How To Actively Love God As A Friend
This is part 2 of Chapter 6 of Friends With God: The Gifts Of God. In this chapter we are exploring the blessings that God wants to give to those who delight in his way of life.
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments:
and his commandments are not burdensome. (1John 5:2)
God commands us to obey his law, part of which is to love our neighbours by showing mercy to them. Love and mercy are integral to the Law
The commandments of God are not meant to be a burden, but a benefit.
Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)
His commandments shine a light on how to live, they give us understanding and guide our lives so that we don’t stumble. They are therefore obviously not a burden, but a great blessing.
The Sabbath is a prime example of the blessings of God’s law, as he tells us to take a holiday every week!
God expects us to keep his law, which includes God’s Sabbath Day, if we don’t we won’t be welcome into the Kingdom of God:
Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor abusers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor reviles, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1Cor 6:9-10)
The Seven Day Week Was Created By God
Have you ever wondered why God bothered to take six days to create the heavens and the Earth? As God is all powerful, he could have made everything in just a few moments.
Yet God deliberately took the time to make not only every individual physical thing in six days, but he then added another day to the creation when he took the time to make the time of the Sabbath Day, and he made it holy by resting on it.
While Christ is the living word of God, (John 1:1) the Bible is the written word of God:
All Scripture is given by God. And all Scripture is useful for teaching and for showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching the right way to live. By using the Scriptures, those who serve God will be prepared and will have everything they need to do every good work. (2Tim 3:16-17) (ERV)
If there is nothing written in the Bible about a particular subject or situation, Christ may need to guide us directly by his Spirit. If, however, something is in the scriptures, then we should be guided by that. In doing so we are demonstrating our respect for what God has already told us.
If we don’t respect what he has revealed through scripture, then why should he tell us directly by his Spirit? Respect for the written word of God is therefore foundational to our love of God.
Don’t Add To The Word Of God…
Some preachers claim that God is beyond time. That as he is the creator, he must have made time also. They say that God can go back and forward in time and can even stop time. Yet scripture tells us nothing of the sort.
Such ideas may come from the theoretical laws of physics, but they have nothing to do with the Bible.
What God tells us is that he is very concerned about time, and this is clear by the fact he made the seventh day in order to finish his creation. We don’t need to know anything more than what he has told us.
By claiming God is beyond time, preachers are adding to the word of God, and undermining the truth of God as he chose to reveal it to us. Whatever God’s relationship is with time, he has not told us that he is beyond it, or that he has any control over it at all.
What God has categorically told us about time is that we have a limited amount of it in our physical lives, and that we need to be very careful how we use it.
We should not waste our time, particularly by preaching about things that are not in scripture:
Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.
Do not add to His Words, lest He reprove you and you be found a liar. (Prov 30:5-6)
The word “pure” here means tried and tested, the way gold and silver are purified. God’s word is what we can rely upon, not some made up notions that people assume about God. We have his word to guide us, and we don’t need to add anything to it.
Resting On God’s Day of Rest
The entire physical creation was made for us in six days. (Gen 1:21-31) Then God made the Sabbath specifically for us, so that there were actually seven days of creation. (Gen 2:1-3) The Sabbath is the day that we as humans began our spiritual creation, as we were given the same day that God rested on so that we, too, as his children may be refreshed as he was refreshed.
The Sabbath was later reiterated and elaborated on in the Ten Commandments, and other scriptures. (Exo 16:23-29, Exo 20:8-11, Exo 23:12, Exo 31:15, Exo 34:21, Exo 35:2-3) It is worthwhile to take your time to read these verses about this first and great gift of God for all mankind. You can do it this Sabbath, as that is what the day was made for.
The entire seven-day week, including the Sabbath, is an integral part of God’s relationship with mankind. There are very few societies that have even tried to have anything other than the seven-day week. It works for humanity, which is not surprising, as it was made for us.
