Is working on Sunday a sin?

"E. K." We could have no sympathy with any one in pursuing his secular calling on the Lord's Day, no matter what that calling may be, whether teaching, selling, or any thing else. Would it not outrage your spiritual feelings to see a Christian open his shop and sell his wares on the Lord's day? And if so, where is the difference between teaching and selling, so far as the principle is concerned? We do not, of course, refer to teaching the things of God in the Sunday School or in the family. We would there were very much more of this. But so strongly do we feel on the subject of the Lord's Day, that even though it were not the law of the land (which, thank God, it is) to abstain from worldly business on that day, we should feel it to be our privilege (were we in business) to shut the shop or the warehouse, and suffer whatever loss there might be involved in so doing. Alas! alas! for England when, as a nation she ceases to honour the Lord's Day. Be it that there is much formality and heartless routine in the observance — much that is hollow, and superficial — much hypocrisy and assumed sanctity — much of mere legal restraint. We fully grant all this; but still, as a national institution, the Lord's Day is a great landmark which the piety of other days has set up and sedulously guarded, and which, we believe, will only be swept away by the appalling tide of modern infidelity and licentiousness. We most fully agree with you, dear friend, in thinking that, whatever may be the measure of one's liberty, he should most carefully avoid laying a stumbling-block in the way of others. We have only to repeat what we have said elsewhere, that we have never known a truly spiritual, well-taught Christian who did not honour and love the Lord's Day. And, on the other hand, we have seen those who affected extraordinary liberty, and showed that liberty by outraging other people's feelings and consciences — we have seen such persons become the positive enemies of the truth of God and the cause of Christ. Let us beware of using our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness May we rather seek to edify one another in love.

Now, it is needless to say that there is not a shade of legal bondage or of superstition connected with the first day of the week. To say so, or to think so, would be to deny the entire circle of truths with which that day stands connected. We have no direct commandment respecting the observance of the day; but the passages already referred to are amply sufficient, for every spiritual mind; and, further, we may say that the instincts of the divine nature would lead every true Christian to honour and love the Lord's day, and to set it apart, in the most reverent manner, for the worship and service of God. The very thought of any one, professing to love Christ, engaging in business, or unnecessary travelling, on the Lord's day, would, in our judgement, be revolting to every pious feeling. We believe it to be a hallowed privilege to retire, as much as possible, from all the distractions of natural things, and to devote the hours of the Lord's day to Himself and to His service.

We cannot be too thankful that the law of the land and the customs of the countries in which we live give us the Lord's Day free from the ordinary business of the week. While not under the law of the Sabbath (if we were, we should have most rigidly to observe the seventh day, Saturday, not the first), there is an evident necessity for a period of rest, one day out of the seven, needed by all alike, and doubly prized by the child of God as affording a cessation from that constant strain of business which is racking to nerves, mind, and heart alike.

Today believers are not under law, but under grace. We are not told to keep the Sabbath (Col. 2:16), but by grace the first day of the week is provided by God as a day in which believers may willingly rest from their usual employment and devote the time to pleasing the Lord. No law is attached to this at all, but willing hearts will respond thankfully to such scriptures as Acts 20:7: “on the first day of the week - the disciples came together to break bread.”

All this is most fully admitted. Every true Christian joyfully owns it. But, at the same time, we deem it impossible to read the New Testament and not see that the Lord's day gets a unique place; that it is marked off for us, in the most distinct way; that it has a significance and an importance which cannot, with justice, be claimed for any other day in the week. Indeed so fully are we convinced of the truth of all this, that, even though it were not the law of England, that the Lord's day should be observed, we should deem it to be both our sacred duty and holy privilege to abstain from all business engagements, save such as were absolutely unavoidable.

Thanks be to God, it is the law of England that the Lord's day should be observed. This is a signal mercy to all who love the day for the Lord's sake. We cannot but own His great goodness in having wrested the day from the covetous grasp of the world, and bestowed it upon His people and His servants to be devoted to His worship and to His work.

