Recently someone posted on this site commenting that I had posted on the Sabbath. He asked if this was working and if it conflicted with my stance of not attending sporting and other events that take place on Sunday.
I believe that God has given us the Lord's Day or Christian Sabbath and that it is a day set apart for rest and relaxation, for worship, for the family and for Christian activity. After a very busy week I value the rest, the opportunity to attend church and to be at home with my wife. As a result I do not attend sporting events or go shopping on Sunday.
Since starting this blog I have posted several times on the Lord's Day but a careful look at what I posted will show that there is a difference in the matters I comment about on Sunday. Three of them have been about Christian hymns and hymnwriters, one was about the old Covenanter preacher Alexander Peden and the other was about the Ulster Sabbath.
A Sabbath is not about doing nothing but about doing things that are appropriate.
While I understand the distinction you make, it is your interpretation. This is one of the difficulties with 'holy' texts - different people make their own interpretation. I know there are others who believe that you should do no work at all and would not agree with your writing and posting on the Sabbath - no matter how appropriate you consider it. Then there are others who feel it is appropriate to play sport, shop, work or mow the lawn. By your argument there is no standard and drawing the line is a matter of personal judgement. It's therefore difficult to decide, other than personally, what's kosher and what's not.
ReplyDeleteThe standard I have is the Bible and the Word of God teaches that the Sabbath is to be a day of rest. However we can carry out what are generally called works of necessity, works of mercy and works of religion.
ReplyDeleteThere are some activities that are necessary. For example there was an occasion (Luke 6:1) where the Pharisees rebuked the disciples of Jesus for plucking ears of corn to feed themselves on the Sabbath but Jesus answered the Pharisees and defended the disciples. The preparation of food is a work of necessity.
There were also occasions when Jesus healed people on the Sabbath and this would be described as a work of mercy. However even then there were Pharisees who condemned Jesus for healing on the Sabbath.
The Bible sets out some basic principles about the Sabbath and if folk believe the Bible to be true they will then seek to apply those principles. However I acknowledge that there will be some variations in how they apply them.