How do you participate in the Sabbath day correctly? Are there certain things you have to do to do it right? When I first started keeping the Sabbath day I was bombarded with feedback about what I had to do to "do it correctly." Christians, Messianics, and Jews alike warned that there were certain steps that, if skipped, would mean that my attempts at Sabbath rest "wouldn't count."
While the Bible gives us directions about the Sabbath day, those instructions are looser and less in number than most people realize. Scripture tells us to rest, not to work, and to worship YHWH and that's really the bulk of the commandments surrounding the day of rest. But well-meaning people would tell me that if I tore any toilet paper on the Sabbath, that would wipe out any physical benefit or spiritual credit that I might have gotten if I had kept the Sabbath 'perfectly.' I'd like to point out that this is not something the Bible says!
Like the Pharisees who accused the Messiah of breaking the Sabbath in Matthew 12, many of us have focused our attention on what other people tell us about Sabbath observance, instead of what the word of God says. Jesus didn't actually break any rules in the Bible around the Sabbath day, he only broke the rules imposed by man.
You can keep the Sabbath according to what the Bible says, without worrying that you're doing it wrong if you skip on cultural expectations of what the Sabbath day "should" look like.
You don't have to:
-Clean your house the day before.
-Light candles.
-Have challah bread.
-Not use electricity or shut the light off in your refrigerator.
-Recite blessings.
-Make a fancy meal.
-Tear toilet paper ahead of time.
And a whole lot of other things! If it's not in the Bible, it's not required. Note that there's not necessarily anything wrong with some of these things, but it is wrong to believe that we can only enter into YHWH's Sabbath rest when we've checked all these boxes. The gift of the Sabbath isn't about doing these things, it's about pausing to honor a commandment from the Living God! Make sure you're not telling people that it's harder than it really is or that they have to follow any instructions that aren't from the Bible.
Related posts:
What To Do on the Sabbath
Sabbath Prep and the Idol of Cleanliness
What NOT To Do on the Sabbath