In Exodus 31:13-17 God emphasizes that the Sabbath was a sign between Him and Israel, and that the children of Israel were to keep the Sabbath. This was not given to Gentiles, and it is not given to the church in the present age (Compare Colossians 2:16-17). The Lord Jesus was in the grave on the Sabbath day, and was raised “the first day of the week.” From that time scripture emphasizes the first day of the week, mentioning for instance that on that day the disciples came together to break bread (Acts 20:7). Yet no law is made at all of this matter, for we are not under law, but under grace. We should regard the first day of the week as “the Lord's Day,” and therefore be glad for the privilege of using it solely for the Lord's pleasure, without attaching any legal bondage to it.

The fourth commandment occupies four verses (vs.12-16), insisting on Israel's observance of the Sabbath day. It was to be sanctified apart from all other days. Though they could labor for six days, labor was to cease of the seventh day, which of course is Saturday. This restriction extended to every family, children and servants, and included their animals. We must remember that the law was given to Israel, not to Gentiles, who are not to be judged in reference to Sabbath days (Col. 2:16). Under grace no law demands the keeping of any special day, but those who have appreciated the grace of God are glad to give the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, a place of special importance, for it was on this day the Lord rose from the dead, the day he appeared in the midst of His gathered disciples (Jn.20:19, the day also "when the disciples were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7). It has been a great mercy of God that He has led in allowing the western nations at least to set aside this day that He might be specially honored -- not as a law, but as a spiritual privilege.

The sabbath is not a seventh day. It is significatively the seventh day, the rest of God, Jehovah's rest. It is not now the seventh day, the rest of the old creation (to an intelligent Christian that is impossible), but, as clearly distinguished by scripture, the first day of the week in contrast with the seventh, Christ having been unquestionably in the grave during the seventh, and rising (the ground of our rest) the first, not the seventh. Talking about the sabbath being originally the first is slighting the facts, and ignorance as to the purpose and meaning of the change of day. It is not a Jewish or legal sabbath either, but the christian Lord's day. The only part flesh can have in it now is mercy to man in flesh, and that is a fresh revelation of Christ's. When originally instituted, toil was not man's portion; God's rest he might have enjoyed in a worshipping way, but never did. Now sin is come in, the Lord can tell us the sabbath was made for man. So far therefore as the Lord's day can be made a day of rest for all, grace will do it. I may not be able to impose it as a religious law on unconverted men. I do not know what that means in christianity, in the Church of God. Could the early Church have imposed it on the heathen? I believe it is a great mercy if civil law secure it, or the habits of society, even for the world; only there is the danger of self-righteousness. It is an external mercy, if the morality of the law, sabbath and all, be observed; for sin and contempt of God degrade, harden, and corrupt. As a Christian I rejoice to have one day, and the Lord's day, rescued from the world and the old creation for me a child of God; and I believe and have found that (not for visions, but for blessing and for joy) we may look to be in the Spirit on the Lord's day. But that is not law. Yet I do not accept at all the taunt of those who bury, as they say, or abrogate the sabbath. I say, If I were on board ship, I should be positively sinning not to take due care of it on the sabbath, and give heed to the safety of all. On the other hand I have not a doubt the Christian ought to think of others, and (unless in cases where mercy does require it) not use cabs and the like on the Lord's day; and an easy rule is to be found: if he takes one in the name of the Lord Jesus, let him; if not, let him not take one.

Suppose a Christian had the strength to walk 20 miles on the Lord's day and to preach the gospel six or seven times. Would he be guilty of transgressing God's will? It is hoped that not a single person would think so; yet if really under the sabbath law it would be a violation. What can absolve from the obligations of that day? All under the law are bound within defined limits. Are Jews free to use the sabbath in indefinite labour even for what you know to be the active purposes of goodness? We must obey in our relationship.

