Sabbath Rest
CLASS 4 ISSUES
Study Scripture: Exodus 20: 8 – 11, Romans 14:4 – 6
Background Scripture: Exodus 20: 8 – 11, Romans 14:4-6
Lesson 12 February 14, 2026
Key Verse
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Exodus 20:11
INTRODUCTION
Our Study calls on us to consider who God is. Our Lesson therefore focuses on the Creator, His nature, His character, His virtues such as His immense power and creativity, His might and mercy, and His compassion for His creation.
So ask yourselves what kind of Being is this?
What does He have in mind when He created all things including the universe, the sun the moon and the stars, and all the planets and heavenly bodies, all vegetation and life forms including mankind?
Does God have a motive in creating the universe and human beings?
Does God have wishes and desires about how the universe should operate, and how human beings are to live and behave?
Did God know beforehand how the events of the universe would unfold?
Did God know how human beings would act, the mistakes they would make, the disobedience they would show to Him, and the consequences that would follow?
Would God make preparations from before the creation as to how He would provide for His wishes and goals to come to pass?
Our Study rests on the Biblical record of the creation of the world in Genesis 1 and 2 with the mystical, idealized place of Paradise where there is peace and harmony with the world, and a life of personal fulfillment.
We are now faced with our revelation of a perfect world where there is no sin. Scriptures record that the sons of God, the angelic hosts, sang in raise to God at this perfect and good creation.
So how did God arrange matters?
Did He give adequate guidance to His created beings?
Did He provide for His great salvation He envisaged, and the fellowship He obviously desired when He created man in His own image and likeness?
Our Study deals with this relationship of God with man.
God’s provision exemplified in his wisdom is revealed in His Ten Words to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai, which we call today the Ten Commandments.
Note therefore that we are looking at what we can consider to be the two building blocks of life. And those are work, and rest.
Work is something that is an important part of life and it definitely is not something that we can consider to be death. It is a part of life.
There is a need for ceasing to work, and to do what we call “rest” for the abundant life.
Jesus Himself showed this to His disciples for He worked tirelessly to complete His mission and He ceased for a time His work, and He rested, and in doing so had time to communicate with His Father in heaven.
And so we know that life as God has set it up involves the rhythm of work and the rhythm of rest. Both therefore should not be regarded as warring against one another for God intended them to complement one another. He intended that work would make rest more enjoyable and rest would make work enjoyable so that both in fact emphasize the sacredness of life from God’s point of view.
Genesis 1 tells us clearly that God created a efficient and complex world with everything set up to work together in great harmony.
Then on the 7th day God’s main action was to rest or to cease, this word meaning specifically to stop labour.
But then we are told that God did something unusual and quite extraordinary for He blessed that 7th day and declared it to be holy. This is the first thing that God declared to be “holy”.
And this day was set apart in a special way and thus declared to be ‘holy” for that is what the word “holy” means: to be set apart to God.
How are we therefore to regard what god had instituted in His Ten words?
Are we authorized to change them to suit our circumstances in life, our desires, and to make accomodation to please ourselves and what we think is our need?
This is what we must consider.
Note therefore that when sin entered the world and man’s nature was twisted to have a preference to suit himself rather than to suit and obey God, we would expect human beings would break, stray, or err from every single one of the Ten Words, or the Ten commandments.
So when we examine the Ten Words and what they commanded or stipulated we would expect a to see a history of man’s deviatism.
This happened in the nation of Israel despite the railings and pleadings of the prophets and it has happened even after the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven and taught, and leads an exemplary life, then dying to bear our sins as Isaiah 53 said He would do in His role as Messiah.
Sadly, the history of man is a history of disobedience to divine wishes. It is a history of excuses made to try to justify disobedience.
So let us remember that when the Bible says, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” the word used for Sabbath is Shabat, and this Hebrew word has a much greater meaning than simply to mean stopping or ceasing than we can imagine for it has come to mean resting because this cessation of work implies resting.
One writer comments on what it means when God said Shabbat is to be kept holy. He states:
“ It means holy in the sense that God has set aside something or someone for a holy purpose. The Sabbath is holy because God established the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship.
Israel is holy because God chose Israel to be God’s covenant people.
The tabernacle and temple are holy, because God set them apart as places for people to worship and to experience the presence of God.
Priests and Levites are holy because God set them apart for His service.
All holiness is derivative—derived from the holiness of God. The Sabbath is holy because God made it so”.
When you think about it it seems clear that the rest God has established, the stopping of work, which is not just stopping work for the sake of stopping work but stopping is because He has on the 6th day created human beings and completed the high point of creation which is the creation of man.
So everything was good and very good as a matter of fact and so we know the creation story has reached its highest point.
