Question: 

I need your help regarding the Sabbath.  One of my friends is Thai and he needs to learn about this topic.  Please help in this area. If you have any Scriptures regarding this area please share them.

 Answer: It is hard to know where to start, because I do not know the issue being raised by your Thai friend.  The word Sabbath  comes from the Hebrew and it literally means reast.  It was a day of rest, beginning Friday at sundown, ending Saturday at sundown.  The Jews were commanded in the Old Covenant to refrain from work on that day.  They were not to work as a reminder of God’s work in creation and of his “rest” at the end of the days of creation.  They were to devote the day to resting and to worshipping God. As you know, Jesus observed the Sabbath while he was in his ministry, but he did not observe it in the overly legalistic way that some Jewish teachers expected.  They had added to and defined the law about the Sabbath, prescribing exactly how far one could walk, or what size of load one could lift and so forth.  Jesus opposed these traditions which were taught as if they were the Word of God, but he did observe the Sabbath according to the biblical pattern. As for Christians, Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses for us (Matthew 5:17).  If you read the context of Matthew 5 you will see that Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the Law of Moses.  For this reason, we are not under the Law of Moses.  Hebrews Chapter 9 and 10 makes it clear that we are not under the Old Testament Law.   We are not under the Old Covenant, but rather we are under the New Covenant.  We have a new law.  It is the Law of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:21 Galatians 6:2).  Colossians 2:13-23 implies that we are no longer under the Law of Moses.  That law was put away by Christ on the cross.  He is quite specific (verse 16) that we are not required to obey the Sabbath law.  So, we can learn much from the Jewish Sabbath about God, but we as Christians are not required to keep the Jewish Sabbath.   Hebrews  4:1-11 tells us that we have a future Sabbath rest with God, which will be heaven, but for now we do not have a Sabbath. There are some Christian groups who try to enforce the Sabbath or who claim that Christians must worship on Saturday.  This is simply not supported by the Bible.   Also, we know from church history that from the very earliest days—even when the church was mainly Jewish, the Christians had their special day of worship on Sunday.   Some say that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, but the problem with that is that scripture does not support this idea.  Sunday is the traditional day of special Christian worship, normally to include the Lord’s Supper, but it is not described as a day of required rest in the Bible. So, we can study out the Jewish Sabbath.  We can try to learn the spiritual principles which God was giving his people when he created the Sabbath for the Jews, but bottom line, we as Christians are not required to observe the Jewish Sabbath.  In fact, it is wrong and even dangerous to teach that the Sabbath is required for Christians, as it puts us back in a law-keeping mode.  If you read the book of Galatians, the entire book is devoted to explaining why we are not under the Law of Moses, but under the Law of Christ, which is freedom, not slavery to rules. I hope this helps. John Oakes PhD