Sunday and the Sabbath in the Bible

The relationship between Sunday and the Sabbath is one of the most discussed questions among Christians. In the New Testament we find the earliest believers beginning to gather on the first day of the week. Luke records that when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them, and the assembly continued late into the night (ACT.20.7). Paul also instructed the Corinthians to set aside their gifts for the saints on the first day of every week, suggesting a regular rhythm of meeting and giving on that day (1CO.16.2). The first day held special significance because it was the day of the resurrection. The Gospels testify that Jesus rose early on the first day of the week (MRK.16.9), and that same evening He appeared among His gathered disciples, breathing peace upon them (JHN.20.19). For this reason John, exiled on Patmos, says he was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, a phrase the early church came to associate with the day of Christ's victory over death (REV.1.10). The apostles taught Christian liberty regarding sacred days. Paul warned the Colossians not to let anyone judge them concerning a festival, a new moon, or a Sabbath, which were a shadow of the things to come, the substance belonging to Christ (COL.2.16). To the Romans he wrote that one person esteems one day above another, while another esteems every day alike; each should be fully convinced in his own mind and act as unto the Lord (ROM.14.5). Thus Scripture presents the seventh-day Sabbath as God's gift of rest and the first-day gathering as the joyful commemoration of the resurrection. Whether one keeps the Sabbath, honors the Lord's Day, or rests in Christ every day, the call is the same: to worship sincerely, to love one another, and to do all to the glory of God.