By J. Michael Feazell
By J. Michael Feazell
Which is more important to the Worldwide Church of God: the days on which we meet or learning to love one another?
We know what we want the answer to be, but sometimes it seems our different viewpoints on such things as festivals crowd out the Christian love we'd like to experience. Sadly, instead of peace in some of our congregations, we find dissension, confusion and anger.
Two of the underlying values that guide our church policies are these: 1) All our members are important. 2) Jesus commands us to love one another.
Because we all belong to Jesus Christ, every member of the church is important to the church. We know that Jesus loves every member of his Body. He cares for every member, for every sheep of his pasture. As the Body of Christ, therefore, the church wants to see that every member is shepherded in love, knowing that is how Jesus wants it to be.
Likewise, when it comes to days of worship, we want to pastor all our members, not just those who meet on Sunday or just those who meet on Saturday. Regardless of the day on which our members might choose to meet, we want all of them to hear the same, consistent gospel message.
We want all of them to know, and to be reminded at every church service, that for the sake of Jesus Christ, God loves them. We want them, at every church service, whether Saturday or Sunday or midweek, to worship the Lord who loves them and saves them.
Not only does Jesus love us, he tells us that if we are his disciples we will love one another. As his life takes root in us, his heart of love for his people will renew and transform our hearts.
From the Bible, we learn about some of the characteristics of Christ's love. Love does not condemn. Love is patient. Love is faithful and honest. If we are to obey Jesus, then we are not to condemn one another. We are to be patient with one another. And we are to be faithful and honest, even with how we use the Word of God with one another.
One of the ways in which we must be honest and faithful with the Word of God is that we must teach the truth about the Sabbath and the Israelite festivals.
We once taught that these festivals are required for Christians, and that they are the identifying sign of true Christians. We were wrong about that. They are not required for Christians and they are not the sign of true Christians.
But honesty and faithfulness also demand we must teach the truth about all festivals, the fact that no particular festival is required for Christians or is the identifying sign of true Christians. Not Christmas, not Easter, not Passover, not Tabernacles--no festival is required for Christians.
For the same reason, no festival is forbidden for Christian worship--as long as the festival is used to worship and honor Jesus Christ.
Our sin in the past was in the way we kept the Sabbath and festivals as a requirement and a sign, and the way we viewed believers who did not keep them. The sin was not in gathering on a particular day to worship God.
We are free in Christ to keep or not keep any of these festivals. We worship him, and we can do so any time, any place.
If a group decides to meet on Saturday, they can worship Jesus on Saturday. If a group decides to meet on Sunday, they can worship Jesus on Sunday. God does not judge us about which day we meet on; he does, however, judge us on our judgmental attitudes toward one another.
The new covenant is not the same thing as, nor is it defined by, meeting on Sunday and on traditional Christian festivals.
If anyone thinks that it is, he or she is making the same mistake we all made before: we were making a day of worship the criterion for who is and who is not a true Christian. That is merely substituting one form of legalism for another. The core value remains just as wrong.
If there is anything we should have learned from our Sabbatarian experience, it is that days don't measure the Christian. We are Christians when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, not when we start meeting on some particular day. That concept was wrong when we were Sabbatarians, and it is wrong now, regardless of which day the issue is over.
Once again, all our members are important. That is why our policy is that members are free to meet on either or both sets of days. The days do not matter to Christ--the attitudes do.
Can a person be a "new covenant Christian" and meet for worship on Saturday? Yes, a person can. Can a person be a "Christian in name only" and meet on Sunday? Of course a person can. And vice versa.
It is a changed heart, a heart in which resides the Holy Spirit, that makes the Christian, not the outward activity of meeting days.
"But doesn't the Holy Spirit lead the true Christian to celebrate the birth of Jesus?" someone asks. "How can people become mature Christians as long as they do not celebrate the Incarnation?" asks another.
The answer is simple. A person can become a mature Christian by putting his or her confidence and trust in Jesus Christ and, as his disciple, grow in his love.
I celebrate Christmas, and I find it to be a thoroughly inspiring and blessed time for my family and me. But that is not what makes me a Christian, and it is not what makes me a healthy or mature Christian.
I mature in Christ as I believe his promises to me, as I listen to his words and practice them, as I step out in faith and trust the Holy Spirit to give me the power I need to love, to forgive, to live a holy and blameless life. We must not mistake celebrations for maturity.
Celebrations are one of the wonderful ways we can honor and praise God for who he is and what he has done, but there is no demand that we must all celebrate in exactly the same way or at exactly the same time.
As Christians, we all celebrate Jesus and what God has done in him, but many of us do it in different ways.
There is beauty in that. It presents us with a wonderful opportunity to practice Jesus' words: "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
What a shame it is to us when unbelievers see our petty divisions and squabbles over, of all things, worship days.
How tragic when Christians, called to love one another, cannot even give each other ground over choice of days for assembly--and assembly for what, but to hear the words of Jesus about kingdom love, patience, kindness, mercy, gentleness and peace?
