By Carl. T. Taylor
President – Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8).
The word “Sabbath” comes from a Hebrew word meaning rest. Before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Sabbath day commemorated God’s day of rest after He finished the Creation. It was a sign of the covenant between God and His people.
We read in the book of Genesis that God created the heavens and the earth in six periods of time, which He called days: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Genesis 2:2-3). Now the Sabbath also commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Sabbath day is every seventh day. It is a holy day ordained by God for us to rest from our daily labors and worship Him.
Jesus taught that the Sabbath day was made for our benefit (see Mark 2:27). The purpose of the Sabbath is to give us a certain day of the week on which to direct our thoughts and actions toward God. It is not a day merely to rest from work. It is a sacred day to be spent in worship and reverence.
As we rest from our usual daily activities, our minds are freed to ponder spiritual matters. On this day we should renew our covenants with the Lord and feed our souls on the things of the Spirit.
The seventh day was consecrated by God as a Sabbath in the beginning of the earth (see Genesis 2:2-3). Since earliest times, the tradition of a sacred seventh day has been preserved among various peoples of the earth. God renewed a commandment concerning this day to the Israelites, saying, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). Keeping the Sabbath day was also a sign that the Israelites were His covenant people (see Exodus 31:12-13, 16; Isaiah 56:1-8; Jeremiah 17:19-27).
However, some Jewish leaders made many unnecessary rules about the Sabbath. They decided how far people could walk, what kind of knots they could tie, and so forth. When certain Jewish leaders criticized Jesus Christ for healing sick people on the Sabbath, Jesus reminded them that the Sabbath was made for the benefit of man.
Until His resurrection, Jesus Christ and His disciples honored the seventh day as the Sabbath.
After His resurrection, Sunday was held sacred as the Lord’s day in remembrance of His resurrection on that day (see Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2). From that time on, His followers observed the first day of the week as their Sabbath. In both cases there were six days of labor and one for rest and devotion.
What kinds of things may we do on the Sabbath? The prophet Isaiah suggested that we should turn away from doing our own pleasure and should “call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable” (Isaiah 58:13).
We should consider righteous things we can do on the Sabbath. For example, we can keep the Sabbath day holy by attending church meetings; reading the scriptures and the words of our church leaders; visiting the sick, the aged, and our loved ones; listening to uplifting music and singing hymns; praying to our Heavenly Father with praise and thanksgiving; performing church service; preparing family history records and personal histories; telling faith-promoting stories and bearing our testimony to family members and sharing spiritual experiences with them; writing letters to missionaries and loved ones; fasting with a purpose; and sharing time with children and others in the home.
In deciding what other activities we could properly engage in on the Sabbath, we could ask ourselves: will it uplift and inspire me? Does it show respect for the Lord? Does it direct my thoughts to Him?
There may be times when we are required to work on the Sabbath. We should avoid this whenever possible, but when it is absolutely necessary, we should still maintain the spirit of Sabbath worship in our hearts as much as possible.
If we honor the Sabbath day, we may receive great spiritual and temporal blessings. The Lord has said that if we keep the Sabbath day with thanksgiving and cheerful hearts, we will be full of joy.
