Verse by Verse

Today, we

will read from early church history about the apostle Paul's beliefs and practices. This account was recorded in the book of acts, which is a history of the early church and the travels of the apostle Paul that God inspired Luke to record. But notice this comment about Paul from Acts 17 in verse 2. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for 3 Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures. We can clearly see from this account that the apostle Paul had a habit or a custom, as some translations state, of meeting together with others on the weekly Sabbath.

In fact, Paul came from a devout Jewish family, no doubt from a young age keeping the Sabbath by going to the synagogue every week. But the actual timing of this account is also important. This event recorded in 17th chapter of Acts took place during Paul's second journey through Asia Minor and parts of Macedonia, likely around 50 to 52 AD, which happened to be almost 15 years after Paul was called into the church and began his ministry. Think about this. If Christ's crucifixion was to do away with the law and Paul's theology confirmed that claim, then why?

Why would meeting and teaching on the Sabbath day remain a weekly practice of the apostle Paul? If Christ's death and Paul's theology actually did away with the law of god, which which included the Sabbath command, then his keeping the Sabbath as his practice or custom was 15 years later makes no sense at all. When I was a young adolescent, I attended the local Catholic church with my mother and brothers. It was indeed our custom or belief and practice to attend Catholic mass at the local parish on Sundays. However, sometime later, when we came to the understanding of the 7th day Sabbath, we no longer went to the church on Sunday, and our practice, our custom, became attending the church of god on the 7th day Sabbath each week.

Back then, no one would have continued to describe my custom as observing Sunday, literally 5 years after we came to understand the biblical injunction to keep the Sabbath. Keeping Sunday was no longer true for me or my family, and the same would be the case for the apostle Paul. This verse, along with many other scriptures, clearly show the practice and custom of Paul was to teach and meet on the Sabbath day. This example in act 17 was when Paul was in Thessalonica. In fact, when writing to the church at Thessalonica, Paul highly complimented the members of this congregation, a majority of which were actually gentile, first Thessalonians 1 in verse 9.

In this account, we find Paul praising this group of brethren for being, quote, examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you, the word of the lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward god has gone out so that we do not need to say anything, verses 7 and 8. So did this gentile congregation in Thessalonica that set the example for all the other congregations that were being established actually abandon the Sabbath, or did this congregation follow the example of the Sabbath keeping congregations comprised primarily of Jews in Judea? Paul answers this question in his letter to the members in first Thessalonians 2 verse 14.

Quote, for you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus, end quote. The churches that were established by Paul's teaching, whether made up of Jews or Gentiles, observed the Sabbath. The scriptural record clearly shows that Paul personally kept the 7th day Sabbath and that he taught the Gentiles to do the same. In acts 13 42 through 44, we read of the Gentiles in Antioch wanting to hear god's word preached to them, which resulted in Paul coming to teach them the very next Sabbath. Had Sabbath keeping no longer been god's expectation of Gentiles, Paul could have simply told them that he would preach to them the next day rather than the next Sabbath.

It's worth noting that 5 or 6 years later, when Paul wrote the letter to the church at Rome, he made a very clear statement about the law of god. In Roman 7 in verse 12, we read these words of Paul. Therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. When you think about it, it really couldn't be any clearer that Paul's teaching and practice was that of keeping the laws of god and teaching the brethren to live by those spiritual laws, which we know included the observance of the 7th day Sabbath.

Verse by Verse is a companion podcast to the daily bible verse blog, which you can find on the Life, Hope and Truth Learning Center. Check out the show notes for more.