# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1864_S329
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Doctrine of the Lutheran Church Concerning Sunday. 329

Lord even of the Sabbath, Matt. 12. Therefore Paul again and again
exhorts the Christians that they should not let themselves be bound to any
day: You observe days, and months, and feasts, and seasons. I fear for
you, that I may perhaps have labored over you in vain. Likewise, to the
Colossians even more clearly: Let no one, then, make you feel guilty of
conscience over food or drink, or in regard to a feast day, or a new moon,
or a sabbath, which is the shadow of what was to come, etc.
Although the Sabbath is now abolished, and consciences are free of it,
it is nevertheless good, and also necessary, that one keep a particular day
in the week, in order to deal with, hear, and learn God's Word on it. For
not everyone can wait for it every day. Nature, too, demands that one
keep one day in the week still, and abstain from work, both people and
livestock.
But whoever now wants to make a necessary commandment out of the
Sabbath, as a work required by God, must keep Saturday, and not
Sunday; for Saturday is commanded to the Jews, and not Sunday. The
Christians, however, have hitherto kept Sunday, and not Saturday, for
the reason that Christ rose on Sunday. This is now a sure sign that the
Sabbath no longer concerns us — indeed, the whole of Moses — otherwise
we would have to keep Saturday; and it is a great and strong proof that
the Sabbath is abolished. For we find, throughout the whole New
Testament, not a single place where the Sabbath is commanded to us
Christians to be kept.
Why, then, is Sunday kept even among Christians? Although all days
are free, and one is like another, it is nevertheless useful and good, indeed
very necessary, that one keep a day of rest, be it Saturday, Sunday, or
some other day. For God wills to guide the world cleanly and to govern it
peacefully; therefore he has given six days for work, but on the seventh
day servants, day-laborers, and all kinds of workers, indeed also horses,
oxen, and other laboring livestock, are to have rest, as this commandment
states, so that they may recover with rest; and especially so that those
who at other times have no leisure may hear the sermon on the holy day,
and thereby learn to know God. And for this reason, namely for the
sake of love and necessity, Sunday has remained, not for the sake of the
commandment of Moses, but for the sake of our own need, that we might
rest and learn the Word of God.
Our papists, however, have unfortunately brought it about that we
have kept our holy days more strictly, and have had more of them, than
the Jews. But it makes no difference whether we keep them or not — the
conscience is free. Whoever does not want to observe the holy day, let
him work right on; we will not scold him for it or drive him away. But if
he wants to be pious, to learn to know God