Romans 14 Complete Jewish Bible
5 One person considers some days more holy than others, while someone else regards them as being all alike. What is important is for each to be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 He who observes a day as special does so to honor the Lord. Also he who eats anything, eats to honor the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; likewise the abstainer abstains to honor the Lord, and he too gives thanks to God.
7 For none of us lives only in relation to himself, and none of us dies only in relation to himself;
8 for if we live, we live in relation to the Lord; and if we die, we die in relation to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord —
9 indeed, it was for this very reason that the Messiah died and came back to life, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 You then, why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For all of us will stand before God’s judgment seat;
Exodus 20 Complete Jewish Bible
1 Then God said all these words:
א 2 “I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery.
8 “Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for God.
9 You have six days to labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your God. On it, you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property.
11 For in six days, Adonai made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. This is why Adonai blessed the day, Shabbat, and separated it for himself.
When God created the Heavens and the Earth, He rested on the seventh day. When God gave the ten commandments to Israel, His Bride, He commanded her to rest on the seventh day as well. In Exodus 20:11 the reason given for that is that God rested on the seventh day from His creation, His work. The reason that God gives to rest on the Sabbath is to remember that the Lord delivered Israel from Egypt - Deuteronomy 5:15.
It is for us to remember our God and how He has saved us and taken us out of slavery.
In the Old Covenant, The Sabbath served as the covenant sign between Israel and her God, unfolding a weekly testimony that showed God as a mighty Creator - Exodus 20:11 and merciful Redeemer - Deuteronomy 5:15. On the Sabbath, Israel declared total dependence on her covenant keeping Lord, a Lord more than able to uphold His people even though, for one day in seven, they hung up their shovels, laid aside their plows, and rested from their labours.
The question then, is not whether Israel should have kept the Sabbath under the old covenant, but whether Christians should under the New Covenant …
Leviticus 23 Amplified Bible
Laws of Religious Festivals
23 The Lord spoke again to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The appointed times (established feasts) of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these:
The Sabbath
3 ‘For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation (calling together). You shall not do any work [on that day]; it is the Sabbath of the Lord [a]wherever you may be.
Of course, Christians aren't bound by Old Testament Sabbath directives. Twice in his epistles, the apostle Paul made it clear that Sabbath observance, like other external signs of piety, is insufficient for salvation. As he wrote to the Colossians, "Therefore do not let anyone judge you . . . with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ"
And Jesus, when rebuked by the Pharisees for plucking grain from a field on the Sabbath, criticized those who made a fetish of Sabbath observance, insisting, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" - Mark 2:27.
But Christ Jesus never said to forget the Sabbath completely.
Keeping the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments, after all!
And through the ages, Christians have seen the wisdom of devoting one full day to rest and praise God Almighty In Heaven. The key to the Sabbath isn't merely rest. Rather, it's that in our rest we turn our attention to God, whose rest our Sabbath mirrors.
The seventh day marks the setting of so many clashes between Jesus and the Pharisees that when we read something like, “Now it was a Sabbath day . . .” John 9:14
Strictly speaking, the only commandments Jesus broke on the Sabbath belonged to Jewish tradition, not divine law. In their zeal to define exactly what a person could and could not do on the Sabbath, Jewish leaders laid on the people’s backs a spiritual burden heavier than any physical burden - Matthew 23:4. Jesus attacked such traditions with the vehemence of one who saw more clearly than any that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” - Mark 2:27.
Yet even though Jesus never broke the fourth commandment, he did hint that a change to the Sabbath may be coming. These arresting words: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” Matthew 11:28. The rest offered on the Sabbath was now also being offered in Christ Jesus. A grand claim lies behind this grand promise: “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath” Matthew 12:8.
One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
Romans 14 English Standard Version
Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master[a] that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living
It is safe to say that we all must do that which God has revealed to each of us with no judgment.
As for Wone Kingdom Church, God has directed us to KEEP HIS SABBATH HOLY.
When we look at the Book of Leviticus 23, God commands us God’s Appointed Festivals. The first of them being THE SABBATH, this means that then if we are to keep all of the seven, we must keep the Sabbath of the Lord.
Leviticus 23
New International Version
The Appointed Festivals
23 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
1. The Sabbath
3 “‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord.
Our God instructs us to keep the Sabbath and the the rest of the Festivals as well, namely:
2. The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread
3. Offering the Firstfruits
4. The Festival of Weeks
5. The Festival of Trumpets
6. The Day of Atonement
7. The Festival of Tabernacles
When we look in the New Covenant, we find new Festivals that we are to keep to God, rather we see that most of the Festival in Leviticus 23 were fulfilled by Christ Jesus and we wait for the final one … The Festivals of Trumpets and we await His second coming to gather His Church.
We observe them even though fulfilled in waiting for our Lord and His descent from Heaven.
We keep the Sabbath in order to remember that our God is the Ultimate provider for us, not our jobs.
We keep the Sabbath to dedicate time to our Heavenly Father in a way that He shows us.
It is not about the physical day itself, it is about God and making sure we spend time in His Word.
Our God does say He is a God who is jealous and we must take this declaration very seriously.
Exodus 20 Amplified Bible
8 “Remember the Sabbath (seventh) day to keep it holy (set apart, dedicated to God). 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest dedicated] to the Lord your God; on that day you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock or the temporary resident (foreigner) who stays within your [city] gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy [that is, set it apart for His purposes].
1. Remembering
First, Israel is to remember the rest day. Sabbath means rest. "Remember the sabbath day," means, "Don't forget to take a day off."