Therefore God blessed the 7th day and made it “holy” with His blessing, with holiness coinciding with the rest of God being a holy ceasing and it is blessed.
So we look at the elements involved in the 7th day and we see no work and lots of rest and enjoying creation for God had created, and it is quite apparent that God is now celebrating for He has created a tremendously amazingly beautiful, complicated, and exceptional world, with the highlight of creating man in his own image and likeness. The sons of God sang together at what God had done, says the scriptures.
God is now celebrating for He knows the joy of resting which comes after He has completed a very good work.
God has looked back and created the amazing work that had brought it about.
God is infinitely creative and has ultimate supernatural power and He could have kept on creating. He didn’t need to stop but He chose to stop and draw a finish line and come on look back, and looking back at His creation, the work that He did, His work that was very good, God took a full day to rest and celebrated the fruits of His labour.
God clearly intended for us to follow His example, and so He made Shabat for the benefit of man and declared that it was His creation.
So are we going to follow God’s example or are we going to create our own “Shabat” and think that that will get us anywhere?
The people of Israel had a hard time to with this issue of “Shabat’ (Sabbath) came and all the prophets railed against them, from the rulers, the priests, the prophets, the princes, and the common people, to the rich men and those with great possessions and skill and the desire to make more and more for themselves.
We know from history that this full day of rest which was designed for the benefit of man is something difficult for man to follow because we know that man has slipped into sin, a state against God and the desires of God.
So man is now left to strive and mess around with all kind of products because he wants perfection. He wants to upgrade things and make new innovative features to add to Shabat.
But we know that at the end of the day the house will not be cleaner, and the renovations on the house will not work, and we know that there will be a lot of clutter filling up the house and the garage and the closets.
Now we must understand that there were many brilliant men who loved God and it seemed clear that they thought that they had a right to change Sabbath from what God had intended.
They knew that the people of Israel had had a great deal of difficulty observing Sabbath the way that God had intended, still nevertheless the Gentiles thought that they could do better, and since they probably knew they couldn’t do better they decided to make changes in Shabat. But in doing so they moved closer and closer to the pagan Day of the Sun, a day and a practice which was anathema to God the Father.
We must bear in mind that there is a problem with human beings common with most of us for actually men and women seem to think that there is almost always more work that they can do and there is always more to strive for. So there is a problem with work. And so it is not surprising that there is a problem with rest.
But God has shown us the better way. He has told us to work hard and to do the best possible and accept that there is a finish line.
We must look back and acknowledge the good work that has been completed and we are to cease and celebrate that work for there is more to life. There is Shabat.
So when we read Exodus 20 we are told to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy for God is commanding His people to helping and shaping their lives and their values. Note that this fourth commandment is only 1 of 2 that is a positive command.
So pay close attention to the fact that the “rest” is to be valued and practiced and it is not to be avoided. Rest is so valued by God that it has been made holy. This means that God has made it essential to the life of His people and in doing so He gave it as a command.
Rest is therefore a radical act of devotion to God. It was set up as an act of joyful obedience. But now in fact when we look around us we see people complaining about how difficult it is for them to keep “Shabat’ (Sabbath) because it conflicts with their schedule and if they observe what God has done they don’t have time to rest.
So resting as God rested is a burden and an inconvenience. It stops us from doing what we want to do and our life will be pushed to the point of exhaustion or collapse.
But note that God rested after creation and He called on His people to rest, setting aside all their work for an entire day, a full day.
This command applies to everybody no matter what their status or age, their role in the society, whether they are in school or not ,or whether they are kings or commoners.
God has been calling on His people to develop the right perspective on rest and from the story of creation we know for sure that rest is just as sacred as work. In fact is a radical act of devotion to God.
Knowing this we can be happy and rejoice that God has established this pattern of work and rest and has made it non-negotiable for us. When we choose not to rest as God rested on Shabat we are missing out on being blessed in a special way.
God knew however that we are fallen human beings and we are very stubborn, and we think we can figure out our life on our own. But given what we do, we know that the work we have created is not beautiful and creative. It is an enslaving work full of drudgery and workaholism
Therefore, as we Study, let us remember that we are looking at the fundamentals of Bible teaching. The “rest” established by God is a holy thing and it is a radical thing but it is also an essential spiritual discipline. It has great spiritual value and it gives great spiritual benefits, and it will help to make changes in our lives so that we will experience more and more the abundant life that we are all seeking.
Ask yourself what your reaction is to the Ten Words, which is the term given by the people of Israel to the Ten Commandments?
Do you regard these Commandments as as just rules and regulations established by God to take the fun out of your life?
Or do you think that these are just relics of an ancient religious tradition?
