Chariots of Fire is one of my top ten movies of all time. I love track and field and I love overcomer movies. Eric Liddell, pronounced Little in England, was one of the stars of the movie. He was scheduled to run the hundred meters in the 1924 Paris Olympics. But one of the qualifying rounds was on Sunday. He told the British Olympic organizers that he could not run since one of the races was on the Sabbath. One of the men who qualified in the 400 meters offered Liddell his spot since it did not involve running on Sunday. Liddell took the spot and amazingly won the gold medal, setting a new world record in the process.

It is a great story. But Liddell’s refusal to run on Sunday was based on a faulty understanding of Scripture and of the word Sabbath.

According to BDAG, sabbaton means “the seventh day of the week” or “a period of seven days, a week.”

Sabbath does not mean Sunday.

Sabbath does not mean the day on which we worship.

Sabbath means Saturday, from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday (or sundown Friday to sundown Saturday in the Hebrew reckoning).

Sabbat occurs 111 times in the Hebrew OT. It is transliterated as Sabbath(s). It refers to the seventh day, the say on which God rested after the six days of creation (Gen 2:2-3).

Sabbaton occurs sixty-eight times in the Greek NT. All but a dozen of those uses occur in the four Gospels.

Another ten uses of the word sabbaton occur in the book of Acts.

There are only two uses of the word sabbath in the rest of the NT, both in Paul’s epistles. See 1 Cor 16:2, “on the first day of the week” and Col 2:16, “let no one judge you…regarding…sabbaths.”

Eric Liddell should have asked when the early church met. It met on the first day of the week, which is Sunday. It did not meet on Saturday.

See Acts 20:7-12. The Greek refers literally to “the first of the Sabbath [= week]” (En de tē mia Sabbatōn). Compare 1 Cor 16:2.

Paul evidently arrived in Troas on Monday. He had to wait the whole week to meet on the first day of the week. They met at night, evidently starting sometime after sundown.

Stan Toussiant in The Bible Knowledge Commentary says that this was Roman reckoning. He points to verse 11 that says that Paul was ready to depart “the next day.” Most commentators agree (e.g., Bruce, Marshall, Gangel, John Stott). The meeting started on Sunday night after sundown and went until around sunrise on Monday.

Because many in the early church were slaves who worked from sunrise to sunset seven days a week, it is likely that the early church met routinely on Sunday night (and not just in Troas on this one occasion).

Normally, the meeting would likely end well before midnight. But since Paul was only here once, the meeting went way beyond normal.

What difference does it make if we have a wrong view of the sabbath?

First, it can result in us not having assurance of everlasting life. Many who today believe that we should worship on Saturday, or who believe that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, believe that you must persevere in obedience to God’s commands to stay saved. Like circumcision in the first century (cf. Acts 15:1) and baptism in most denominations today, Sabbath keeping is considered one of the requirements of staying saved.

Did Eric Liddell know that he was secure forever? I do not know. He was a part of the congregational church. They formally believe in justification by faith alone. However, some of these churches also taught and teach that one must turn from his sins and make Christ Lord of your life to be saved (see here).

Second, if a person has never been sure of his eternal destiny, he has not yet been born again (John 3:16). A skewed view of the Sabbath can be part of a way of thinking that keeps one from being born again.

Third, even if a person is born again and knows it, an erroneous view of the Sabbath can result in a legalistic view of sanctification (cf. Acts 15:5).

Many believe that keeping the Sabbath is necessary to please God and walk in fellowship with Him. This is counterproductive because it results in people not walking in fellowship with God. See Romans 7:13-25. When we focus on the commandments, even the proper ones, we get off track. When we focus on commandments we are not even under, then we get way off track. Our focus is to be Christ, not the commandments. The more we love Him, the more our lives are transformed.

Christians are not under the fourth commandment today.

Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath.

A wrong understanding of the sabbath has negative consequences concerning justification and sanctification.

If you want to hunt, fish, play golf, or go boating on Sunday, you are free to do so without displeasing God with but one caveat.

Hebrews 10:23-25 and other texts show us that we are to be regular participants at church. Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

Do not become a C & E Christian because you think you are free to hunt, fish, golf, and so forth on Sunday. While you might occasionally miss church due to illness, vacation, or an exceptional event you wish to attend, you should be a regular at the meeting of your local church.

Here’s how I apply the fourth commandment today, since all Scripture is to be applied (2 Tim 3:16-17).

First, I believe in six literal days of creation. The Sabbath is nonsensical if God did not rest on the seventh day (Gen 2:2-3).

Second, the OT Sabbath regulations remind us that we are to be set apart people. Part of that holiness is gathering with other believers on the Lord’s Day for instruction and fellowship. Part of it is having our lives transformed by the renewal of our minds, much of which occurs on Sundays in church.

Third, just as man was not made for the sabbath but the sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27), so also Sunday worship is made to benefit us. We were not made to worship on Sunday. Sunday was made by God to benefit us so that we might experience fullness of life. God delights in our worship and the Lord’s Supper and Christian instruction is His way of transforming us (Rom 12:2; 2 Cor 3:18).