (such as a restaurant, for example).

 

[Angelina]

If I were a sabbath keeper I would probably stay at home so that nothing I do would be considered work...

 

[Sargento]

If you wish to keep the Sabbath as the law commands you have to do it right... no work at all, not you, your family, your visits and not even your animals... and that day should be spent with GOD, not just resting.

And with this commandment comes it's penalty, which is death for whoever disobey it (that is why they wanted to kill Jesus - and according to the law which commanded to keep the Sabbath they were right).

 

[Dodo_David]

The point of Post #1 is that Christians (in the USA at least) have a bad habit of trying to serve two masters when it comes to the Sabbath commandment in Exodus chapter 20. If Christians want to conform to that commandment, then they can't be visiting a place of business on the day they say is the Sabbath.

 

[Pilgrimer]

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates


The commandment clearly states that we are to not work nor have anyone working for us. Nevermind that the people who are working on the Sabbath day in our society are already breaking the commandment, but aren't we ourselves breaking the commandment by allowing them to work for us? What do y'all think?

Under the New Covenant, this is the "day of salvation" when men are so blessed as to cease from their own works and find rest in Jesus, which is what the Old Covenant Sabbath foreshadowed. (Hebrews 4:7)

Christians gather on Sundays not to commemorate the 7th day Sabbath, the end of the old creation, but to commemorate the 8th day Resurrection, the beginning of the New Creation.

In Christ,
Pilgrimer

 

[Dodo_David]

Under the New Covenant, this is the "day of salvation" when men are so blessed as to cease from their own works and find rest in Jesus, which is what the Old Covenant Sabbath foreshadowed. (Hebrews 4:7)

Christians gather on Sundays not to commemorate the 7th day Sabbath, the end of the old creation, but to commemorate the 8th day Resurrection, the beginning of the New Creation.

In Christ,
Pilgrimer

I agree with Pilgrimer.

Nowhere does the New Testament say that the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday.

I am not one of those people who claim that Sunday is the Sabbath.

Yet, I have encountered plenty of Christians who say that Sunday is the Sabbath, and yet they visit places of business on Sundays.

 

[marksman]

The Sabbath and all that goes with it is one of those topics that has been moulded into our way of thinking to conform to a cultural idea. That most people have Sunday off work so that is when we meet.

But it falls down badly today because we have a 24/7 culture now so that means we could be working day or night, Saturday or Sunday or not at all on the weekends.

One of the reasons why so many churches are weak and ineffective is due to the fact that their modus operandi is "we meet Sunday morning so if you want to be part of what we are doing, then that is when you have to attend."

That often means that 90% of the population are written out of the equation because they don't want to or can't meet on Sunday morning.

I was helping a church for a year in their development that attracted young people that other churches did not want to know about. Meeting on a Sunday morning would have been pointless because most of them didn't get up till midday.

So we met at 4pm on a Saturday or Sunday (flexible), had a meal together and then fellowship, which often went until 11pm depending on what the Holy Spirit was doing that day.

At another church, I introduced during the week home fellowships. One of them was made up of retired people except the leader who ran his own business. It met on Tuesday night. I suggested as they were all retired they meet at lunchtime with a light meal together. Can't do that because the leader has to work.

The group didn't last long because the retirees preferred to meet at lunchtime, but it was set in concrete that it met at night.

The Sunday morning meeting caters for the fowls and no one else. A few owls might attend but in all probability it goes in one ear and out of the other as they are not fully functional until midday and they do their best work from 12 noon to 12 midnight.

I used to volunteer with Teen Challenge with their street evangelism. My day started at 10pm as the people we were trying to reach, druggies, prostitutes, homeless etc were not out and about till then. If they insisted on doing it on Sunday morning we would spend most of the time talking to ourselves.

The time has come when we have to think laterally. Who are we trying to reach and when is the best time to reach them. if it is Sunday morning go for it. If it is not Sunday morning, you are wasting your time to meet then.

Sad to say, most churches believe that Sunday morning is the only time to meet and greet people.

A new church has just started here and is meeting at 9.15am. I emailed them and said what is the point? We already have eight churches that meet then so Sunday morning attendees are well catered for. Why don't you meet at a time the other 90% want to meet? I am working on that one.

If you want to connect with young people forget meetings. Have a free BBQ each Saturday at lunchtime at the local skate park. Afterwards, go back to your meeting place and spend some time praying for the people you have met.

That will be far more useful than singing songs on a Sunday morning.

 

[Pilgrimer]

The Sabbath and all that goes with it is one of those topics that has been moulded into our way of thinking to conform to a cultural idea. That most people have Sunday off work so that is when we meet . . .

You seem to think that Christians meet on Sunday as a matter of convenience. That is not the case. Christians have been gathering together for fellowship on Sundays since the very beginning, a custom established by the Apostles, not because it was or is convenient, but to commemorate the day when our Lord rose from the dead.

By all means, go out an minister to youth at whatever time they are available, but encourage them to change their lifestyle for the sake of their faith, not change the faith for the sake of their lifestyle.

In Christ,
Pilgrimer

P.S. Most churches meet on Sunday mornings AND Sunday evenings as well as an evening during the week.

 

[Dodo_David]

Folks, the issue is not why Christians gather together or when they do it.

The issue is the hypocrisy of people who claim that a certain day is the Sabbath and who then have others work for them on that same day.