2. Keeping It Holy
Second, "Keep it holy," means, set it aside from all other days as special. Specifically, as verse 10 says, keep it "to the Lord," or "for the Lord." In other words, the rest is not to be aimless rest, but God-centered rest. Attention is to be directed to God in a way that is more concentrated and steady than on ordinary days. Keep the day holy by keeping the focus on the holy God.
3. One Out of Every Seven
Third, the holy rest day should be one out of every seven. Verse 9: "Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God." Work six, rest one. Work six, rest one. That's the pattern prescribed in the Ten Commandments. Note it does not say that the sabbath ("rest day") has to be the last day of the week or the first day of the week. The concept of weeks is not even mentioned. The command is simply work six, rest one. Every seventh day should be a sabbath.
4. No Fudging
Fourth, no fudging on the commandment by saying, "Well, I will keep it, but I will put my maid to work, or set my ox to threshing with a carrot in front of his nose at 6 PM the evening of the sabbath so that it will thresh the grain all day while I rest." God says, No. You miss the point if you try to keep the business running by using servants or animals or relatives. What point?
5. God's Rest After Creation
Fifth, verse 11 leads us to the basic point of the commandment. It is based on God's rest after creation: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it."
This is taken from Genesis 2:2–3.
And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all His work which He had done in creation.
God "Blessed" and "Hallowed" the Seventh Day
Both Genesis 2:3 and Exodus 20:11 say that God "blessed" and "hallowed" the rest day.
What does it mean for God to bless a day?
It could mean that He makes the day a time of blessing.
When God blesses a man, the man becomes rich with blessings. When He blesses a land, the land becomes rich with blessings. So when He blesses a day, that day becomes rich with blessings.
And what does it mean that He hallows the day?
"Hallows" is the same word as "sanctifies." It means set the day aside for special focus on what is holy, namely, God and His holy works.
Now consider the two words together. He blessed the day and He hallowed the day. How do these fit together? He made it a source of blessing, and He made it to focus on Himself.
Isn't it obvious that the hallowing is included in the blessing and the blessing is included in the hallowing. When you hallow God and focus your attention on Him, you receive more blessing than if you keep on busying yourself seven days a week with secular affairs, thinking that professional advancement and money are the route to true happiness. And (the reverse) when you seek your blessing in God rather than in the products of human labor, you hallow Him and honor His Holiness as the greater wealth.
God's Rest
The reason given in both Genesis 2:3 and Exodus 20:11 why God blessed and hallowed the seventh day is that "on it God rested from all His work which He had done in creation." What does it mean that God rested?
It means at least that He was satisfied that His work of creation was complete and was "very good." His rest means that He wanted to now stand back as it were in leisure and savor the beauty and completeness of His creative work.
He is saying in effect, "Let my highest creature, the one in my image, stop every seven days and commemorate with me the fact that I Am the Creator who has done all this. Let him stop working and focus on me, that I am the source of all that he has. I Am the fountain of blessing. I have made the very hands and mind with which he works. Let one day out of seven demonstrate that all land and all animals and all raw materials and all breath and strength and thought and emotion and everything come from Me. Let man look to Me in leisure one day out of seven for the blessing that is so elusive in the affairs of this world."
The beautiful thing about the Sabbath is that God instituted it as a weekly reminder of two things. One is that all true blessing comes from His grace, not our labor. The other is that we hallow Him and honor Him and keep the day Holy if we seek the fullness of His blessing by giving our special attention to Him on that day.
God as the Source of Salvation
It would be a mistake to conclude from these two texts that the only blessings we should focus on during our Sabbath observance were the blessings of creation. Deuteronomy 5 gives us a second version of the Ten Commandments. Here the basis of the Sabbath observance is different.
Deuteronomy 5 New International Version
15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
In other words the mighty hand and the outstreched arm of God were not worn by the work of creation. They are full of strength. God's rest was not for recuperation, but for exultation. Now the same God has shown His power not just to create but also to save. So the focus of the sabbath is on God not only as the source of creation, but also as the source of salvation.
One day of rest in every seven, kept Holy to the Lord, reminds us and shows the world that GOD is our Creator and our Deliverer—we did not make ourselves, we cannot sustain or save ourselves without His grace. Be still and know that he is God.
The Sabbath is a sign. It points to a truth that we are never to forget. The truth is that God and not we ourselves has sanctified us. He has chosen us and set us apart and worked to make us distinct among the peoples of the earth.
In summary then, Exodus 20:11, Deuteronomy 5:15 and Exodus 31:13 teach that the Sabbath is a way of remembering and expressing the truth that God is our creator and deliverer and sanctifier. We are dependent on Him for all we have in the world, for our deliverance from enemies and for our holiness. He has indeed designed that we work, but our work neither creates, saves nor sanctifies.
For these we depend on the blessing of God. All things are from Him, through Him and to Him. Lest we ever forget this and begin to take our strength and thought and work too seriously, we should keep one day in seven to cease from our labors and focus on God as the source of all blessing.
Jesus Didn't Abolish the Sabbath
Christ Jesus didn't come to abolish the sabbath but to dig it out from under the mountain of legalistic sediment and give it to us again as a blessing rather than a burden. It is a day for showing mercy and a day for doing good. It should not be governed rigidly by narrow definitions of what is work and what is not. It is a day to focus on the Lord. And now Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
This is a day to focus on Christ Jesus our Lord, Savior and King..
And it is impossible that a day focused on Jesus should be a burden to the believing heart—"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!"
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