Is not having worship service on Sunday disobedience?
Christmas 2022 falls on a Sunday. Instead of social media feeds being flooded with the season of celebrating Jesus’ birth, this just gave another reason for believers to attack one another. It’s almost like professing Christians enjoy wasting time finger-pointing over unprofitable issues.
This is not an article that should be written, but alas, here I am.
The Problem
So why are some believers attacking churches this Christmas season? Because some churches have chosen not to have worship services on Christmas Day. For some reading this, that sounds bad. “Wait, why would a church close on Christmas Sunday? What better Sunday is there to worship than Christmas Day?” Each local church may answer this question differently. However, from what I’ve seen, these churches are still having worship services. It’s just on Friday or Saturday instead of Sunday. Nonetheless, that’s still not good enough for the Christians who feel the need to vocalize their disdain. Believers, and more disgracefully, pastors, are online accusing other churches of being disobedient because they’re closing on Sunday. To make matters worse, I have seen pastors post that Christians should leave their church if they close on Christmas Day. What!
The rationale for these fellow believers is that we (Christians & churches) are commanded in Scripture to corporately worship God on Sunday, and therefore to be closed on Sunday (especially for a holiday like Christmas) is disobedient and shameful.
But is it? Is it disobedient for churches not to gather corporately for worship on Sunday?
To be fair to the believers and pastors I’ve seen online calling out churches for being closed on Christmas, much of their criticism is that churches are canceling worship service for the convenience of a holiday that should compel us to worship Jesus even more. I hear and agree with their heart. However, churches aren’t canceling their worship services completely. They’re switching service days, which is not forbidden by Scripture. Therefore, I disagree with their premise—Sunday is the commanded day of worship—and so does Scripture.
Addressing the Question
First, there isn’t a single verse in the NT that instructs the church to worship together “on Sunday”.
For those who argue that corporate worship must be “on Sunday”, I challenge you to find a verse that says that. What you will find is there isn’t a single reference in the NT, explicit or implied, that instructs the worship gathering to be solely “on Sunday”. Yes, Sunday has been implied as the day of worship for believers based upon when early believers first gathered together—“on the first day of the week”—post-resurrection of Jesus (Acts 20:7, 1Cor. 16:1-2). Yet, the early church choosing a day to corporately worship God and maintaining that tradition is not the same as being commanded/instructed to worship together on that day. Those are two different things.
To not follow a church tradition is not disobedient to God since there is no scriptural imperative for the church to worship together only “on Sunday”. Furthermore, for believers (especially pastors) to impose this publicly on churches is at best unnecessarily extreme and at worst legalistic. How so? Let’s see: You have made a church tradition (something relative) into a command of God (something absolute) and then declare those who don’t follow that tradition are in disobedience to God. To be biblically frank, it is more dangerous to impose a tradition as a command of God than it is for a local church to switch a worship service from Sunday to Saturday or Friday.
And that leads me to the next point…
Second, the church gathering together to worship God is the command, not the day.
Explicitly, Scripture says do not neglect to gather together.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (CSB), “24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.”
Implicitly, Scripture reveals the church regularly practiced gathering together in worship.
Acts 2:1, 41-47 (CSB), “1 Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place…. 41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.... 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”
Colossian 4:16 (CSB), “After this letter has been read at your gathering, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.”
1Corinthians 11:17-18 (NASB), “Now in giving this next instruction I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it.”
1Corinthians 14:26 (NASB), “What is the outcome then, brothers and sisters? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. All things are to be done for edification.”
As in the first point, a specific day of the week is never what’s instructed. Rather, the church gathering to worship God is what’s explicitly and implicitly instructed. Therefore, the day is not the point. So long as churches obey what is instructed—not neglecting to gather together—is what matters to God. If a local church chooses to move its worship service from Sunday to Saturday or Monday or Wednesday, they’re still obeying what has been commanded; it’s just on a different day from the church's historical tradition.
What’s the Resolve?
Please don’t misunderstand my point. I am not arguing that local churches should not meet for corporate worship on Sunday. I am arguing against those who claim churches must corporately gather for worship on Sunday and if they don’t they’re disobeying God or people should leave their church over it. The Bible does not teach either of these outcomes and those who make this claim are the ones in error, not those who switched their Sunday worship service to another day because of Christmas or any other reason.
Apparently, this kind of thing was also happening at the Church in Rome. Judgments over food and days were being imposed against other Christians unnecessarily. And Apostle Paul addressed it as such,
“5 One person judges one day to be more important than another day. Someone else judges every day to be the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord.” (Romans 14:5-6a, CSB).
If there were any apostolic instructions for a definitive day for the church to worship God, this passage in Romans 14 would’ve been the prime place for Paul to communicate it. Paul didn’t have to bring up days. He could’ve continued his point about food. But he didn’t. He addressed days and said all days are equal, and whichever day is chosen to observe do so in honor of the Lord.
What Paul communicates in Romans 14 is to be our attitude today regarding when churches choose to gather in worship of God. For those who believe deeply that churches should not cancel worship service on Sunday, and even more on Christmas Sunday, I sense your heart is for Christ to be honored on the day we celebrate His birth. And while you might not like or agree with their decision, they are not in sin. Therefore, those churches should not be targeted and publicly called out as doing something wrong nor should those who attend them be encouraged to leave. That’s divisive and subversive, especially if sin or false doctrine is not involved. Paul actually instructs believers on how to respond in the face of differing views in Romans 14:19, “So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.”
Those who have publicly or interpersonally vocalized criticism over churches choosing to switch worship services from Christmas Day to Saturday or Friday, are more in the wrong according to Scripture than those churches you disagree with. In your zeal, you’ve crossed the line, not them. So I ask you, please humble yourself, delete any critical posts you’ve made, let this go, and don’t tear down God’s work over “a day”. Pray for these churches, that they may attract more unbelievers or those unchurched with their Friday and Saturday services this Christmas season. Pray that God would use their switching worship service days unto His glory because He has permitted it so.
This is a season of celebration. Let’s not allow the enemy to continue to distract us. Let’s recapture this season for what it is and not waste time and words criticizing one another over “a day” when God will still be worshipped and His gospel still proclaimed all over the world this Friday through Sunday.