What is the biblical day for worship?

The Day for Worship: Sunday or Saturday?

Christians today worship throughout the week, and every day is a good day to praise God. However, when it comes to which day God set apart as holy, Scripture gives a clear and specific answer. The Bible teaches that while worship can happen any day, only one day was sanctified, blessed, and commanded by God to be observed as His holy rest day-the seventh-day Sabbath.

To discover which day God set aside, we must go back to the beginning.

The Sabbath at Creation

The very first Sabbath appears in the first week of earth’s history:

“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done… and He rested on the seventh day… Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (Genesis 2:2-3).

Three important actions took place:

God rested.
God blessed the seventh day.
God sanctified-set apart-this day as holy.

This occurred long before the existence of any Jew. The Sabbath is therefore a creation blessing for all humanity.

Jesus confirmed this when He said:

“The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27).

He did not say it was made only for Israel. It was made for humanity-for everyone.

God’s People Kept the Sabbath Before Sinai

Some argue that the Sabbath was first given at Mount Sinai. But Scripture shows that God’s people kept it centuries earlier.

Abraham obeyed God’s commandments long before Israel existed:

“Because Abraham obeyed My voice… My statutes and My laws” (Genesis 26:5).

In Exodus 16-before the Ten Commandments were written in stone-God tested Israel on Sabbath observance through the manna miracle:

“Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest… Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day… there will be none” (Exodus 16:23, 26).

This took place weeks before the law was given at Sinai.

The Sabbath in the Ten Commandments

When God wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger, He emphasized that His people must remember His holy day:

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy… The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:8-11).

God rooted the Sabbath directly in creation:

“For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth… and rested the seventh day.”

The Sabbath is:

a memorial of creation.
a sign of God’s authority.
a blessing for mankind.

It is not a temporary ritual, but a commandment grounded in God’s eternal law.

The Sabbath as a Covenant Sign

God declared:

“Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me” (Ezekiel 20:12).

A sign identifies loyalty. The Sabbath points to God as Creator and Redeemer.

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

Jesus said:

“The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8).

If Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, then the Sabbath belongs to Him. He never transferred lordship to another day.

While on earth, Jesus kept the Sabbath faithfully:

“And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day” (Luke 4:16).

Jesus kept the day holy-not as a burden, but as a blessing.

Jesus Did Not Abolish the Sabbath

Many believe the Sabbath ended at the cross. But Jesus said:

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law… I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).

Fulfill means to establish or magnify, not eliminate.

When asked how to inherit eternal life, Jesus responded:

“If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).

This includes the Sabbath commandment.

The Sabbath After the Resurrection

After Jesus died, His followers carefully kept the Sabbath:

“They rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56).

This was after the resurrection weekend-clear evidence that no change had been made.

Jesus also instructed His followers to pray that their escape from Jerusalem in A.D. 70 would not occur on the Sabbath (Matthew 24:20). This was more than forty years after His ascension, showing that the Sabbath would still be observed by Christians.

The Apostles Kept the Seventh-Day Sabbath

The book of Acts records repeated Sabbath observance by both Jews and Gentiles:

Paul preached in Antioch on the Sabbath (Acts 13:14, 42-44).
He met for prayer with believers on the Sabbath (Acts 16:13).
“As his custom was,” Paul reasoned in the synagogue “three Sabbaths” in a row (Acts 17:2).
He preached every Sabbath in Corinth (Acts 18:4).

If Sunday had replaced the Sabbath, surely the New Testament would mention it-but it does not.

Paul Did Not Abolish the Sabbath

Some believe Paul abolished Sabbath observance in Colossians 2. But he was referring to ceremonial sabbaths-annual feast days-not the weekly Sabbath of the Ten Commandments.

Paul distinguished between the two in Colossians 2:16 by listing:

festivals (yearly).
new moons (monthly).
sabbaths (yearly feast days).

These are the Mosaic sabbaths-not the weekly Sabbath sanctified at creation.

The author of Hebrews later affirms the seventh-day Sabbath remains:

“For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way… There remains therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:4, 9).

The Greek word for “sabbath rest” is sabbatismos-meaning literal Sabbath-keeping.

The Sabbath in the New Earth

The Sabbath will be kept throughout eternity:

“For as the new heavens and the new earth… from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me” (Isaiah 66:22-23).

If God’s redeemed will keep the Sabbath in the new earth, surely it remains valid today.

What About Sunday?

The word “Sunday” appears nowhere in the Bible. Only eight passages mention “the first day of the week”:

None of these verses:

declare Sunday holy.
command rest on Sunday.
record Jesus changing the Sabbath.
show the apostles transferring worship to Sunday.

Sunday observance is a man-made tradition, not a biblical command.

Conclusion

The Bible consistently teaches that:

God sanctified the seventh-day Sabbath at creation.
The Sabbath was kept before and after Sinai.
Jesus kept the Sabbath.
The apostles kept the Sabbath.
The Sabbath remains in the New Testament.
The redeemed will keep the Sabbath in eternity.

No passage in Scripture replaces the seventh-day Sabbath with Sunday. The Sabbath remains God’s holy day-a memorial of creation, a sign of redemption, and a blessing for His people.

For more on the Sabbath, please check (Lessons 91-102) of the Bible Lessons.