The fourth commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Since the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, why, then, do Christians worship on Sunday, the first day of the week? The question is all the more pertinent considering there is no specific command in the New Testament to worship on Sunday. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question, in part because the early Christians did not leave documents explaining their position. Yet it is possible to reconstruct that process and determine their reasoning with some certainty.
The fourth commandment does not set aside the Sabbath specifically for worship, but for cessation of labor. As time passed, especially after the destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C., the Hebrews used the Sabbath for worship gatherings, especially in synagogues. For some period of time after the resurrection of Jesus, Jewish Christians continued to worship on the Jewish Sabbath and followed Jewish worship customs, although their worship was infused with new meaning. Acts 2:46 indicates that these early believers were meeting daily (not weekly) and were attending worship in the Jewish temple.
As these early Jewish Christians began to reflect on their faith, and since Christians already had been persecuted for proclaiming Christ in the temple and synagogues (Acts 3:11-4:2, 14:1-2), they realized that they needed a day devoted to their unique Christian worship. While this need was felt more acutely after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, there is substantial evidence in the New Testament that Christians were using Sunday to meet that need.
When Paul desired to collect an offering from the church at Corinth, he asked them to gather the money on the “first day of the week” (1 Corinthians 16:2). When he wanted to meet with the believers at Troas, the gathering took place “on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread” (Acts 20:7). In Revelation 1:10, the apostle John described himself as being “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” Most scholars believe John was referring to Sunday and that use of “the Lord’s Day” as a term for Sunday comes from this verse. Thus, the evidence indicates that even in the days of the New Testament, Sunday was the accepted Christian day for prayer, instruction, and the Lord’s Supper.
This evidence is supported by those Christian writers living in the years immediately following the New Testament period. For example, Ignatius wrote early in the second century, describing Jewish Christians as those who “have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death.” Speaking of Christians, Justin Martyr (A.D. 150) wrote, “On the day called the day of the Sun (Sunday), all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place.”
No Scripture passage specifically teaches that the Sabbath has been transferred from one day to another. The shift from Saturday to Sunday likely was gradual, occurring along with the change from a mostly Jewish church to a mostly Gentile church. The early church fathers generally viewed Sabbath as a Jewish observance and the Lord’s Day as the proper Christian observance.
Nor does the New Testament specify why Sunday was chosen as the preferred day for public worship, so one cannot be dogmatic on this point. Yet the phrase “the first day of the week,” which refers to the day that Christians met to worship (Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2), is strongly reminiscent of the same phrase used in all four Gospels in connection with Jesus’ resurrection (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, and John 20:1). It is difficult to imagine that the early Christians failed to make that connection. Jesus’ continued appearances on succeeding Sundays (John 20:26), and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Sunday (Acts 2:1; the Day of Pentecost was always on Sunday), further support that Sunday was the logical choice for the early believers.
Not everyone who considers the question agrees that moving the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday was legitimate. Seventh-Day Adventists and Seventh-Day Baptists (who have more than 50,000 adherents in 22 countries) still worship on Saturday.
Most Christians believe that Sunday is the proper day of worship, but they are not in agreement concerning the specifics of Sunday worship. Some Christians (Sabbatarians) believe that Sunday is the Christian version of the Old Testament Sabbath. That is, the laws in the Old Testament pertaining to the Sabbath-keeping now apply to believers on Sunday. Other Christians believe that the Lord’s Day is merely the day that Christians worship, and the Old Testament laws concerning the Sabbath do not apply to Christians today. One’s decision concerning how to observe the Lord’s Day will depend on one’s view of what parts of the Old Testament are binding on Christians. If parts of the Old Testament are no longer binding because they were directed specifically to the Jewish nation, then how one should observe the Lord’s Day is open for discussion.
The Philadelphia Confession of Faith (1742), a confession held by many Baptists in early America, advocated the Sabbatarian view: “The Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering their common affairs aforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all day, from their own works, words and thoughts, about their worldly employment and recreations, but are also taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.” The original Baptist Faith and Message (1925) takes a similar position.
The Baptist Faith and Message (2000) is less specific: “The first day of the week is the Lord’s Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord’s Day should be commensurate with the Christian’s conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”
Whatever the case, it is important to recognize that God has a claim to all of the believer’s time — not merely one day of the week.
— Walter Johnson is dean of the College of Christian Studies at North Greenville University.