Granted that the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath, but are the Jewish disciples also lords of the sabbath? You cannot do freely what you count ever so good: Jews are under stringent regulations as to that day. If the sabbath is your day, you are required to keep it as such. Likewise, you, a Christian, have to do with the Lord's day, and seek to understand its meaning and be true to it. Without question the Lord's day is a day of consecration to worship and to the work of the Lord. It is not the last day of a laborious week, a day of rest. It is a day that is devoted to the Lord Jesus, especially to communion with His own in the world. Nor is there sin in the most strenuous labour for souls: on the contrary such labour in the Lord is good and blessed wherever it is found, if He guide in it (and we need this).

In Christ, in whom the new creation is complete and perfect (Col. 2:9-10), from the beginning to the end, God has found His eternal rest, and the believer his — a rest of which the Sabbath was but the shadow (Col. 2:16-17). With the commemoration, therefore, of a creation ruined by the fall of man — and so ruined that he had to accept of death in order to be able to get out from it and its condemnation — the Christian has nothing to do. Another thing, however, he has true reason to commemorate; namely, the day on which the new creation, in Christ its head, came forth complete and perfect from the sepulchre of the old, a triumph of the grace, the power, and the wisdom of God! This day indeed, not the seventh of the week of the old creation, but the first day of a creation altogether new, the Christian has every motive for turning into a day of rejoicing, and to thank God and the Lord for the holy privilege of being permitted, and by the Spirit led to the desire, of consecrating it to the memory and to the worship of Him who rose from among the dead, bearing him along with Him. The heart that appreciates the place it occupies in the presence of God in Jesus Christ, and the love, the grace, and the work which brought him there, the soul which by the Holy Ghost has learned to love the person of Him who died for Him and rose again, needs no law to oblige him to this; and for this reason its observance is never set in Scripture on the ground of duty, nor is it ever sought in any part of it to enforce it by commands or penalties; it is only made plain that it is pleasing to the Lord that the day should be observed, and that He has honoured it by giving it His name. For the heart that is led by the Holy Ghost, this is enough; and as to the soul which does not appreciate these things, that he should keep the day ostensibly and corporeally, drawing nigh to God with the mouth and honouring Him with the lip, while the heart is far from Him, this is worthless for the Lord. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him." This is the motto of Christianity; all else is worthless. The Lord's-day is not for the world, but only for the Church. That the world should make it a resting-day or not is no matter to God. Before the world can keep the Lord's-day, it must first be converted — die, be born again, and be raised from the dead. For men in the flesh — the world — in the old creation, He made rudimentary rules and ordinances — "Touch not, taste not, handle not," work not; and these were fulfilled in the letter by corporeal abstention from the prohibited things. All these were of the "old things" that have passed away. Now, that which has value for Him is only that which bears the stamp of "spirit and truth;" and where this is, there is no need of penalties and enforcements, whether ecclesiastic or other; where this is not, neither penalties nor commandments can create it; and for any Christian assembly to undertake to compel any one to keep the Lord's-day under pain of excommunication, would be a proof that they were as deficient in Christian intelligence as he. It is a legitimate case for the efforts of pastoral care and instruction; and when these do not succeed in correcting the error, a little patience and waiting, with much prayer to the Lord, will leave occasion to the Holy Spirit either to lead the erring one to better thoughts, or else to leave him to fall into some offence which will expose him in his true character, and render him amenable to discipline; but in any case the assembly has no right to exceed the limits the Lord has set. He has given no orders to put away for such a motive, and the assembly ought not. Let believers be taught the true import of their "heavenly calling," and, as risen with Christ, they will seek those things which are above, not those which are on the earth (Heb. 3:1; Col. 3:1, &c.), and this will free them from that spirit of "filthy lucre" which leads to the preferring an open shop on the Lord's-day, to the worship and service in spiritual things, of Him by whose cross the world is crucified to them and they to the world.