As you consider this remember Psalm 1:-2 which reads:
“ Blessed (or happy) is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the wicked
Nor stands in the way of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And on his law he meditates day and night”.\
Our Study today is focusing on asking you whether or not you want to be happy.
The Study would like to have you meditate on God’s law day and night, thinking about it all the time, letting it sink into your heart.
That will make you happy for the Ten Words (Ten Commandments) are words of life which will join in helping you enter into the Promised Land.
Remember also the warning of Moses in Deuteronomy 30:11-15 as you consider what many in your pagan culture seem to think. Moses states:
“For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.
It is not in heaven that you should say, “ Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it?
Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will over of the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it?
But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
“ See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.”
We would therefore like to communicate to you that God created you, made you and loves you. He does not want you to spend your life guessing as to what makes sense and trying to work out for yourself how to be happy. Has been showing you how life is going to work if you want the best for yourself for this path that He has established for you will take you where you really want to go.
So let us point out that the 10 Commandments are not that oppressive and are not outdated but they are a roadmap to life for the people living today as it was for the people of Israel.
To understand what God was telling the people of Israel through Moses was the fact that there is a concept called the concept of “Covenant”. Here the Law of Moses was exactly what that is, namely, a “covenant”.
This was not like the kind of arrangement that a conquering nation made with a people that they had conquered. The covenant that God established with Israel resembles that kind of suzerain- vassal covenant but it was very different.
That Covenant God established with Israel and has established with us is like a marriage covenant and in some respects it resembles the ancient Jewish wedding for in that wedding the bride prepared herself for the wedding by consecrating herself in a ritual bath. Then a trumpet sounded and she was carried to the wedding ceremony. Here this is exactly what happened at Mount Sinai for the people were told to consecrate themselves: the trumpets were blaring, the people went to meet God in front of the Tent of meeting which symbolized the presence of God, and then dark large clouds that symbolized the presence of God came, and under that canopy of clouds was God In Exodus 19:5 God called His people His treasured possession, exactly using the language that a groom would call his wife at a marriage ceremony.
Then at that ceremony we know that the groom would give his wife a bridal document which he had put together and in which he wanted to be true in their marriage for these were foundational principles on which they both would build.
This act at Sinai therefore prefigured for us what God expected for His people then, and what He expected of His people now. The Ten Words or the Ten Commandments, whichever you want to use, are the commandments that God is using to shepherd His people, shaping them, and having their lives accept the priorities that were best for them.
God is telling Israel and He is telling us thst there is no better way. He has saved the people in a mighty way and He has called on them to rest with Him.
So let us develop a proper perspectice of Shabat (the Sabbath) and let us remember that the Sabbath was instituted at creation and was made for man who had been created by God as the pinnacle of His achievement of creation.
It is most important to note that though we do not know much about the activities of the redeemed in Heaven, we do know that in the future existence of the redeemed one part of their life in heaven will be called rest. The writer of the book of Hebrews makes that concept of “rest” quite clear.
It is not that activities will cease but the experience of reaching a goal of crucial importance will be reached. So the writer of Hebrews states according to this commenting writer:
“ There are frequent references to the pilgrimage through the wilderness and route to the “ rest” of the Promised Land ( Hebrews 3:11,18). Attainment of the Promised land was not the end of an ordinary labour, but the completion of an extremely difficult and toilsome endeavour.
A similar rest await believers. “ so then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters God’s rest also ceases from his labours as God did from his.
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest,” that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience ( Hebrews 4:9-11).
The people being addressed here are the “ Holy brethren who share in a heavenly call’ (3:1).
Heaven then, will be the completion of the Christian pilgrimage, the end of the struggle against the flesh, the world, and the devil. There will be work to do, but it will not involve fighting against opposing forces”.
So let us choose a more blessed way of living from now on. You might have started hating the Sabbath day because you had a long to do list waiting for you.
But you will learn to fill your Sabbath with good things of worship, well resting, fully focused, and doing good works, for Sabbath keeping is a spiritual discipline that will eventually for you become a thing of great freedom and joy.
You will find that Sabbath keeping is the day that you will feel God’s love most strongly and it is the day that you can focus on loving Him in return for you have prepared well for the week of work ahead.
In Exodus 20: 8-11, the ‘rest’ and ‘ holiness’ is connected with the ‘seventh day’, and it makes it clear that for man there is an issue of obedience.
Man was to do what God commanded, that is, rest and worship, for that would benefit man. Man should therefore not shy away from doing what is for his benefit, for in addition this shows his obedience to God.
The question of obedience and rest on the ‘seventh day’ is therefore a moral matter. The necessity to obey was built into the foundations at the time of creation.
Sabbath was made for man. You were not made for the Sabbath. You were created first and then the Sabbath was created by God for you.
