How to observe the Sabbath

How do we Keep the Sabbath?


Just how are we to keep the Sabbath? The scribes and Pharisees tried to legislate in minute detail all that was acceptable or unacceptable to do on the Sabbath. In doing so, they made the Sabbath a great BURDEN which was something God never intended (cf. 1 John 5:3). God gave the Sabbath in Exodus 20 and magnified it in other places in His Word with some specifics, but mainly by expounding broad, spiritual principles. So what does God tell us about Sabbath day observance?

God wrote and spoke these words in the fourth Commandment, “But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates” Exodus 20:10. So you are not to do any kind of real work on the Sabbath be it your occupation, personal business, housework or any laborious activity. And neither are those in the environment over which you have control. Of course, preparing or cleaning up after a light meal would not be wrong as we find a number of occasions when Jesus enjoyed a Sabbath meal with others. And He never condemned the practice of hospitality on the Sabbath (cf. Luke 14:1-6). Since Jesus said in Matthew 12:10-12 “…it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath”, such as rescuing an animal or healing the sick, that would no doubt include Essential Services such as Doctors, Nurses and Ambulance etc. Finally, to really understand how God intended the Sabbath to be used, look at what He said in Isaiah 58:13-14 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight...not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth…” So we are not to be doing our own pleasure on God’s Holy Day. That does not preclude doing any enjoyable things on the Sabbath whatsoever, for we are to find delight in it. The point is that, whatever we do, God must be an intrinsic part of it. A family walk through a natural setting for example, is a wonderful way to get in touch with God who made the beautiful creations we see. When the seventh day arrives, we must stop pursuing our “own ways” (the things we normally do), seeking our “own pleasure” (your normal things of enjoyment) and speaking our “own words” (the everyday things we talk about that do not involve God). This last one is often very hard to follow because “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” Matthew 12:34. To truly keep the Sabbath in the spirit, we must focus our minds on God and those things He wants us to be concerned with during His holy time. Then, as God promises, we will be truly blessed. And since it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, we can make encouraging phone calls or write letters to the sick or visit Christians who are lonely. It may also be possible to visit the sick or others in need on the Sabbath or to have them over for an evening meal. Matthew 25:34-36. The Sabbath is also a “…sabbath of rest, an holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:3) and is therefore ideal for worship services. When we fellowship with other people in whom God dwells, we are in fact also fellowshipping with Him (cf. 1 John 1:3, 7). So we should not think of the Sabbath as the day we can’t do this or that! Rather, we should approach this very special day as a period when we can and should really take time to deeply study and thoughtfully analyse the scriptures. It is a time when we can sit quietly, meditating over and thinking through the truly big issues of life. In addition, the Sabbath is the perfect time for unhurried, thoughtful, heartfelt prayer to our Father in heaven to commune with our Creator, to worship Him, to get to know Him intimately. This is how to keep God’s Sabbath holy.

Another way to establish how the Sabbath should be kept is to imagine spending the day with someone you are absolutely head over heels in love with and that you have the opportunity to spend this one specific day with. You would have as many things as possible prepared the day before so you could spend as much time as possible with that person because you are so in love with them and you want every available moment to spend with them. This is NOT legalism - it is LOVE. This is what the Sabbath is all about. Are you head over heels in love with God? If you are then do the same for Him.

The Sabbath is and always has been the real test Commandment (cf. Exodus 16). Many can accept the other nine but the fourth Commandment is quite different. It means living differently from the society around you, perhaps even being looked upon as odd or weird. Yet Jesus said in Luke 14:26-27, “Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and themselves as well.” Does this mean giving up some personal activity on the Sabbath? The answer lies in what your conscience tells you and what the Holy Spirit lays upon your heart. The main consideration is the rest our bodies and minds need and the most beautiful part is that it is a day that we devote entirely to God, i.e. in everything we do, God should be an intrinsic part. How spending one day a week with God who we claim to love could ever be called legalism or a burden is beyond me. Our relationship with Jesus is supposed to be one of faith and trust believing He will always provide our needs when we trust and obey Him. The sacrifice of moving an activity to another day is nothing in comparison to what Jesus did for us in His sacrifice. He was beaten, scourged and nailed to a cross for us. If the only thing that He asks in return is to keep the Sabbath holy then I think our sacrifice is no comparison. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his Commandments: and his Commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3

