Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Day 344: Colossians 1, 2, 3 and 4


Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath Day (Colossians 2:16).

Some Christians take others to task for worshiping on the wrong day. Yet Sabbath is designed to refresh, not to impose a burden on us.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. . . . For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day (Exodus 20:8,11). Did our omnipotent God set aside the Sabbath because he was tired? No! He sets it aside because he knows we get tired. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). What a beautiful gift from God to his children.

There are good reasons to rest on the Sabbath. Our bodies aren’t made to keep pushing seven days a week. It also shows we trust God to provide our needs without us punching a time-clock every Sunday.

Remembering to take Sabbath is important, but legalistically taking one and only one specific day off every week misses the point. The Sabbath was an Old Testament symbol of the saving work of Jesus Christ. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ (Colossians 2:17). Hebrews explains: There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works (4:9,10). Our real Sabbath rest is found in the fact that we don’t have to work for our salvation. Christ did all the work; we rest in his grace.

TODAY’S MEDITATION
Thank the Father for his gift of Sabbath. Keep it holy by resting your body, and by resting in his grace.

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