The ‘seventh day’ Sabbath has universal application and perpetual repercussions for all creation.
It was created in “time”, and reflects the fact that “time” is a creation of God. It was created when there was no sin and man was on his way to being personally fulfilled.
However, Man is a creature of time, and God has made one particular ‘time’ stand out to remind man that he is a creature of time, created by God, the only one who holds the breath or the ‘ time’ of man in his hands.
Playing around with the Sabbath is therefore a very serious matter. In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 66, verse 23 to 24, the scene is set when Christ returns to the earth in judgment. He judges and disciplines the disobedient and unfaithful, and declares plainly that from “seventh day” to “seventh day” all flesh must and would come to worship before Him.
To make men to understand how serious He is, he will have them see the corpses of those who have transgressed against Him. See verse 24.
It is therefore quite astonishing, and it testified to the depravity of man, that many men and women who have contributed so much to teaching the word of God, whether they be Jew, or whether they be Gentiles, have erred from the faith on this matter.
The ancient people of Israel did exactly the same thing even though they had received the law, and the prophets kept up a drumbeat to warn them that if they did not observe the Sabbath created by God on the 7th day of the week, their excuses, the land would have its Sabbath and they would be forced to bow the knee to God. If they did not, when the Messiah came for the second time, they would have to bow the knee at that time. At that time the people of Israel will mourn when they saw Him. We pray that Gentiles who have been brought into the olive tree will not suffer the same fate.
THE TEXT
The people have assembled at Sinai and they have sanctified themselves as instructed. Before God went much further, He begins to tell them about the Ten Commandments in His own voice, which of course terrified the people, He told them what He expected from them. Then He reminds the people of the grace He had already shown them by taking them out of the land of Egypt where they had been slaves. He reminds them at the start of the Ten words or the Ten Commandments He had already saved them and had already redeemed them, and so He would now tell them plainly the righteous requirements of His law.
In dealing with man God always starts first with His grace.
Jesus hung on the cross in order to save you and then He can ask you to pick up your cross and follow Him.
Jesus acted to reconcile you to God the Father and at the very start He brought His grace to you in a very lavish manner.
So you should look at the Ten Commandments as a loving Father sharing with Hs children what is best for them.
God starts by bringing you the first two commandments on which all the rest of them hang. He summarizes the entire law that God expects from His people.
The first is about loving God with all our heart soul, mind, and strength, and the second six are what it looks like to love our neighbours as ourselves.
Exodus 20: 8 – 11
Verse 8. These next few verses consider the fourth commandment and specifically concerns itself with the time of worship.
The problem that Gentiles have had with this commandment which is the longest by far is that it is the only 1 of the Ten Commandments that are not explicitly reaffirmed in the New Testament.
As a consequence men have always discussed whether or not this commandment is still binding on us today.
There is a lot of twisting about what the Apostle Paul meant in a couple of his letters, disregarding the fact that the people of Israel did not have to be reminded how important the Sabbath was to them and to God.
But the fact of the matter is that even if it is not binding on us today it is extremely good advice and we encourage those that are are not willing to accept the Sabbath to give it a try even though it might be difficult at the start.
We should however point out to you that there are three numbering systems for the Ten Commandments. 1 is Jewish, 1 Catholic, and 1 Protestant. But verses 8- 11 count as one word or one commandment and it is the longest of the commandments.
There is a meaning to why the Israelites counted the way they did, and why gentiles who came into the congregation counted the Ten Words the way they did.
That Study is to be done later.
First it should be clear that God is to be served and honoured daily, but as instructed, one day is particularly set aside, dedicated to His honour and to be spent in His service.
The Hebrew word shabat it’s really more concerned with stopping or ceasing than resting, but it has come to mean resting because when you stop work it implies that you are resting.
First, it is taken for granted that the Sabbath was instituted before sin came into the world (Gen. 2:3). This fact only states that it is very important for God’s creation to take note of this observance. God had blessed and sanctified the Seventh day specifically after He had used Six days to create what we know as the world and beyond.
So by God stating that we should remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, He is not enacting a new law, but reminding us of a very old instruction that Israel and man all through history have great difficulty with, and in fact Israel were hardly following faithfully.
This day, the Sabbath day of rest was separated from the six days of labour. God understood that man would have to work to survive. But that would not be enough for man to exist. This was to in part satisfy the needs of the flesh. But man is stated to be more than that, and so, he needs to satisfy most importantly, his spirit/soul.
The Hebrew word for “ Holy” in this verse is qodosh and it means it is holy in the sense that God has set something apart for His holy purpose, therefore, the Sabbath is established as holy, a day of rest and worship.