By obeying God through resting on the Sabbath, we reflect his way of life to the world. God has given us his special day to rest on, the “Sabbath of the Lord”. (Ex 20:10, Lev 23:3, Deut 5:14)
While the command to keep the Sabbath holy provides a rest for us, it’s also a rest for those who work for us:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath (rest) of the Lord your God. (we rest on God’s Day) You shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger within your gates. (Exo 20:8-11)
Every week everyone gets a day off work, and it’s the same day, thus showing the equity of God- for God is not a respecter of persons, but we are all equal before God. By keeping the Sabbath, we demonstrate our love and friendship toward all other people, including our servants and our work animals, every seven days. Keeping the Sabbath is a great way of showing God’s love to everyone else.
Some Basic Blessings Of The Sabbath Rest of God
When we keep God’s Day of Rest, we remember that he is the creator who rested on the seventh day and set it apart. (Genesis 2:3) Yet this Sabbath of God is obviously not for God to rest, as God doesn’t need to rest (Psalm 121:4), but it’s rather a God given time for mankind to rest and to follow God’s example, and command, to also rest on this day.
As we have no work to do, we can have a sleep in on this day of rest every week, if we feel like it. This weekly rest reminds us that God created the Earth, as that is when he rested. Not a bad way to be reminded about the fact that God is the creator!
As we are not working, or buying, or selling then this sets us apart from other people who don’t know God. It makes us stand out from them and they may ask us what are we doing, and why. We then have the opportunity to become a witness of the truth about God being the creator, who specifically set this day of rest aside for all mankind. (Mark 2:23-28)
Not only that, but God is then willing to give us an extra blessing: ‘the desires of our heart”, for keeping the Sabbath and delighting in it.
So, the Sabbath is a triple blessing:
we physically get a rest once a week,
those whom we employ also get a rest,
and those who see us resting receive witness of God’s being the sovereign creator of all life.
Yet the weekly Sabbath is not the only day of rest which God established. God has also established eight annual Sabbaths, which are also set apart from our normal physical activities of earning a living. These days spell out the long-term plan which God has for our Spiritual Creation as his Sons and Daughters.
When God said to Israel: Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest ... (Lev 23:3) it was in the context of these annual Festival Sabbath Days, recorded in the rest of Leviticus chapter 23.
While the weekly Sabbath reminds us of the creation week, the yearly Festivals remind us of other historical events in both the Old and New Testaments. They also look forward to events yet to play out in the plan of God, including Christ’s return, and the removal of Satan.
Each of these Festival Days, as discussed in previous posts, celebrates a significant step in the plan of God, from both an Israelite and a Christian perspective.
These annual festivals are times to assemble before God and eat and rejoice together. As they are Sabbath Days, they could also be seen as being part of the fourth commandment, in order to show that we love God and our fellow man, and thus delight in the Lord.
The weekly and annual Sabbaths are so important that God not only blesses you for keeping them, but in Israel, he also enforced these Sabbaths with the death penalty for disobedience! (Exo 35:2, Exo 31:12-17, Num 15:32-36, Jer 17:24-27)
While enforcement of the death penalty is not required today, we can see from these scriptures that God is very serious about your keeping his days of rest and rejoicing correctly.
Jesus Clarifies The Sabbath
Jesus taught that the Sabbath was to be a blessing for those who kept it:
And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. (Mark 2:27-28)
The Sabbaths, both weekly and annually, were an integral part of the culture of Israel at the time of Jesus, but unfortunately the religious leaders of the day also perverted them in many ways.
Jesus confronted them, and taught how we should keep all of God’s Sabbath Days holy. And you will not find anything in scripture to say that he, or the first century church, ever changed the seventh day Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. To therefore worship God on Sunday, and not on Saturday, is a prime example of teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matt 15:8-9)
Jesus took a great deal of time to clarify what it means to rest on the Sabbath, so that we who are his followers should know how to keep it holy.
