While legalism offers the false comfort of remaining in control of our salvation, it often leads to ridiculous extremes. For example, Jesus got into a lot of hot water with the Pharisees concerning their interpretation of the Sabbath commandment. Now, they weren’t completely wrong – God had told His people to follow His own example and rest from all their work on the Sabbath day (Exodus 20:11). This was supposed to be a blessing for God’s people, giving them time simply to enjoy being in relationship with Him.

The problem was that when they saw Jesus healing people on the Sabbath, they condemned Him for doing work instead of rejoicing in the way that the power of God was poured out for the benefit of His people. In short, in trying to define down to the last detail exactly the sort of behavior the Law required, the missed the whole point of the law.

And what is that point? Jesus said it was to love God and to love one another (Mark 12:29-31). Of course the Moral Law, summarized for us in the Ten Commandments, still applies to us, and we still need to apply the general principles of the rest of the Books of Moses to our everyday lives. But since cultures vary so widely around the world and since our own circumstances change so often, what would be right for us to do today might be wrong tomorrow. In fact, in our world of nuclear powerplants and hospitals and police departments, everyone can’t even keep the Sabbath at the same time – some jobs have to be done constantly to keep the rest of us safe.

So yes, let’s do our best to keep the Sabbath, taking time every week to be with God and with God’s people. But in doing that, let’s keep Jesus’ focus on the needs of others, making sure that they too can enjoy the rest and restoration God intends for all of us. What better way could there be to keep God’s law of love?

Luke 14:1-6 (NAS)

And it came about when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching Him closely.
2 And there, in front of Him was a certain man suffering from dropsy.
3 And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”
4 But they kept silent. And He took hold of him, and healed him, and sent him away.
5 And He said to them, “Which one of you shall have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”
6 And they could make no reply to this.