In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold image with dimensions equal to 666 that he commanded all to worship. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not disobey God’s Commandment and refused to obey the king. Since they refused, the king threw them into a blazing furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. The King in amazement said, “Why do I see four men walking around in the fire? They are not tied up, and they show no sign of being hurt and the fourth is like that of the Son of God. Praise the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! They disobeyed my orders and risked their lives rather than bow down and worship any god except their own. There is no other god who can rescue like this.” As a result, the king promoted them to higher positions in Babylon. Here is a beautiful example of obedience to God. This example is a parallel of Revelation 14 showing how we need to respond in end times, i.e. is we should obey God rather than man and not worship the Beast or his image. So do we worship God on the day specified by the Beast and get the mark of the Beast or on the day God commanded and receive the Seal of God? Do you love the “praise of men” more than the praise of God? Or do you have the FAITH and the COURAGE to obey God’s Commandments, even if you were to lose your job and perhaps a few of your friends?

12 Biblical Concepts on how to keep the Sabbath

1.The Sabbath is a day to cease our creating, working with the creation and appreciate what God has done in the world and is doing in us. Genesis 2

2.Elaborate food preparation is to be done on the day before the Sabbath so that there is no baking or major cooking on the Sabbath. Exodus 16

3.The Sabbath is a time to lay our burdens down and rest. We should not do any servile work on the Sabbath. This includes our entire family, even our servants and beasts of burden and strangers who live among us. Jeremiah 17; Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5

4.The Sabbath is an holy convocation. We should meet and worship with others. Leviticus 23

5.We should be reverent and show God that we love, honor and respect His authority. Psalms 89:7, Habakkuk 2:20

6.The Sabbath should be a day of delight and rejoicing, a day which we forsake our thoughts and words for God's thoughts and words. Isaiah 56, 58

7.The Sabbath is a time of healing. Matthew 12, Mark 1, 3, Luke 13-14

8.We are not to buy or sell on the Sabbath. Nehemiah 13

9.The Sabbath is a time to do good and visit and comfort the sick. We should do spiritual work on the Sabbath, serving others. John 5

10.The Sabbath is a time of prayer. Acts 16:13

11.The Sabbath is a time to reason with others about spiritual principles and for ministers to teach the word of God. Acts 17:2, 18:4, 11

12.The Sabbath is a time for Singing. Ephesians 5:19-20, Colossians 3:16, Psalms 92 is called the “Sabbath Psalm”
Sabbath Truth Summary


The Sabbath was not changed in honour of the resurrection. Scripture says the Papacy would change God’s law and History confirms this. God will not accept any day in seven demonstrated by Exodus 16:4-31, which is before Jews and the Commandments being written in stone. God blessed and made holy ONLY the seventh day and that is why we have a seven day week. God’s law of love did not become obsolete at the cross and can no more change than God’s character can. He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. It is not a special law for one nation only. It is eternal and so was made at creation for all man before sin and Jews and ALL FLESH keep it in the New Earth. God is all knowing and the Sabbath was not made one of God’s eternal Commandments by some oversight. If it were for Israel only, God would have placed it in the ordinances which were for Israel only and ended at the cross. There is no new law in Christ based on Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus was quoting the Old Testament and He said ALL the law hang on these two commandments just as they did also in the Old Testament. Loving your neighbour as yourself means obeying the last six Commandments (Matthew 19:18-19, Romans 13:9) and to love God with all your heart means to obey the first four. The Law is LOVE. If you truly Love God, you would not have other gods before Him or worship idols and you certainly would not take His name in vain. And speaking of Loving and Worshipping God with all your heart, that is EXACTLY what the Sabbath is all about. “Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a PERPETUAL covenant. It is a SIGN between Me and the children of Israel FOREVER…” Exodus 31:16-17. All Commandments show our allegiance but the fourth is a special SIGN of loyalty that we may know we truly love and follow God as His people. We are also children of Israel as is Abraham. Galatians 3:29 “And if you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” We are and need to be children of Israel as both covenants were made with the house of Israel. Hebrews 8:10, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel…says the Lord: I will put My Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” See also Romans 2:28-29, Romans 9:6-8, 1 Corinthians 10:18, Galatians 6:16 and Daniel 70 weeks.

