Romans14:5

Paul is not telling people they do not need to rest on the Sabbath day, he is saying we should not judge each other for the way we do things, and that includes how we observe the Sabbath. Notice that I have paraphrased Paul’s statement as  “another person esteems all days equally high.” This is referring to people who try to see all days as special gifts from God and therefore as holy. Another way to rephrase Paul’s words would be this: “One person makes a big deal about one day of the week, another makes a big deal of all the days of the week.”

In this passage, Paul is not talking about people who treat all days as equally common, or as theirs to do with as they please. As a Jewish Christ-follower, Paul saw the importance of the Old Testament teaching about clean and unclean, common and uncommon (i.e. holy). He would never, I can’t say this strongly enough, he would absolutely never have suggested that we take something holy, like the Sabbath day, and bring it down to the level of common. Human’s don’t have the authority to do that.

I fear that many people in modern Christianity have heard teaching from pastors, writers and other Christian influencers, who say we don’t need to worry about any of that stuff in the Old Testament, and they have taken it to heart, allowing it to influence how they live. This has resulted in an attitude toward the Sabbath which says, “That day of rest stuff is an Old Testament thing so I can ignore it.” Therefore, the modern response to this statement by Paul is to do what should be considered unthinkable – to bring the Seventh Day down to the level of all the other days; to make it common. But that was the furthest thing from Paul’s mind. He considered the only options open to a believer to make one day holy and the other days common, or to attempt to make all seven days equally holy.

While the idea of making all days equally holy is a noble one, it would have been impossible for Jewish Christians like Paul who were trying to be good Jews and good Christ-followers at the same time. If no work can be done on the holiest of days, but rather, preparation for it needs to be done the day before, on the day of preparation, then you can’t have seven days of no work without any days of preparation. Our handling of the day of rest should be closer to the Jewish way than we realize, just without legalism.

There are multiple ways to properly respect the Sabbath, and there are multiple ways to disrespect the Sabbath. Paul’s point about not judging others for the way they handle the Sabbath is really a statement about not judging other for how they respect the Sabbath. They have to be doing it within the realm of correct respect for the day for Paul’s statement to apply. If someone is disrespecting the Seventh Day, we should indeed judge that as being the wrong way to do it. Such disrespect is wrong-headed and comes from a self-centered heart or an ill-informed mind which is happy to keep on ignoring the clear teaching of Scripture. His statement was intended to teach us to see the heart and give people some freedom to choose within the multiple ways of doing it right. There are more ways to respect the Sabbath than just my way. So give people room to be themselves within the parameters of maintaining the correct level of respect for God’s set-apart day.

For this reason, I will always dress up on Sunday more than on the other days of the week. For me that does not mean a coat and tie, but it does mean a noticeable difference which clearly states that I see that day as more special than the rest. Some may dismiss what I am doing as “old-school”, but I think it goes far deeper than how I was raised; it is a Biblical principal I am striving to uphold in a proper way. I have always been troubled at seeing people, including pastors, dress in a common way for Sunday church attendance. This has been done in order to make everyone feel equally comfortable in coming to church, including unbelievers. But if it violates a clear teaching of Scripture, and if it is one step toward turning something holy into something common, then we are wrong in doing it even if our motives seem honorable. There are other ways to make people feel comfortable while still holding proper respect for what God has set apart as holy.

Under the New Covenant God gives us some flexibility to decide how we want to apply the principles He is teaching us. One of those principles is that we should set aside one day a week to connect with God and family and therefore that day should be treated differently than the rest. What that looks like for you will be different than what it looks like for me. Paul added the words “Each should be completely assured in his own mind” to highlight the importance of testing our decisions in these matters against Scripture, remembering that we don’t make the rules.  The important thing is that all of us should be making the effort to make that day special, to set it apart as holy. That day should be our delight, for it is the sacredness of connecting with God bound by recognizable parameters of time.

It is also a good idea to lift up other days of the week to bring them closer to how we treat the one special day of the week. Once again, what that looks like will be different for each believer.

The next three verses confirm that Paul is talking about giving people the freedom to be themselves within the confines of proper respect for the Lord’s Day, while holding that disrespect for that day is unacceptable.