For the needs of man to be met, and properly done, man must have communion with His God, and that focus was to be observed on the Sabbath day.
Verse 9. Now the real question is how should this to be done? How can we commune with a Holy, Just, Righteous and Jealous God?
All this characteristics are important as the Ten Commandments have led with them, arriving at this particular point.
The day of rest indicates that Israel and man in general should do no manner of work on this day in their callings or worldly business.
God has established 6 days for work as part of the created order of things.
Without building up any other doctrine or rules as to how to interpret this, we simply should just think about the work that we do during the week, and especially when hurried or stressed we are thinking about the events of life. Honouring God then on these days of stress it’s not going to be easy, even though then clearly in all those moments we should make sure that we do not ignore acts pleasing to God. But God in His wisdom has enabled us to focus on Him on the Sabbath day.
Then we can focus our being on serving God in body, spirit and mind.
This holy day, is in part a mirror of the fact that God Himself is Holy, and will separate Himself from sin, as His people should do.
So this holy day is set apart to honour a holy God, and to spend time doing holy exercises to be closer in union to this holy God.
As He, the holy God, has blessed this day, so when we observe it in the way how God wishes us to do, we will be seriously accepting that that it is a holy day; by solemnly blessing Him, and keeping it holy and free from distractions we will not take our focus away from God.
The Sabbath day should not in any part of it look like the six days in which we have to labour. That is the best way to look at it, with the underlying purpose that we are to honour God.
The only exception to this principle is that the priests of God were labouring on the Sabbath day and yet not profaning it. So we know that when we are engaged in the service of God, doing works of kindness and mercy and assisting people in ways that will lead them to God the Father ,we are not profaning the Sabbath.
Verse 10. Who should observe this day, this time?
It mentions that in the verse. Essentially it includes all people who say that they worship God.
The start is clearly with the children of Israel to who the Ten Commandments were originally delivered, but now unto the larger church body, after the adoption that we have come into, we too as Christians should follow this.
People overlook this idea, but it deals with the family that serves God. It does not mention the wife or the children, because the wife, and the husband, and the children they have, are one in the sight of God. They are to worship together, and they grow and live their lives. There is a strict obligation that they have to each other and to God, for all the promises given to be fulfilled.
Children should follow the leading of their parents. They in the beginning might not understand, but understanding will occur in time and the consistency established by parents will impress upon children the importance of such actions.
Servants, because at that time, the children of Israel might have had them, or any visitor to scale it up to a modern day, or any person in that household should observe the same rules that the owners of the house are following.
If they are children of God serving their God, then all other under the same house should do the same thing.
This leading is important according to ideas mentioned in Isaiah 56:6 and 7. God is always taking notice of what we do, particularly what we do on the Sabbath days.
One other piece of wisdom is given by Matthew Henry,
Neglected duties remain duties still, notwithstanding our neglect. It also intimates that we are both apt to forget it and concerned to remember it. Some think it denotes the preparation we are to make for the sabbath; we must think of it before it comes, that, when it does come, we may keep it holy, and do the duty of it. [Matthew Henry]
The six days should be enough for us to take care of any affairs that we might have to complete on the Sabbath day, with the most obvious example being the preparation of food that we might eat on that day.
Food though a necessary commodity in maintaining our survival, should not be the priority on the Sabbath day. One day of less or no food would not do the body harm in most cases. It should also not obstruct our worship in any way.
This is God’s day, made for man and not man’s day thus enabling him to do whatever he chooses. It is a day created for man to worship God. It is absolutely not a day for man to use it for his own needs and desires.
God also gave us the example of how to deal with the Sabbath day. After the six days, He rested and everyone should understand that the creation process did not exhaust God in any degree.
God also rejoiced in the work He had done.
This was done to teach us that on that day we should honour Him and through the works He has done, glorify Him. The Sabbath began the finishing of the work of creation, and so will the everlasting Sabbath be the finishing of the work of providence and redemption.
God does not do anything randomly, and so in the creation of the Sabbath and also the Creation of Marriage before sin entered into the world those are important principles for man to focus on.
Verse 11. The Lord God Almighty made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all in it, and then He rested on the seventh day. He blessed it and hallowed (or made it sacred.
There will always be the discussion about Sunday vs Saturday as the day to consider the Sabbath, or the day to observe. We know what God commands but then, I cannot say how God will deal with this issue, except to say, the Sabbath was instituted before sin entered the world. Clearly it is an important distinction made from some of general laws stated by God.
Romans 14: 4 – 6
We know from Christian history and from the scriptures that Christians have often disagreed with each other and created problems for each other with respect to foods and worship days. We know that people with a pagan background came into the church and there were many attempts to bring pagan ideas and practices as well as worship this and ways of eating into the church.
