Dear Raffy,

First of all, we CAN work on the Sabbath. We can also steal, disobey our moms and dads, lie, kill, and break any of God’s commandments. People do it all the time.

BUT, if we CHOOSE to follow Jesus, and obey Him, will we WANT to do those things? Of course not! Part of following Jesus means to trust that what He says is true. He tells us that we shouldn’t work on the Sabbath day. Why? Well, first of all, the Sabbath is a special day to spend with God. God cancels all of His other appointments to spend His time with us on the Sabbath day. What if you went over to a friend’s house to play and spend time together, and when you got there, your friend just spent the whole time working? Would you like that? Probably not, because you couldn’t spend that time together that you were planning on if your friend was working the whole time. It’s the same way with the Sabbath. If we spend our time working on the Sabbath, then we can’t really spend the time we should with Jesus.

More importantly, it is our relationship with Jesus that saves us. But good relationships are built by spending quality time together. Jesus knew that, and so He asked us to “Remember the Sabbath day…” If we don’t spend that special time with Him, then we don’t build the relationship we need to build with Him. And if we didn’t build that relationship with Him, then when He comes again, He will have to say to us “I do not know you,” and we will be lost.

It really comes down to whether or not we want to spend that time with Jesus to build a saving relationship with Him. He told us “six days shall you work.” We have six other days to do all kinds of work. Can’t we spend one with Him? That’s what I chose to do 15 years ago when I became a Christian, and I’m still glad I made that choice. I hope you make that choice, too!

Thanks for writing, and remember, there's never been a better time to share Jesus!

Your friend, Pastor Howard

Note: All Scripture references are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated