Should/Can Christians work on Sunday?

  • Yes

    Votes: 40 85.1%
  • No

    Votes: 7 14.9%

  • Total voters
    47

Aussie Pete

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Hello!,

I need some help on a topic that has been making me go back and forth. Can Christians work on sunday? Please do provide scripture for either answer. I really do appreciate it! I also put up a poll too!
Colossians 2:16, Galatians 5:18, Romans 6:14, Galatians 4:21, 1 Timothy 1:9, Mark 2:27

While I do not believe that Sabbath law applies to us now, I do believe that God's intention for the sabbath still stands. It is a day of rest. It is one day in 7. We are not an exclusively agrarian society nowadays. "Rest" to me (and many others) is a break from normal work.
 
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ajcarey

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I believe it depends on two things:
1) Is it for the Lord's work?
2) Does it interfere with assembling with your fellowship and/or your devotional life?

If the answers are 1) no and 2) yes then at the very best it would have to be only as a last resort because there was absolutely no other way to support yourself and those under your care. And in that case you'd also need to be doing your best to find a better way to do so ASAP to free up your Sundays for fellowship and devotions.
 
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Presbyterian Continuist

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Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man, to give the proper work/rest balance. When I worked shift work which included work on Sunday, my days off were at other times in the week. This prevented me from being an "exempt employee" - exempt from having a life!
 
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miamited

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Hi michael,

If you want to keep the law, then it's Saturday - actually Friday evening until Saturday evening - that you shouldn't work. That was always the law. Sunday just became a day that christians gathered to worship and it still is. I would frown on having a job that kept you from worship services, but in this day you can find worship services that run a lot of different times on Sunday.

God bless,
In Christ, ted
 
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Bible Highlighter

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Well, first, the Sabbath was never changed to Sunday. Believers most likely gathered on the first day of the week in honor of hearing about Christ's resurrection. But there is no command in the New Testament given to believers to keep Sunday as a day of rest.

Second, the Saturday Sabbath (the Jewish 7th day of the week) is not a binding command for New Covenant believers. Hebrews 7:12 says the Law has changed. In fact, we can see a change of many different laws of the Old Testament with the New Covenant teachings that came from Jesus and His followers (Which would include the Saturday Sabbath).

The Old Way says:
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth"
(Matthew 5:38 cf. Exodus 21:23-25).

The New Way (by Jesus) says:
"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matthew 5:39).


The Old Way says:
"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment" (Matthew 5:21 cf. Numbers 35:30-32).

The New Way (by Jesus) says:
"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." (Matthew 5:22).


The Old Way says:
"Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:" (Matthew 5:34 cf. Numbers 30:1-2, Deuteronomy 23:21).

The New Way (by Jesus) says:
34 "But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:
35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." (Matthew 5:34-37).


The Old Way says:
"And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant." (Psalms 143:12).

"And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent." (Joshua 6:17).

"And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword." (Joshua 6:21).

16 "But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee" (Deuteronomy 20:16-17).

"They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them" (Psalms 106:34).

The New Way (by Jesus) says:
"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" (Matthew 5:44).

Note: Yes, I am aware that the Old Way (Old Testament) also teaches to love one's enemies (Exodus 23:4-5) (Proverbs 25:21), but this was in context to their own Israelite people, and not pagan nations. Pagan nations were to be destroyed when God commanded the Israelites to destroy them. But Jesus taught a radically different way. Love your enemies, and do good to them that hate you, and to pray for those who persecute you.


The Old Way says:
20 "But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the harlot in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.
22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel." (Deuteronomy 22:20-22).

4 "They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?" (John 8:4-5).

The New Way (by Jesus) says:
"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. " (John 8:7).


Even after the cross, there were changes being made:

The Old Covenant says this about circumcision:
"And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant." (Genesis 17:14).

Yet, the New Covenant says this about circumcision:
"Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing."
(Galatians 5:2).


The Old Covenant says this about the Sabbath:
32 "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
35 And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses." (Numbers 15:32-36).

Yet, the New Covenant says this about the Sabbath:
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:" (Colossians 2:16).

So it appears things have changed.

This makes sense because again, Hebrews 7:12 says the Law has changed.

"For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law."
(Hebrews 7:12).

“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
(John 1:17).

Jesus said,
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Matthew 5:17).