This of course led to conflicts with many of the Jewish believers who were schooled in the laws of God, and who knew the importance of following the laws of God established at creation. These laws of course included the laws concerning the Sabbath, and laws concerning marriage.
The latter required sexual purity which of course was very difficult for the incoming Gentile believers.
We are therefore quite understanding that Paul was concerned about the way in which we deal with differences.
The way we deal with differences goes along with the fact that we do have differences.
In Chapters 14 to 15 Paul provide us with some guidance about the kind of actions Christian should take even when they strongly disagree.
The goal of the Apostle therefore is to try to bring these disagree seeing people together instead of driving them further apart.
The problem however is that some people then and people today disagreed with what the apostle was saying. We know that the guidance Paul gave those Roman Christians it’s good advice and one to which we should pay special attention.
And the Apostle wants us to know that we are connected as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are also to acknowledge that each of us is accountable to God. We also must understand that we must trust God for God does His work well.
This advice on how to deal with divisions will stand us in good stead today for the church today is divided on very many issues.
But we must remember that even though we have to be cautious and careful in how we deal with others in the Body of Christ we must keep our eyes fixed on the fact that there are words of God which will never change.
That does not however give us the right to consign people to the Lake of Fire. Instead we must be prepared as Jude says to put our hand in the fire to rescue them.
You must remember that we are going toward the “rest” that awaits the people of God.
The Apostle therefore reminds us that we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak and not to please ourselves.
Do we are weak in faith but that does not mean that these believers are silly not believing in Christ . We therefore are to make every effort in a proper way to correct the weak in faith, above all to welcome them, and to acknowledge them as brothers and sisters in Christ and include them in our circle of friends.
There is a delicate balance here for the apostle refers to Christians who do not observe Jewish dietary laws because they believe that Christ had freed them from such laws not understanding that the words of the prophets are the words that Paul understood as true. Paul understood that the world spoken by
Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 66 is totally correct. But we and they must understand that salvation depends on Christ alone and we should not comer or rather we should be very careful not to use dietary restrictions to turn them away from Christ.
They want to restrict turn seemed to have been to tell believers not to eat meat offered to idols given that the idols are not really anything in the world 1Corinthians 8: 4. But notice that even this restriction would be very difficult for some of those coming into the church.
Remember that those brought up by the deviations brought in by the Roman Catholic Church and even some of the Protestant Reformers who fought with the Catholic Church over matters of doctrine, will have a difficult time when you talk to them about Sabbath worship and about dietary laws.
Note that in the discussion of the Apostle Paul scholars are not sure which days are in question though they think it’s probably Jewish feast days or even the Sabbath. This of course is similar to the issue of eating versus not eating controversy- in verses two3 of the chapter on the review. We must not use the Sabbath and Jewish dietary laws even though we understand them to be correct of obscuring the simple equation that trust in Christ brings about salvation.
We are therefore to avoid the behaviour of the less scrupulous who are tempted to despise the direction of the more scrupulous. The more scrupulous should be careful when they are tempted to judge the less scrupulous.
We must not therefore think that the Apostle was saying that believers can do whatever they wanted for he well knew the teachings of the prophets and the teachings of the prophet Isaiah on this matter. The Apostle was certainly not saying in his statement” let each man be fully assured in his own mind”, that this meant that he was endorsing the view that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere. There are many popular beliefs held by many that are fraught with peril. See that all the time around us. Even the terrible person Hitler was very sincere in his beliefs and those beliefs,t resulted in the death of millions.
We are to make every effort to point out to believers that their beliefs must be shaped by their relationship to Christ and by the words of Christ and by the leading of the Holy Spirit.
So note that the apostle is speaking only to Christians who intend to honor God by their actions these Christian believers want to live their lives in thankful dependence on God. These believers sincerely want to study the Word of God and should come to meditate on it, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance, and make sure that they are prepared to make adjustments to their behaviour as long as the Word tells them as it is.
With that in mind then the Apostle Paul therefore tells the Christian brethren, who are people of God, to focus not on pleasing the other people who came into the church instead of themselves. He had to make it clear that the Gospel was for Jews as well as Gentiles alike.
Verse 4. Paul inquires as it were; who are we to accuse, to judge or condemn those whom God has chosen?
Who are we, that by our actions cause God’s chosen to stumble, those whom God said He would make stand – in the full fellowship of the church?
And who are we to condemn God’s elect; those God has promised to present faultless before His throne, with exceeding joy?
Criticism therefore was not welcome, for the servant should be evaluated by his Master, and not by fellow believers.
We must therefore be careful for making ‘ opinions’ on what we might consider to be unimportant scruples the basis for condemnation, for we have no right to judge the servant of another.
