“I don’t have time,” one says when asked to assist a needy sister. “I’m busy,” another replied when asked, “How’s it going?” by a concerned brother. Busyness is a plague of our age. But, is this how it should be? Let me say that it most definitely should not.

Now, recognize that we might use ‘busy’ in more than one way. There is a busyness that is industry instead of iniquity. Some are quite busy at work, family, and other endeavors, because of a well-developed doctrine of industry. They know we are called to work six days each week and so they happily throw themselves into the various works of their week. But there is another busyness, one which most of us mean, that is not good for us. It is, in fact, a sin. We can diagnose whether our business is industry or iniquity with a simple question: does my busyness preclude the Sabbath?

One might wonder why this is the diagnostic question. It is the diagnostic question because God, in every generation, commands His people to work six days and to rest upon the seventh. What’s more, that seventh day is to be a day kept holy to the Lord, a day for worship and other religious endeavors. As Jonathan Edwards notes:

“The state of mankind in this world is such, that we are called to concern ourselves in secular business and affairs, which . . . take up the thoughts and engage the attention . . . It is therefore most meet and suitable, that certain times should be set apart, upon which men should be required to throw by all other concerns, that their minds may be . . . entirely engaged in spiritual exercises, in the duties of religion, and in the immediate worship of God; and that their minds being disengaged from common concerns . . .”

So, the Sabbath principle is one that reveals quite clearly what is important to us. Where our busyness precludes the regular, faithful observing of the Sabbath, it is safe to say our busyness is not industry, but iniquity. Now, one might rightly say, “But we are not bound to Sabbath, that is for the Old Covenant people and we are the New Covenant people.” To which I would offer five reasons why the Christian is still bound to work six days and rest upon the seventh.

1. The Sabbath principle is based in Creation. In Genesis 2:3 we read, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” So, the Lord bases the Sabbath principle on his work in creation. it is an eternal principle which began before the Old Covenant and continues.

2. The Sabbath principle is pre-fall. Note, also, how Genesis 2:3 comes before Genesis 3. Genesis 3 contains the account of the fall of mankind into sin. So, God’s command to observe the Sabbath is neither a reaction against sin, nor a way of regulating man’s sinful behavior.

3. The Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we read, “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Many argue we need not observe this commandment. I wonder which of the other 10 we also do not need to observe any longer.

4. Jesus kept the Sabbath. In Matthew 12 the Pharisees question Jesus’ Sabbath keeping. You see, he allowed his disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath, an action the Pharisees believed to be an egregious example of Sabbath breaking. Jesus did not abrogate the need to observe the Sabbath, but simply pointed out their over-zealous rulemaking.

5. The early church observed a Sabbath. In Acts 20:7 the Christians of Troas are gathered together on the first day of the week to break bread (observe the Lord’s supper). In 1 Corinthians 16:1,2, the Corinthians church is to follow the example of the Galatian churches and collect an offering on the first day of the week. In Revelation 1:10, John is ‘in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day,’ which is most often understood to be Sunday (the first day of the week).

So, we have adequate evidence to conclude that the Christian ought to be in the habit of observing the Sabbath-the setting apart of Sunday for worship and religious devotion. For this reason faithfulness in Sabbath observance can reveal whether our busyness is industry or iniquity.