Many of my friends whom I have known ever since I first became a Sabbath keeping Christian have given up the observance of the fourth commandment. When I ask my friends who have given up the observance of the Sabbath why they feel that the observance of the fourth commandment is not enjoined upon Christians, nearly every one quotes me the same text from Paul's epistle to the Romans. Romans 14:5-6 "One person thinks that a certain day is more important than other days, while someone else thinks that all days are the same. Each one should firmly make up his own mind."

   What is Paul saying here? Is the fourth commandment a matter of personal choice for the Christian while the other nine commandments are still to be considered as God's will for our ethical guide in Christian living?

Sabbath begins and ends at sunset

   Only if one ignores the context of chapter 14 can one reach this mistaken conclusion. Chapter 14 records Paul's counsel on how to deal with new Christian converts who are  offended by eating food offered to Pagan gods as if this would be an abomination and an act of participating in idol worship should they partake of this meat. Some of these "weaker brethren" even believe that to observe certain fast days wherein meat is entirely left out of the diet is pleasing to Christ and a "way to honor the Lord" To show that this is really what "days" Paul had in mind, look at verse 6. Here Paul places the observance of a certain day in opposition to the freedom to "eat anything". "Whoever thinks highly of a certain day does so in honor of the Lord: whoever will eat anything does so in honor of the Lord, because he gives thanks to God for the food. Whoever refuses to eat certain things does so in honor of the Lord and he gives thanks to God." So we see that some will not eat the food and do "observe the day", while on the other hand some will eat the food and do "not observe the day" Thus if we keep these "days" in their context (days of eating or not eating: fasting or not fasting) we see that the Apostle is not referring at all to the seventh day of the week as being optional or a matter of choice but rather he is referring to optional fast days.

   This practice of not eating meat on certain days of the week eventually manifested itself in the early church in the tradition of not eating meat on Fridays. Only recently has this practice been relaxed by the Roman Catholic Church in our day.

   With the proper understanding of Paul's counsel in Romans 14, we are able to see that the integrity of all of God's commandments is maintained. As Paul tells us in Romans 7:12 "So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good."

By William Diehl