Bible Questions & Answers
Did Paul Change the Sabbath Command?
Some who argue against keeping the Fourth Commandment acknowledge that Jesus kept the seventh-day Sabbath but contend that He did so because He was a Jew and that He later authorized Paul to abandon this command when teaching gentiles (non-Jews). Even though some of Paul’s writings are “hard to understand” and are therefore misinterpreted (2 Peter 3:15-16), his personal example regarding the Sabbath is quite clear.
As the son of a Pharisee and as one who zealously lived as a Pharisee prior to his conversion to Christianity (Acts 23:6; 26:5; Philippians 3:5), Paul’s practice was to observe the seventh-day Sabbath every week. After his conversion, this part of his life remained the same.
When he traveled to Thessalonica and learned there was a synagogue there, “Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ’” (Acts 17:2-3, emphasis added throughout). Note that Paul had the same “custom” as Jesus when it came to keeping the Sabbath (compare with Luke 4:16).
When Paul came to Corinth, Luke records that Paul “reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 18:4). Again, we see that Paul’s habit was to observe the Sabbath by going to the synagogue “every” Sabbath. He told the Corinthians to imitate or follow his actions, including keeping the Sabbath, just as he imitated or followed Christ’s (1 Corinthians 11:1). Paul did not have a different form of Christianity than the one taught and practiced by Christ.
When gentiles in Antioch wanted to hear God’s Word preached to them, Paul had them come the next Sabbath (Acts 13:42-44). Had Sabbath-keeping no longer been God’s expectation of gentiles, Paul could have simply told them that he would preach to them the next day.
In writing to the church at Thessalonica, Paul praised the members of this largely gentile congregation (1 Thessalonians 1:9) for being “examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything” (verses 7-8).
So did this largely gentile congregation in Thessalonica that set the example for all the other congregations that were being established abandon the Sabbath, or did it follow the example of the Sabbath-keeping congregations comprised primarily of Jews in Judea? Paul answers this question saying, “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 2:14).
The churches—whether made up of Jews or gentiles—that were established by Paul’s teaching observed the Sabbath. The scriptural record shows that Paul personally kept the seventh-day Sabbath and that he taught the gentiles to do the same.
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