One of The STRONGEST Arguments for The Sabbath ~

The Narrow Way said:

"If ye love Me, KEEP My Commandments." John 14:15.

The Sabbath is the 4th Commandment, nestled in amongst the other 9. It is the ONLY one of all 10 that uses the word REMEMBER. Do you think it's maybe because God KNEW those who claim to be His followers would FORGET to keep it, so He gave them an extra reminder...and said, "REMEMBER the Sabbath Day to KEEP it Holy."

It all boils down to whether or not we LOVE God. If we LOVE Him, we'll do what He says. If we don't do what He says, it's proof our LOVE is not what it should be.

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Sure, I keep the Sabbath. I keep it in a Christian spiritual manner as befits this Covenant.

To me, one of the strongest arguments, not just for the Sabbath, but for the entire law, is Matthew 5:17--"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law." {NIV}

To make it even clearer and stronger, in my mind at least, Jesus then basically repeated Himself--"I have not come to abolish [it].

Unfortunately... because He then finishes that second statement with the declaration--"I have come to fulfill them," most Christians interpret that to be ultimately saying--HE DID COME TO ABOLISH THE LAW.

To me, that's a horrible twisting of Christ's words.

How can he twice say He had not come to abolish the law, and then abolish the law?

When He said He came to "fulfill" them, He was saying He came to obey them.

"I have kept my Father's commandments." {John 15:10}

P.S.--He then went on to say: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” {vs 19}

(These words weren't even written and published till long after His death. They make absolutely no sense at all if Christ abolished the law at His death.)

The Spirit leads us according to the Law of the Spirit of Life - this is not the Ten but the living Word Himself, within, guiding us in how to act in every unique circumstance in life - which the Law could never do. The Law forbade healing on the Sabbath, the Spirit allowed it. The law forbade eating the showbread in the temple, Jesus did not condemn it. Rahab lied about where the spies were - Her actions were commended. So it seems that the Spirit will in some circumstances indicate strict obedience to the ten and sometimes not - but the end result is a righteousness greater than those who strictly applied the Law. Paul is another good example - strict under the Law yet persecuting the followers of Jesus until Jesus Himself dramatically bought correction.

The Narrow Way said:

"If ye love Me, KEEP My Commandments." John 14:15.

The Sabbath is the 4th Commandment, nestled in amongst the other 9. It is the ONLY one of all 10 that uses the word REMEMBER. Do you think it's maybe because God KNEW those who claim to be His followers would FORGET to keep it, so He gave them an extra reminder...and said, "REMEMBER the Sabbath Day to KEEP it Holy."

It all boils down to whether or not we LOVE God. If we LOVE Him, we'll do what He says. If we don't do what He says, it's proof our LOVE is not what it should be.

Click to expand...

In Exodus 20:6, God wanted His people to love Him and obey His commandments, so keeping the Sabbath holy in Exodus 20:8-11 is directly connected to what it means to love God, though all of the commandments that God has given were specifically given in order to teach us what it means to love God.

I forgot to mention the rich young ruler who was obedient to the ten but would not follow Jesus.

The demands made by the Spirit within are far more precise than the 10 ever was.

Following the Law of the Spirit and entering His Sabbath Rest by faith means we cease from our labour and rest in His finished work seven days - not just one.

That is what the Bible says....

See Heb 4...

I think the best argument for me is the powerful statement of the book of Revelation (the Revelation of Jesus Christ), which God gave to Jesus, to give to John through an angel. The few words Jesus Himself speaks in the book are of authority. The rest is a no non-sense summary of end time events (as deciphered with the help of Daniel, et al), and the fact that God's law still stands. Jesus surrounding the final statement of salvation with His authority gives it supreme significance, which cannot be ignored. The law of God stands and is to be obeyed.

God is presently in the seventh day of creation and invites us to rest with Him today. (If you hear His Voice)

Carl Emerson said:

I forgot to mention the rich young ruler who was obedient to the ten but would not follow Jesus.

The demands made by the Spirit within are far more precise than the 10 ever was.

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The rich ruler was not obedient to the Ten commandment. He broke commandment #1 by placing his “Many riches” above God.

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me. Which could be anything you place above God, in this case it was the rich rulers wealth.

Carl Emerson said:

God is presently in the seventh day of creation and invites us to rest with Him today. (If you hear His Voice)

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You need to read Hebrews 4.

There are two rests mentioned here, the seventh day Sabbath rest and the gospel rest we receive when we are obedient to the Sabbath commandment.

Hebrews 4:6 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,

What did the Israelites disobey?

Ezekiel 20:13 Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes; they despised My judgments, ‘which, if a man does, he shall live by them’; and they greatly defiled My Sabbath

You do not receive the blessings of God by disobeying Him. The Sabbath is God’s holy day (undisputed) from the very beginning Genesis 2:1-3 and will be forever Isaiah 66:23 as promised by God Exodus 31:16

Isaiah 58:13-14 is another example of conditional blessings of God when we obey His Sabbath commandment.

Abaxvahl said:

Sure, I keep the Sabbath. I keep it in a Christian spiritual manner as befits this Covenant.