Listen to the essence of the argument: "You are not true Christians! You meet on Saturday to hear about our Lord and Savior, who was crucified to forgive our sins and reconcile us to God and give us new life in the kingdom of God. I can't stand being in the same church as you stubborn, narrow-minded, old covenant legalists."
"Ha! We're not true Christians? You are not true Christians! You meet on Sunday to hear about our Lord and Savior, who was crucified to forgive our sins and reconcile us to God and give us new life in the kingdom of God. I can't stand being in the same church as you liberal, men-pleasing, sun-worshiping pagans."
But Christ says, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35). And he inspired Paul to write, "May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14).
The bottom line is this: It is OK for Christians to meet on Saturday. It is OK for Christians to meet on Sunday. It is not OK for Christians to ridicule or condemn one another.
What does this mean in practical terms? It means, for one thing, that when a new person begins attending church, it is wrong to try to get that person involved in a dispute over worship days or to try to convince that person to agree with or join a "side" or "party" in the worship day wars. (I pray you have no "side" or "party," and that you are not involved in "worship day wars.")
If you are a conservative observer of the holy days and the Sabbath, it means you must not try to persuade others of your view.
Sabbathkeepers have a place in the Worldwide Church of God, as long as they respect the church enough to not work against its doctrines by trying to convince other members or visitors that the holy days and the Sabbath are binding laws for Christians.
If you are an observer of Christmas and Easter, it means you must not try to make others feel that they are not truly mature Christians until they begin observing Christmas and Easter.
The kingdom of God is not about days. It is about Jesus Christ. The Christian life is not defined by rituals. It is defined by the love of Christ at work in his people.
Official church policy is that congregations can work out their own times for celebration and worship.
They can celebrate on the traditional WCG festivals, on traditional Christian festivals, on the nearest weekends to the actual dates of the festivals, on Saturdays, on Sundays, or any combination of these.
When they meet, they must celebrate Christ. They must not teach that days are sacred or commanded. They must use days for celebration, not for separating sheep from goats. Days are our servants, not our masters. Jesus is our Master.
If a minority wishes to celebrate on days the majority does not, then that minority should be made to feel secure and comfortable in doing so.
And that minority should likewise be respectful and understanding toward the majority who make a different choice about days.
Whatever our personal conviction is about the days we offer to God, let us understand that God accepts the offerings of days that other Christians make, too.
"In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. Each person should have a personal conviction about this matter" (Romans 14:5, New Living Translation).
How we use our time in the presence of God is a personal choice, one that God blesses when it is done toward him in a pure conscience.
"Those who have a special day for worshiping the Lord are trying to honor him.... So why do you condemn another Christian? Why do you look down on another Christian?" (verses 6, 10, NLT).
According to Paul, there is no need for the rhetoric we tend to throw around about how "we can't learn anything from Christmas and Easter" on one hand, or how "if you celebrate Trumpets you don't understand the new covenant" on the other.
We can, because we are in Christ, understand and appreciate one another's viewpoints and practices in regard to the days we devote to God.
God makes us free to devote to him the days we choose. That is between us and God, Paul says.
We need to get off each others' backs about such things, Paul warns. "So don't condemn each other anymore. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not put an obstacle in another Christian's path" (verse 13, NLT).
It was essential that the Worldwide Church of God root out the legalism and judgmentalism inherent in our past approach to Sabbathkeeping and holy day observance, and we have done that.
Our former doctrines on the Sabbath and the holy days were not in harmony with the gospel, and there is no room in the church for the spirit they engender. But please understand this crucial point: there is neither sin, nor righteousness, inherent in the festivals themselves. How we used the days was wrong, not the days themselves.
Let every person make up his or her own mind about what days to devote to God, and let it be done with a pure and humble heart, not a heart that believes we are more faithful than another for the sake of the days we choose.
"So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up" (Romans 14:19, NLT).
This is a goal worth striving for. Imagine a day when we can understand and appreciate one another's preferences on days and actually build each other up rather than tear down.
The amazing thing is that Paul is not calling for harmony in the church on the basis of everybody doing the same thing; he is calling for harmony in the church on the basis of a changed attitude toward one another's varying practices.
We all stand or fall before God, not before one another. And God loves every one of us. God asks the strong to be considerate of the weak. He asks all of us to have the attitude of Christ toward each other (15:5).
Surely we can agree to "pull in our horns" over these matters, and not go the way of all flesh and allow it to tear us apart.
The Bible shows us a better way, the way of letting Jesus fill our hearts with his love. We do not have to make the same mistake we made in years gone by, nor the same mistake Christians have been making for centuries.
We can, with the help of Christ, love one another and bear with one another in understanding and the peace of God. Why not follow the Holy Spirit into that peace, rather than follow human passions into discord and division?
Those who persist in causing division, Paul says, should be removed from the Body. God values harmony and peace wrought in the forge of his love, a love that involves a life, like that of Jesus, of self-sacrifice.
The only self-sacrifice this matter demands is for some of us to change our attitudes toward one another.
Church policy supports either set of days or any combination of both. May God grant us all hearts that can see beyond these forms of worship into the real substance of worship: knowing and loving him more deeply.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 1999