We must be very careful however in this matter. Paul spoke differently about the same things under different circumstances. For example he circumcised Timothy to conform to the Law of Moses, and he himself said that to the Jews he became a Jew. Why then would Paul direct to believers to treat some “scruples” as matters of indifference, not to be treated as important or necessary for acceptance with God?
We note that Paul refused to allow Titus to be circumcised, warning the Galatians that Christ would be of no benefit to them if they were circumcised.
In that case however following “scruples” would nullify God’s method of freely providing justification. Circumcision would be introducing justification on ‘additional terms’, something that was unacceptable to God.
Observing “scruples” therefore might violate principles, and that was unacceptable. But if there were no principles at stake then ‘ scruples’ would not involve apostasy.
We therefore point out that when God has commanded something, it ceases to be a matter of ‘scruples’, and must be observed, and not simply ignored are done away with.
The Word of God revealed to the Nation of Israel are not to be regarded as scruples that can be ignored. Jesus made it quite clear that the kingdom of God was built on the work of the prophets and on the apostles and so we cannot ignore what the prophets said and what the apostles said. If we do that we are taking the wrong road. But that is exactly what kind of road many believers went on even from the first century and the Apostle Paul had to warn believers not to boast against the Jews for it was they that bore the Gentiles up, contrary to the belief that they bore the Jews up. This is of course an unpalatable doctrine to many Gentile believers and we see that bring about all kinds of deviations when we read accounts of Christian history.
Verse 5. Having dealt with the issue from the true perspective, Paul now proceeds with an example that his Jewish brethren could appreciate.
Having come to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the understanding that Jesus’ death being a propitiation for our sin, had fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law that were embodied in some of the many ordinances previously observed; one had to be careful which one of the ordinances were fulfilled by the work of the Messiah on the Cross. Those ordinances and practices do not have to be followed.
The believer was no longer obligated to observe those ordinances such as the rules and practices of the old Aaronic priesthood, for those had been instituted to bring the nation and the believers today to Christ. The Book of Hebrews make this quite clear.
Some of these ordinances were no longer required, and many of them involved temple worship in Jerusalem, worship in which their Gentiles brothers would not be permitted to participate, being Gentiles and considered unclean by unbelieving Jews.
Paul identifies practices, concerning the continued observance of the many holy days, including Jewish feast days that, if misconstrued, can bring about divisions. So again Paul tries to demonstrate that these things in and of themselves are not sin and therefore the strong or those who possess a more complete understanding should, strengthen and edify those whose ‘weak’ understanding does not yet allow them the same liberty that the strong can exercise.
Let us not assume that it was only Jews that had sacred days. The Gentiles, being pagan, also had many sacred days. Both had to learn that they had to make intelligent and honest decisions according to the light possessed by each.
There would therefore be disagreements between Jews and Gentiles, and among Jews themselves, as to how to treat the varying sacred days. Some would regard it as absolutely necessary to observe these days, while others would not.
Note that there is no evidence of Sunday worship or first day of the week worship in the church at this time. That development came later and was systematized with the political machinations of the pagan Emperor Constantine.
Paul stresses that the violation of the principle of conscience is sin; and that every man should be persuaded in his own mind. We must therefore accept one another as Christ has accepted us.
Where there is a lack of knowledge we must edify one another; where there is sin we must correct one another, and all must be done in the bond of love. For we belong to the Lord.
Verse 6. Paul puts it quite simply; what ever we do, we must do as onto the Lord. Each doing what he does because he believes it is God’s will.
If there is no clear violation of God’s word – Sin, then God alone can judge such matters; all will give an account to God.
As a matter of interest we should further note that this passage of Scripture, and in particular verses 2 & 5, the portions that deal with the eating of meat and the observance of feast days, Jewish or otherwise, are cited as proof text to the abolition of the law and subsequently the observance of the Seventh day Sabbath.
However, to arrive at such a conclusion, one has to deliberately ignore the context of the Scripture as well as to twist a host of others to formulate such a doctrine.
As previously discussed, verse 2 can be considered as referring to ascetic practices and the eating of meat offered to idols.
Some might have restricted themselves to a diet of herbs, not willing to risk the possibility of eating such meat, but others were ascetic for different reasons.
The Mosaic Law referred to specific meat as being unclean, all others being therefore lawful for consumption, leaving no obvious reason to abstain from all meats, as stated in this verse.
The account of Peter’s vision in Act 10 is another passage used to support this false doctrine. However, Peter’s vision in no way indicates that God had removed the prohibition against eating meats that God Himself had declared unclean.
