The Lord of the Sabbath is an expression describing Jesus which appears in all three Synoptic Gospels, Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 2:23-28 and Luke 6:1-5. … Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

I recently wrote a comment on a post on Word Press about the Christian Sabbath, and I stated that: “I often wonder why we do not keep the sabbath? We who have been born into a New Covenant (promised to Israel), which has as its promise a new heart with the law written upon it. We think we should obey every other law contained in the Ten Commandments, or else we are sinning, yet we do not even think about keeping the Sabbath command, or else we think it to be a Sunday Sabbath.”

Actually when stating this l was not talking about all the man made laws that were added to the Sabbath command. But to keeping it holy as we read and study the scriptures on that day.

Paul seems to have in some way honored or kept the Sabbath. Acts 18:4 He addressed both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue every Sabbath, attempting to persuade them. (NET)

So reality is, we know as believers that we are not to commit adultery nor do we condone it in others as it would be sin. We don’t covet because to do so is sin, etc. Yet, when we hear that we are to remember the Sabbath to keep it Holy, which is contained in the same body of Scriptures that Paul commended the Berean’s for checking out his own teachings against; then we are deaf. We have no ears to hear and no eyes to see. We go to church on the first not the seventh day, then out to eat, home to water ski, or watch football. And we don’t consider this omission a sin. Now I’m throwing this out for consideration. I’m not telling you what you are to do. In fact I have not been honoring the Sabbath. But should I be?

As I read Col. 2, I find myself wondering is Paul’s intent when speaking here concerning Sabbaths in these verses meant to be received by us as sabbaths that are man made, or the Sabbath that is God made? We take it to mean that under the new covenant we don’t need to keep the Sabbath as it was commanded. Yet, Paul says in this same passage:

Colossians 2:8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (NET)

But the Sabbath is a God given command not a man made command.

Jesus had boiled the commandments down to just two. And He stated that within those two was contained all of the law and the prophets. The first:

And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (Matthew 22:37), but what does He tell us that our love for God requires of us?

21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:21 NASB

So, if this law is written on our hearts; then does it not mean that our love for Him automatically equates to obedience for these His laws including the Sabbath?

I’m not a Seventh day Adventist, nor do I agree with much of their doctrine, but Messianic Jews observe the Sabbath. We think that we are not associated with them, because they are Jews. So neither do we condemn them for keeping their Sabbath. We think they have theirs and we have ours.

But we are stated to be adopted in scripture and we are also grafted in. In to what? Adopted by God of course through our belief in Christ. It seems to make most sense to me that we are adopted into the people or family of God. We are called by that name Ekklesia (church). Israel’s saints were also represented by that same word in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, even before Christ came in the flesh. They were in fact referenced as the Ekklesia, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Qahal, when the Old Testament Septuagint was translated from the Hebrew. So they were called the Ekklesia, and we are told that we are one with them in Ephesians — adopted. Then we learn again through Paul that Israel’s remnant believed in Christ after He came.

Romans 11:4 But what was the divine response to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal.” 5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. (NET)

This remnant referred to by Paul was Jewish and they remained in the Olive Tree. This part of Israel was never cut off. And we are adopted, or grafted in with them. This tree therefore must represent all the people of God, The Ekklesia, or Israel, the chosen. It’s root has always been Christ. He is the root.

Even under the Old Testament Law, there was an allowance for Gentiles to be joined to Israel and to become one with her. So what has really changed from the time of Paul to us today? If you really think about this, it will come to you. What has changed is the addition of what we now call the New Testament scriptures to what Paul called the Scripture in his day before the New Testament. So today it is all scripture. Paul did not confine Himself to just the Apostles teachings, and neither should we. There was a decision by the Apostles to not require circumcision for the Gentiles who were joining the body, but there was never ever a statement that we should not keep the commandments, and had it been it would have been in opposition to Jesus’ own teaching concerning the commandments.

Should I, and should we be keeping the Sabbath? And are there other God given Sabbath commandments that we should keep?

The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.