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There are more ways to do what is righteous or sinful than what God's law specifically prescribes or prohibits, but God's law is spiritual in that it has always been intended to teach us deeper spiritual principles of which the listed laws are just examples, and which are aspects of God's nature. For example, God's righteous laws were given to teach us a spiritual principle of righteousness that leads us to take actions that express that principle in accordance with what the listed laws instruct and even in situations where there is not a specific law. So if we correct understand a spiritual principle, then it will lead us to take actions that are examples of that principle, which means that there is not such thing as keeping God's laws in a spiritual manner apart from actually doing what it instructs. That would be like someone saying that they keep God's command to love our neighbor in spiritual manner while doing nothing to actually love their neighbor. The New Covenant still involves following God's law (Jeremiah 31:33).

Carl Emerson said:

The Spirit leads us according to the Law of the Spirit of Life - this is not the Ten but the living Word Himself, within, guiding us in how to act in every unique circumstance in life - which the Law could never do. The Law forbade healing on the Sabbath, the Spirit allowed it. The law forbade eating the showbread in the temple, Jesus did not condemn it. Rahab lied about where the spies were - Her actions were commended. So it seems that the Spirit will in some circumstances indicate strict obedience to the ten and sometimes not - but the end result is a righteousness greater than those who strictly applied the Law. Paul is another good example - strict under the Law yet persecuting the followers of Jesus until Jesus Himself dramatically bought correction.

Click to expand...

While God's law does prohibit work on the Sabbath and healing is work, it also instructs us to love our neighbor as ourselves and it would not be loving our neighbor to refuse to heal them, so the law both instructs us to heal and not to heal on the Sabbath. However, it is not the case that we are forced to sin by breaking one of the two commands no matter what we choose to do, but that the lesser command was never intended to be understood as preventing the greater commandment from being obeyed. It's one thing to say that the Spirit leads us to in what we should do in situations where God's laws appear to conflict with each other, and quite another thing to say that the Spirit leads us to follow a set of laws that is different from the set of laws that the Father commanded. In Ezekiel 36:26-27, the Spirit has the role of leading us to obey the mishpatim and the chukim, which covers a lot more than just the Ten Commandments.

The Narrow Way said:

"If ye love Me, KEEP My Commandments." John 14:15.

The Sabbath is the 4th Commandment, nestled in amongst the other 9. It is the ONLY one of all 10 that uses the word REMEMBER. Do you think it's maybe because God KNEW those who claim to be His followers would FORGET to keep it, so He gave them an extra reminder...and said, "REMEMBER the Sabbath Day to KEEP it Holy."

It all boils down to whether or not we LOVE God. If we LOVE Him, we'll do what He says. If we don't do what He says, it's proof our LOVE is not what it should be.

Click to expand...

If keeping only one day Holy was proof one loves the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth then He would have said, If you love me keep the Sabbath holy. But He did not. What He did say is " Lovd the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself". Blessings.

SabbathBlessings said:

The rich ruler was not obedient to the Ten commandment. He broke commandment #1 by placing his “Many riches” above God.

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me. Which could be anything you place above God, in this case it was the rich rulers wealth.

Click to expand...

So he lied to Jesus?

I don't think so...

He kept the Law...

But to follow Jesus, for him, required much more than keeping the law.

Soyeong said:

The New Covenant still involves following God's law (Jeremiah 31:33).

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The New Covenant involves following the Law of the Spirit - a living Word from Him in our hearts.

Maria Billingsley said:

If keeping only one day Holy was proof one loves the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth then He would have said, If you love me keep the Sabbath holy. But He did not. What He did say is " Lovd the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself". Blessings.

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If we love God and our neighbor, then we will not commit adultery, idolatry, theft, murder, breaking the Sabbath, an so forth for all of the other laws that God has given. For example, by obeying the command to help the poor we are also obeying the command to love our neighbor, so all of the commands that God has given are examples of what it means to love God and our neighbor, which is why Jesus said that those are the greatest two commandments, and that all of the other commandments hang on them, so they are all connected.

In 1 Peter 1:16, we are told to have a holy conduct for God is holy, which is a quote from where God was given instructions for how to have a holy conduct, which includes keeping God's Sabbaths holy (Leviticus 19:2-3), so following those instructions is about expressing God's holiness, and when we express aspects of God's nature through our actions, we are expressing our love for the nature of who God is, which is why there are many verses in both the OT and the NT that associate our love for God with our obedience to His commandments. What Jesus was telling us to do by quoting the greatest two commandments should not be understood as excluding things that the Israelites were being told to do when they were given those commandments.

Carl Emerson said:

The New Covenant involves following the Law of the Spirit - a living Word from Him in our hearts.

Click to expand...

In Jeremiah 31:33, it uses the word "Torah", which refers to the Mosaic Law, which is the Law of the Spirit. God is not in disagreement with himself about which laws we should follow, so the Law of Christ is the same as the Law of the Spirit and the Law of the Father, which was given to Moses. In Romans 7:21-8:2, Paul equated the Law of Moses with the Law of the Spirit by contrasting them both with the law of sin and death. In Ezekiel 36:26-27, it specifically mentions the Spirit has having the role of leading us to obey the mishpatim and the chukim, which are the two major categories in the Mosaic Law. In Galatians 5:19-22, everything listed as works of the flesh that are against the Spirit are also against the Mosaic Law, while all of the fruits of the Spirit are in accordance with it, and the works of the flesh are more than just what is listed as being prohibited by the Ten Commandments.