Working on the Lord's Day

You mean like the Man Jesus healed at the pool of Bethesda?

 

you mean to say, LeBuick, that Jesus broke the sabbath?

 

I work every Lord's Day: I teach SS, lead singing, sing special numbers, preach, counsel. :thumbs:

What is a sin is not for a Christian to work on the Lord's Day, but to "forsake the assembling," that is not go to church.

 

doing good on the sabbath is not wrong. good according to the standards of Christ.

i agree with john of japan.

doing that stuff is not breaking the law.

 

You do a good work JofJ and many prayers are with you as you spread the gospel of "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved". So with the gospel of the Body of Christ, it speaks to the need to disassociate ourselves from that "kingdom gospel".

"Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you," Exodus 31:13. We are not Israel, of that "kingdom" promised His people. We Gentiles are heathen, and now the Jew can be saved just as we by the grace of God through the faith of Jesus Christ. We are in Christ Jesus making every day holy.

Are we of grace, or works? Are we to put ourselves back under "law" of sinning if we do not go to church? I have "good Catholic" friends, believing they must go to church, and they had to be baptized to be saved, and they are to pray to Mary, say their Hail Mary's, recite over and over the prayer that does not include the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, being in need of "statues, pictures, and crosses" as they walk by sight, and do ritual just as the Jew, of which they are not.

I can't find in His Word where we today are "sinning" by not going to church every Sunday, but many are judged by this man made Law, as with smoking which is not a "sin", as is not "drinking" since the beginning until now, unless it is overdone just as with eating, shopping, golfing, fishing, hunting, and on it goes.

Could our biggest sin be that of judging many in the Body of Christ, looking only to be "caught up to Him", not worrying about that "kingdom that was at hand", and will come after we are taken, and one is left to go through the tribulation, and then perhaps into the "millennium"?

 

It is a mistake to confuse the Jewish Sabbath Day with the Christian First Day (or Lord's Day, as some like to call it). The Sabbath Day was a “sign” of the mosaic covenant, in the same way the rainbow was a “sign of Noahic covenant and circumcision was to Abrahamic covenant. Exodus 31:12-17 and Ezekiel 20:12

The Sabbath was given as a sign between God and Israel to mark the exodus from Egypt. It was a sign of His covenant with Israel made through Moses, which was a covenant unique and peculiar to Israel - it has nothing to do with the church.

It is also dubious to refer to Sunday as "the Lord's Day." That term only occurs once in Scripture - Revelation 1:10 - and I believe it is speaking about God’s coming day, the Day of the Lord, the time of judgment, tribulation followed by the Second Coming of Christ.

Should we work on Sunday? It is a matter of liberty, not law. That said, the first day of the week primarily belongs to God. In that respect we have one obligation and one obligation only: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25).

 

So would you say if someone were in the hospital on Sunday to just not take care of them?

 

Worship vs. work

I HAVE to respond. I was stationed in Saudi Arabia while in the USAF a few years ago. The "weekend" was Thursday and Friday, and so we few Christians met to worship together (illegally, btw) on Friday!

There are some Baptists I know who believe we MUST meet on Sunday to worship God. I have long known that we believers should "assemble together" on a regular basis -- but not necessarily on Sunday. I firmly believe that God honors our true worship as an assembly of believers, no matter which day of the week we meet.

Therefore, my answer to the OP is:

Not necessarily.

Bill

 

It is important to remember that one of the Ten Commandments says we need to do all our work in six days and rest on the seventh, following the pattern the Lord gave us in Creation Week. It does not matter WHICH six days you choose to do all your work in or WHICH day is, then, your seventh day, but the commandment here, like all the others, is for our benefit. We are not judged by it --- except, perhaps, by our own bodies --- but it is nevertheless for our benefit.

In Exodus 31 we do read that the particular Sabbath was a covenant between the Lord and Israel and so, as another poster said, has nothing to do with the church in that way. But our bodies and minds, at the very least, will always need a day off each week to maintain health and sanity. A day to hang around, to stop and smell the roses, to read a good book, have a nap in the middle of the day, refuse to go on errands but stay home and enjoy family.

There is still an amount of work involved. You can prepare meals a day early for the most part, but you still have to serve and clean up after them! You can bathe the kids the day before, but you cannot ignore changing diapers or brushing teeth for a day! And sometimes the amount of upkeep a large family involves feels like every day's worth of work, and I know from raising six kids that that can be frustrating. We learned in our family that one person's day off may not always be the same as another person's. The older kids would give me a day off by taking care of our youngest, a profoundly retarded child. I would give them a day off later. Barry and I do approximately the same with this same child now -- who is 21 and will always be in diapers. Gina L., here, lives next to us and is an angel about giving us both time off occasionally, despite her own busy schedule.

The work never stops, but there should be (by God's command!) one day a week for any person when they can stop the merry-go-round and get off and breathe for a day.

This is different from worship which
1. should be a manner of life for the Christian
and
2. should be incorporated into assembly with other Christians, often once a week.

Some are able to combine the day of worship with other Christians with a day of rest, and God bless them! Others are not able to, and God bless them, too!

 

Not totally consistent I would say

 

Workin' on the Lord's day

I spent twenty-two years working in a hospital, most of that time either working every-other-weekend or at least on-call covering the weekend for cardiac emergencies.
Many-a-time I was beeped (this was long before cell phones) during church services to rush into a day-long hospital emergency.

I always thought the Lord greatly blessed me with with the abilities and inclination to serve as I do.
After all "deacons" serve, and so do nurses!

Some of that time I worked night shift.
After a few times getting off shift then falling asleep during the preaching, I resolved to never attended church if I worked the night before.

(In fact, during our mid-week Bible studies at our house [when I wasn't leading] I was known to head up to bed early and leave my wife to say the good-byes to the guests. I was usually asleep before they left our house!
I guarded my sleep time jealously, knowing that I was weakest when I didn't get enought sleep). :sleeping_2:

I've interviewed and hired people who make it known that they will not work on the Lord's day.
...usually it doesn't last long. They have the best of intentions but necessity usually wins out.

In fact one Orthodox Jewess didn't like working Firday nights.
I would usually take her call and work the overtime, honoring her committment.
Later I heard that she had a "fatal-attraction" type relationship with another "Christian" man in our lab. :tear:

The Lord looks on our heart.
So it's not the specific time that's important.

Rob