Jesus’ actions and words demonstrated that to congregate, rest, and contemplate God’s Word on the Sabbath is the intent of the law. (Matt 13:54, Mark 1:21, Luke 4:16)
Time and again however, we see that he was frequently grieved that people were not keeping the Sabbath correctly, but were causing it to be a liability to themselves and others.
Instead of it being the intended joy and a blessing, it was too often a burden, due to the way it was being taught and enforced by the religious leaders. Modern religious leaders also consider the Sabbath an intrusion upon our time, and don’t rest on it as the scriptures direct, and try to justify themselves in doing their own thing on God’s day of rest.
God says “take a holiday”. Man says “no, it’s too hard!” How could a simple thing like a command to rest, become totally twisted around, so it’s thought of as being too difficult!?
Mercy And The Sabbath
We all know what having a rest means, but Jesus tells us what resting means in relation to keeping his Sabbath:
At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the wheat; and His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck the ears of wheat, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, your disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day.
The Pharisees claimed that picking these few grains was actually harvesting- which is work and thus is not allowed on the Sabbath- Exo 34:21
But he (Jesus) said unto them, Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and they that were with him; How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? (see 1Sam 21:3-6)
Or have you not read in the law, how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?
The priests “profane” the Sabbath by doing “work”, such as killing animals required for sacrifice.
But I (Jesus speaking) say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. (meaning himself, and therefore his teachings)
But if you had known what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. (Matt 12:1-5)
Jesus identifies himself as the Lord of the Sabbath. Why therefore would he do away with his day?
The above events about picking grains on the Sabbath are repeated three times in scripture. In Mark’s account, Jesus concluded with; The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; So that the Son of man is lord even of the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27-28) See also Luke 6:1-5.
By stating the obvious (that we are not made simply for the purpose of keeping the Sabbath, but rather that the Sabbath was made as a blessing for us) Jesus is telling us that the command for resting on the Sabbath is not more important than our physical needs.
Mercy in providing our physical needs, including food, is an important part of understanding how to correctly keep the Sabbath.
Jesus’ teaching is clear, picking these grains was permitted for the sake of mercy due to hunger. Which is the same reason David was not sinning when he ate the shewbread. As we have seen in previous chapters, mercy is an integral part of the law of God. (Matt 23:23)
Jesus is therefore not adding to the law
but clarifying how the law applies to the Sabbath.
Christ Made The Sabbath
Jesus’ concluding statement, that he is the Lord of the Sabbath, should not be surprising to any Christian:
As Christ is God (John 1:1-5, 1Cor 10:4), and as the Sabbath is God’s Holy Day, then, ipso facto, Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath.
It was Jesus who made the Sabbath for Man at creation. And as he is our Lord, he expects us to keep His Day of Rest, not only for our own benefit, but also for the benefit of others.
Unfortunately, some theologians twist even these very clear scriptures, claiming that because Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath, he can do away with it!
However, the exact opposite is being stated here in scripture, and it’s repeated three times for emphasis.
As Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath, he is the one person who is able to clarify how we should keep it as a blessed day of rest for all mankind.
Those who think Jesus did away with the Sabbath do not have the Word of God to back up their claim.
Why would He do away with a rest day, particularly one named after Him, which reflects His authority and His name (as Lord of the Sabbath), and reminds us of His creation week, and has many scriptural promises of blessings attached to it?
Such a dramatic change in God’s way of doing things would surely require a detailed explanation as to why it was being changed and what it was being changed to?
Yet no such explanation, indeed not even any hint of it, is found within the New Covenant. If you can find it please tell me, I would be very grateful to learn about how God changed his Sabbath day to Sunday, as explained in his Word.
In summary: God has set apart as holy the Sabbath Day so that we may keep it holy. Do you want to be set apart by God as holy? If you do, then keep the Sabbath as he commanded you to:
But as he which has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conduct;
Because it is written, Be you holy; for I am holy.
(1Peter 1:15-16)
In the next post we will examine how God expects us to use his day of rest to keep it holy and thus also be holy to God.
So the real Sabbath is Saturday?