Should we worship on Saturday or Sunday?

Question 11092

Saturday or Sunday is a question that arrives in two very different tones. Sometimes it comes from a believer who has been challenged by a Seventh-day Adventist or a Hebrew Roots teacher and is genuinely unsettled. Sometimes it comes from someone who simply wonders why the church meets when it does.

Either way the answer requires going back further than the practice itself, to the question of what the Sabbath was and to whom it was given. Get that right and the Saturday or Sunday question largely resolves itself.

What the Sabbath Was

The seventh day is set apart at creation, and the pattern of six days of work and one of rest is woven into the account (Genesis 2:2-3). But there is no record of anyone being commanded to keep the Sabbath between Adam and Moses, which is a considerable stretch of biblical history.

It appears as a command at Sinai, in the fourth commandment, and it is given a covenantal function that is often overlooked. It shall be a sign for ever between me and the people of Israel (Exodus 31:17), and again, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them (Ezekiel 20:12). The Hebrew shabbat means cessation.

That word sign is doing real work. The Sabbath functioned as the badge of the Mosaic covenant in the way circumcision functioned as the badge of the Abrahamic. Signs belong to the covenants they mark, and they do not outlive them. This is the heart of the Saturday or Sunday question.

Jesus and the Sabbath

Jesus kept the Sabbath, since He was born under the law and lived as an Israelite under the Mosaic covenant. He also collided with the Pharisaic accretions around it repeatedly, healing on it and defending His disciples for plucking grain.

His statement is decisive. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27-28). The claim is not that the Sabbath is trivial but that He has authority over it, which is an astonishing thing for a Galilean carpenter to say about an institution God gave at Sinai.

What He never does is announce a change of day. That is worth stating plainly, because those who argue for Saturday sometimes present the church as having quietly swapped days on its own authority, and they are right that no such command exists. The question is whether a command was needed.

How the First Day Emerged

The resurrection took place on the first day of the week, and every recorded appearance of the risen Jesus to the gathered disciples occurs on that day. Pentecost fell on the first day. It is not surprising that the day acquired significance almost immediately.

By Acts 20:7 the believers at Troas gathered on the first day of the week to break bread, and Paul preached to them. In 1 Corinthians 16:2 Paul instructs the Corinthians to set money aside on the first day of every week, which assumes a regular gathering. Revelation 1:10 refers to the Lord’s day, a term that had already become recognisable.

So the Saturday or Sunday practice of the church rests on apostolic pattern rather than on a transfer decree. The first day was not declared to be the new Sabbath; it became the day on which the church met to celebrate a resurrection, which is something different and better.

Paul and the Sabbath in the New Covenant

Paul addresses this directly and without anxiety. Let no one pass judgement 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 (Colossians 2:16-17).

Romans 14:5-6 goes further, allowing genuine diversity. 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. If Sabbath keeping were still binding, Paul could not possibly have written that sentence.

And in Galatians 4:10-11 he expresses alarm at those observing days and months and seasons and years, fearing that his labour had been wasted. Paul’s concern was not the calendar but what a return to calendar keeping signalled about their understanding of grace.

Why the Constantine Story Does Not Work

A common claim is that the Roman Emperor Constantine changed the day of worship in the fourth century, making Sunday observance a human innovation. The historical record does not support it. Ignatius of Antioch, writing around AD 110, already describes Christians as no longer keeping the Sabbath but living according to the Lord’s day.

The Epistle of Barnabas and Justin Martyr both attest first day gathering well before Constantine, who in 321 issued a civil rest law for an existing Christian practice rather than inventing one. The Saturday or Sunday debate does not turn on a fourth century conspiracy.

I mention this because the historical claim often carries more weight in these conversations than the biblical argument, and it should not, since it is simply mistaken. See also my answer on the wider Constantine claims.

What Rest Now Means

Hebrews 4 takes the Sabbath and reframes it. 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. The rest is no longer a day; it is a settled trust in a finished work.

That is the substance of which the day was a shadow. Insisting on keeping the shadow once the substance has arrived is precisely what Colossians warns against, and it is why I would not call Sunday the Christian Sabbath. That phrase imports a category the New Testament does not use and generates pastoral confusion the text never required.

None of which means rhythm does not matter. Human beings need rest, and the creation pattern is wise whether or not it is commanded. Taking a day off is good sense and good stewardship of a body you did not design.

Saturday or Sunday: Which Day Then?

Meet on Sunday, with the overwhelming majority of the church throughout history, because that is the day the Lord rose and the day the apostles gathered. Meet gladly rather than dutifully, since the day commemorates a resurrection rather than commemorating a rule.

If a believer conscientiously prefers Saturday, Romans 14 covers it and I would not make an issue of it. What I would resist is the claim that Saturday is required and that Sunday worshippers are in error, because that claim reintroduces a covenant sign that has served its purpose. On the wider framework see my answer on the law for Christians today.

The Saturday or Sunday question, in the end, is a question about which covenant you are living under. Answer that and the day looks after itself.

Answering the Common Objections

The first objection is that the Sabbath was instituted at creation and therefore predates Moses and binds everyone. The creation account records God resting; it records no command to Adam. The Saturday or Sunday argument cannot be settled by an inference the text does not make.

The second is that the fourth commandment stands with the other nine, so removing it removes the moral law. But the Decalogue was the covenantal summary of the Mosaic Law rather than a timeless code, and nine of its provisions are reissued in the New Testament while this one is explicitly relaxed. That is the pattern the text gives us, not one imposed on it.

The third is that Jesus kept the Sabbath and we should follow His example. He also was circumcised, kept Passover and paid the temple tax, and nobody argues for those. He lived under the Mosaic covenant as an Israelite. The Saturday or Sunday question concerns believers who live on the other side of the cross.

The fourth is that Isaiah 66:23 has new moons and Sabbaths observed in the age to come. So it does, in a passage about millennial worship in a restored Israel, which is exactly where the covenant sign belongs. That is a Saturday or Sunday matter for Israel in the kingdom, not a rule for the Church now.

So, now what?

If you have been troubled by someone insisting on Saturday, read Colossians 2 and Romans 14 for yourself and let Paul settle your conscience. You are not in error and you have not been deceived by an emperor.

And if Sunday has become a habit you keep without thinking, recover what it is for. You gather on the first day because a tomb was empty on the first day. Is that how it feels when you walk in?

Therefore let no one pass judgement 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.

Colossians 2:16-17, ESV