Canuckus Deploracus wrote:
The fourth commandment seems to indicate that the Sabbath is of some importance...
It's God's word, of course it is important. Do you think you must still worship on the 7th day of the week?
The decision is yours.
Go back a page. I expressed my opinion:
https://www.onepoliticalplaza.com/t-261060-1.htmlPaul wrote: "Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear."
(Philippians 2:12)
These are the Scriptures I considered:
Creation Day 7 (Genesis 2:1–3)
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work. 3Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.
God rests. This in no way indicates He was weary from His creative efforts; rather, that the creation is complete. God is establishing a pattern of one day in seven to rest, keeping this day will be a distinguishing trait of God’s chosen people, Israel (Exodus 20:8–11).
The meaning of the SABBATH is the seventh day of the week observed from Friday evening to Saturday evening as a day of rest. Worship is not mentioned.
The Mosaic Covenant is a conditional covenant made between God and the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19-24). The Mosaic Covenant is a significant covenant in both God’s redemptive history and in the history of the nation of Israel through whom God would sovereignly choose to bless the world with both His written Word and the Living Word, Jesus Christ.
The blessings and curses that are associated with this conditional covenant are found in detail in Deuteronomy 28.
The Mosaic Covenant was centered around God’s giving His divine law to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Mosaic Law would reveal to people their sinfulness and their need for a Savior, and it is the Mosaic Law that Christ Himself said that He did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
Some people get confused by thinking that keeping the Law saved people in the Old Testament, but the Bible is clear that salvation has always been by faith alone, and the promise of salvation by faith that God had made to Abraham as part of the Abrahamic Covenant still remained in effect (Galatians 3:16-18).
There was no problem with the Law itself, for the Law is perfect and was given by a holy God, but the Law had no power to give people new life, and the people were unable to perfectly obey the Law (Galatians 3:21).
The New Covenant in Christ is far better than the old Mosaic Covenant that it replaces because it fulfills the promises made in Jeremiah 31:31-34, as quoted in Hebrews 8.
The 4th Commandment is contained within the Mosaic Covenant:
"Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, 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 maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it." Exodus 20: 8-11.
The specific goal of the Jerusalem Council was to decide what aspects, if any, of the Old Testament Law Christians must observe.
Acts 15:28-29 records the four point decision of the first council of Christ's Apostles of the Christian church, including Peter, Paul, James and Barnabas (ca 50 AD), held in Jerusalem, and sent to all the churches.
"For it was the Holy Spirit's decision - and ours - to put no greater burden on you than these necessary things:
1)"You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, 2) from blood, 3) from the meat of strangled animals and 4) from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell"
There is no mention of the 4th Commandment, or of observing the Jewish Sabbath.
Christ fulfilled the Law. None of the Law is binding simply by virtue of being the Law. Instead, (from Matthew 22:36-40):
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
"Those are the two commandments that Christians have to live out. Some of the moral rules and restrictions found in the Law are still in effect: not because they’re Law, but because they’re necessary for living a life of love of God and love of neighbor. This means that the prohibition against murder is treated very differently than the prohibition against wearing wool and linen at the same time" (Deuteronomy 22:11).
Sabbath Observance is No Longer Binding
The Old Testament set special days set aside each week (the Sabbath), each month (the New Moon), and each year (the specific religious festivals, like Passover). Solomon refers to each of these in 2 Chronicles 2:4, in a letter to Hiram, the king of Tyre:
"Now I am about to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God and to dedicate it to him for burning fragrant incense before him, for setting out the consecrated bread regularly, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening and on the Sabbaths, at the New Moons and at the appointed festivals of the LORD our God. This is a lasting ordinance for Israel."
What happens to these special observances in the New Covenant? Look at Colossians 2:16, in which St. Paul says:
"Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day."
We’re not bound to observe Passover or Hanukkah, or the New Moon celebrations, or the Saturday Sabbath.
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" ( Galatians 5:1 )
The Glory of the New Covenant
"And even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2nd Corinthians 3:15-18)
Hebrews 10:19-26:
"Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have the confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body,
and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings,
having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,
Do 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. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left."