Jesus came not to abolish the Law (in the sense of destroying all forms of Law), but Jesus came to fulfill the Law (i.e. to nail to the cross those ordinances that were against us [like the Old Covenant ceremonial laws], and Jesus came to give us a more fulfilled and perfect way of obeying God via the commands that come directly from Him and His followers). For Jesus offered a more perfect way of loving God, and loving our neighbor (Which of course is only possible via if we are first saved by God's grace through faith).
 
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ewq1938

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Joh 5:16 And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
Joh 5:17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

So if Christ and his Father can work on any day, including the Saturday Sabbath, so can we.
 
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Heavenhome

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If possible it is best to set the Lords day aside for worship etc.
HOWEVER not for works of mercy, so this would certainly include most in the caring professions, doctors, nurses, carers,emergency workers etc. But for most others if you can, it is advisable to not work.

The main thing is that a day be set aside for rest and given to refresh both body and soul.
 
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Heavenhome

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....cont'd
and even though God is to be always first in our lives, it is right to set a day aside to give to Him alone.
It can also be a witness to non believers who may wonder why you do it.

The world sees no day any different from another and this also sets us apart from the world.
To God alone be the Glory!
 
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SpiritSong

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I don't know the chapter and verse, but when Jesus mentioned that it was OK to rescue a sheep that had fallen into a ditch, I think he was basically saying that people like Doctors, nurses and ambulance crews can work, animal doctors too!

When it comes to simple commerce though, that is another story. There are many references in the Old Testament that state the gates were closed in Jerusalem on the Sabbath. At at one point, merchants were driven away from the gates on the Sabbaths too, if I recall.
 
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Yeshua HaDerekh

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Joh 5:16 And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
Joh 5:17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

So if Christ and his Father can work on any day, including the Saturday Sabbath, so can we.

Yeshua NEVER broke Shabbat. Doing good works on Shabbat is allowed. Also, God does not need rest, the Sabbath is for us.
 
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PizzaAddict

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Hello!,

I need some help on a topic that has been making me go back and forth. Can Christians work on sunday? Please do provide scripture for either answer. I really do appreciate it! I also put up a poll too!

Sunday is not Sabbath , Sabbath never changed just like first and last month of year never changed just people changed them in their own pagan minds.

But yea Christian can work even in Sabbath. Actually if you read in Bible about early church they didn't have one day a week to meet like Jews , they meet daily , collection of cash for other churches was every week tho.
 
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joshua 1 9

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Hello!,
s
Can Christians work on sunday?
"5And He asked them, “Which of you whose son or ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath day will not immediately pull him out?” Luke 14:5 They questioned Jesus because He healed on the Sabbath.

I think the real issue is when we encourage people to work on the Sabbath. I had a friend that was a 7th day Adventist. He was a truck driver and did not drive on the Sabbath. But no matter how hard he tried he was still going to violate the sabbath. He still had to eat and usually he ate in a restaurant that required someone to work on the day he considered to be the Sabbath.

I recently had a Amazon pkg delivered at 8PM on a Sunday night. I was rather surprised by that. Also they were using a budget rental truck. So a lot of people were working on Sunday to deliver that pkg. I asked her about it and she just laughed and said: "yep, they got me working" :)
 
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joshua 1 9

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Sunday is not Sabbath , Sabbath never changed just like first and last month of year never changed just people changed them in their own pagan minds.
The Jewish calendar changes. That is why their Passover does not line up with our Easter. There's a basic misalignment between the Christian and the Jewish festival calendars. Both holidays are supposed to fall on, or near, a full moon in the spring. Passover always begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. "Jewish" Passover for 2020 is on a Wednesday. For Christians this is always a Friday. Their calendar was designed for the disbursement to keep all of their own dates no matter what part of the world they found themselves in.
 
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Redwingfan9

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Hello!,

I need some help on a topic that has been making me go back and forth. Can Christians work on sunday? Please do provide scripture for either answer. I really do appreciate it! I also put up a poll too!
Exodus 20:8-11 states as follows: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 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.

There is absolutely no passage in the New Testament that contradicts or abrogates this commandment in any way. Jesus does warn against the extreme measures that the pharisees took with regards to the Sabbath as well as their hypocrisy regarding it. However the commandment still stands and based on scripture and 2,000 years of Christian teaching the day shifts from the last day of the week to the first day of the week. The requirements though still stand, we should not do any non-essential work on Sunday.
 
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The first Christians held their services early Sunday morning, or late Saturday evening (at that time Saturday evening was considered Sunday). Since Sunday is the first day of the week, everyone had to go to work. The Liturgy was celebrated before work. They woul have rested the day before on Saturday.
 
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