It is abundantly clear from the context that God was showing Peter as a Jew, that he should not treat with contempt or disdain, men for whom the blood of Christ was shed, and as such are clean; those to whom the Holy Spirit was given. See: Acts 10:15,28,34-35,44-47
The proponents of Sunday worship also read into Romans 14:5 elements that not only contradict the Bible, but also contradict their own interpretation which they suggest proves that the seventh day Sabbath is no longer to be observed.
- Firstly the Scripture is talking of the yearly feasts and rituals of which the weekly seventh day Sabbath was not one.
- Secondly, it is inconceivable that the writer would group the Sabbath with these feast days; for the Sabbath was instituted at creation (Gen 2:7), observed long before Judaism was born, enshrined in the eternal law of the Decalogue, and was given to all men, not Jews only. Jesus- the lawgiver said he was Lord even of the Sabbath, for he had made the Sabbath for man, and as Isaiah 66 insisted, he would uphold on his Return in power.
- Thirdly, in this evidently self-contradictory hypothesis – the verse taken out of context is used to suggest that the law has been abolished. However, this verse in context as previously shown, merely commands those who have more light to act out of love toward those who lack understanding, receiving them as Christ received us. Despite their lack of knowledge they are not sinning. As to the identity of those who are considered strong- they are those who rightly divide to word of truth.
CONCLUSION
Let us therefore be very careful when we are dealing with those who are coming from various cultural, pagan, and semi-pagan backgrounds, well as those that have grown up in Christian surroundings but who do not understand many of the Christian teachings that had been placed before them.
All through the history of the church we have seen problems because of attitudes that most people shared.
We must remember that during the ages some drink beers some play cards, some go to movies, some smoke cigars some work on the Sabbath, somewhere lipstick, some dance, some play musical instruments, some use zippers instead of buttons including an endless list of things that we could include. There was even a time in history in pretty recent history, when people tried to bring in pianos into churches to play music, to play the hymns, and there were many that regarded it as an instrument of Satan.
So let us understand that there is a problem of Christian taboos. Some things are no nos to some Christians and we find this attitude from time to time and in all kinds of places.
Some went to places like Africa and demanded that Christians wear suits and women were inappropriate clothes despite the very hot climate. If they did not do that they were considered to be out of the faith.
So we are constantly being faced with the question of how much fellowship we can have with somebody who lives in a different way from the way that we live, and those things that we do not approve of as a Christian.
This often leads to legalistic behaviour and so the message of the apostle is there to teach us that there is a solution to this problem.
The demand of Jesus and the apostles is that we love one another. Our love must be of a serving kind. We are given spiritual gifts to serve one another. This love that we have must be genuine and it cannot be phony or a put on kind of love. It has to be real.
So we advise you not to act out of your tradition. Remember that God can read hearts and you cannot read them. There are distinctions and differences of viewpoints that come from honest conviction. What God sees and knows what is happening even though you cannot. The individual you are facing might not simply be difficult because he does not agree with you. He might be acting on the basis of what he feels is right so sometimes you should give him the benefit of the doubt and be believe that he is intent on being real and true to God which is right beside him.
You have to learn to be led by the spirit. Might not drink beer or drink coffee, but you have to be careful in dealing with those kinds of problems. One right tells about a sad case of the behaviour of a Christian. This case should make us be very careful in how we behave even though we know that we have to transmit the Word of God and the words of Scripture to people. The story goes as follows:
“I heard some time ago of a girl who was a converted nightclub singer, a fresh new Christian, who was asked to sing at a church meeting. She had wanted to do her very best for the Lord whom she had come to love, and so she dressed up the best way she knew how, and she sang a song that she thought was expressive of her faith.
She did it in the “ torchy” style of the nightclub singer. Somebody came up to her afterwards and just ripped into her and said, “ How can you sing a song like that and claim to be a Christian? God could never be happy with a Christian who dresses the way you do, and to sing in that kind of a nightclub style must be a offensive to him”.
The poor girl was so taken back she just stood there for a moment, and she broke into tears, and turned and ran.
Now, that was a wrong and hurtful thing to do to her. Granted, later on she might have changed her style, but God has the right to change her, not you. Her heart was right and God saw the heart and honoured it.
I think that was something he was pleased with, not displeased.
We must remember that we are not to make distinctive where God would not”.
Many of us have been exposed to that kind of un-Christian behaviour from people who really should know better. Many of the slaves taken to North America and to different countries have experienced all kinds of evil behaviour from professing Christians. We read about the Crusades organized by the Church of Rome which ended up killing more Christians and Jews than even Moslems even though their proclaimed aim was to free the Holy Land from Islam.
There is much more to be said but for now our advice to judging one another, quit treating one another with disdain, contempt, ridicule, and separating from one another.
Instead try to love one another and show it by accepting one another.