The Bible unmistakably shows that the real test of love is obedience to God. These following scriptures are just three of many that could be quoted. John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my Commandments.” or 1 John 2:4 “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his Commandments, is a LIAR, and the truth is not in him.” and 1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his Commandments: and his Commandments are not grievous.” This last verse says we should keep God’s Commandments because we love God so much that it is our heart’s desire to do so as Psalms 119 shows and not because we feel obligated to do so. Devoting a whole day to God should be to us a most beautiful and gratifying experience and should be our hearts desire, not something we call a burden or legalism. Jesus spoke of those who said, “Lord, Lord,” but did not do the will of the Father. Then He described many who would seek entrance to the kingdom claiming to be workers of miracles in the name of Christ. But He would sorrowfully have to say, “I never knew you: depart from me.” Matthew 7:21-23. This is terribly sad because Jesus is saying, “Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven.” Revelation 22:14 describes those who will live with God the Father and Christ throughout eternity in the New Jerusalem: “Blessed are those who do his Commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.”

1 John 3:4 GNB says that, “Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God’s law, because sin is a breaking of the law.” So if there were no requirement to keep God’s Commandments, then there would be no sin and if there were no sin, then Jesus did not need to die on a cross for us and therefore the Gospel would be immaterial as would be Christianity and we would be no different to anyone else in this secular world. Do you see how absolutely absurd this is? Some have twisted this the other way by saying if we still have to obey the law then Jesus died for nothing. This is a very distorted view of the Gospel. Jesus redeemed us by His blood and paid the penalty for our sins which was death. He died on the cross so by faith and Grace we can repent and go on living, not go on sinning! This is Satan’s attempt at deceiving us into believing that since we are under Grace we no longer have to keep God’s Commandments. Jesus said if you love me keep my Commandments. He did not say I died for you so you can disobey my Commandments. Paul clarifies this well in Romans 6:14-15, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” It really is just this plain and simple. The ceremonial laws that have evidently confused so many were temporary and are gone. The Ten Commandments are Eternal and if we love God and man then we obey ALL of them FOREVER. They are NOT the Ten Suggestions and they are NOT the Nine Commandments and the One Suggestion. The Sabbath is the real test of love for God, yet never have I seen so many people twist and distort the word of God and fight so hard to justify why they can dodge this one Commandment. God is saying that He wants us to fully devote one day a week to Him because He loves us so much and people respond by searching for every excuse under the sun as to why they do not have to spend this time with God. I pray with all my heart that you are not one of them.

Isn’t it interesting that the only part of the Bible specifically written by God’s own hand, His Law, is the part so many people want to excuse away? And isn’t it interesting that the only part of that Law some say is for the Jew only, is the one Commandment that states it was for the “stranger” also? And isn’t it interesting that it is the only Commandment that specifically states it was instituted at Creation long before sin or Jews or ceremonies? And isn’t it interesting that it has not only been kept since creation but will also be kept in the new Heaven and Earth? And isn’t it interesting that the only Commandment man wants to forget is the one God specifically says to “remember?” Jesus said, “For truly I say to you, Till the heaven and the earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in any way pass from the Law…” and Jesus then went on to say “…whoever shall relax one of these Commandments, the least, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the LEAST [by those] in the kingdom of Heaven. But whoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called GREAT in the kingdom of Heaven.” The thought of being called least by those in Heaven because I have not taught or have relaxed even one of God’s Commandments definitely does not appeal to me in the slightest. There are the most wonderful blessings beyond comprehension both now and in eternity for obeying God’s Commandments and especially when it is done in love for our heavenly Father and our fellow man.