Why do Christians hold the Lord’s day on Sunday, and not Saturday?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 2000.

I think perhaps by the term 'the Lord's day' you mean the day which the Israelites were commanded to observe 'unto the Lord'. That day was certainly the seventh day of their week, the Sabbath; and the Jews were commanded to keep it. And still today, if Christians feel that God would have them observe the seventh day of the week, there is no reason why they should not.

On the other hand, I think it is important to see that the command to keep the Sabbath is not a moral command. We can see that from Matthew 12:5, where our Lord says: 'Or have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless?' It is at once clear that we cannot substitute any other of the Ten Commandments for the Sabbath commandment in this verse. For instance, it would be impossible to say that 'in the temple, the priests murder or commit adultery, and are guiltless.' All the moral commandments had to be kept by the priests in the temple, as everywhere else.

The one commandment of the ten that was constantly disregarded in the temple was the keeping of Sabbath. The reason for that seems to me to be very clear. The ordinary Israelite was allowed to work six days a week for himself, but on the seventh day he had to cease his own work and devote the Sabbath to the Lord. But in the temple, the service of God had to be conducted every day of the week, Sabbath included. The priests could not cease their work on the Sabbath, because the work in the temple was done for God, as distinct from for themselves.

But it is very interesting what our Lord goes on to say in Matthew 12:6. He was at the time going through the cornfield with his disciples and, according to the Pharisees, his disciples were breaking the law by plucking ears of corn on the Sabbath—which, in the eyes of the Pharisees, was work. Now, while our Lord did not dispute the fact that it was work, he justified his disciples in working on the Sabbath day with these words: 'But I say unto you, that one greater than the temple is here'.

That is a lovely verse, and we can apply it to ourselves still today, wherever we are, whether a housewife at her work in the kitchen, or an engineer in the factory, or a shop-assistant in the shop. As Christians we are to do everything as unto the Lord (Col 3:22–24), and we may claim for ourselves the wonderful statement, 'one greater than the temple is here'. In other words, in whatever we do as Christians, we serve the Lord, and our service should not cease, because of who he is.

This does not mean that we should never take a day of rest. Of course we should! That is very necessary for both body and mind. But that said, the words of the Apostle Paul in Colossians 2:16–17, and again in Romans 14:5–6, seem to me to lay down guidance for us as Christians.

The phrase in English, 'the Lord's day', is generally reserved for the first day of the week. In the New Testament, the Greek for the word 'the Lord's' is kyriakos, in the appropriate case each time. It occurs twice: once in 1 Corinthians 11:20, where it is used in connection with the memorial supper—the Lord's Supper; and on the second occasion in Revelation 1:10: 'I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day'. In these two verses, the Greek word kyriake is an adjective, and thus in Greek the phrase 'the Lord's day' is different from the other, similar phrase, 'The day of the Lord', where 'of the Lord' in Greek is a noun.

We can see that the phrase 'the Lord's day' refers to the first day of the week, and not the Sabbath, by looking at Acts 20:7. Paul arrived at Troas, and he waited seven days (v. 6), and then, 'on the first day of the week, when we were gathered to break bread . . .'. In other words, the believers at Troas were in the habit of meeting on the first day of the week to break bread, which is why Paul waited for seven days so that he could be present at that meeting on the first day of the week. The term 'the breaking of bread', of course, is an alternative name for the Lord's Supper (see Acts 2:42). So, it seems fairly clear that the Lord's Supper was celebrated among the early Christians on the first day of the week, namely on the Lord's day.

It is an interesting thing that, still today in Greece, the first day of the week is called 'The Lord's day'. Friday is called 'the Preparation', Saturday is called 'the Sabbath', and Sunday is called 'the Lord's day'. If we ask why the early Christians, who were mostly Jews, met on the first day of the week to break bread, one probable answer is that it was on the first day of the week that our Lord rose from the dead, and it was on that same first day of the week that he appeared to his disciples in the upper room (John 20:19). Eight days later, we read, 'again his disciples were within and Jesus . . . stood in the midst . . .' (John 20:26). The Greeks counted inclusively, so that if you meet on a Sunday, and agree to meet on the next Sunday, in the Greek way of speaking you meet eight days later, not seven days later; for the Greeks count the day you start on as well as the day you eventually meet.

Yours sincerely in Christ,