Love for One AnotherGodly Love Among Believers
Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) Impartial LoveMatthew 12:1-8
New International VersionJesus Is Lord of the Sabbath12 At that time, Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” 3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” For ReflectionObedience to the Sabbat (the Jewish sabbath) was a ritualistic sign of the level of allegiance one had to his faith. To ignore this rule had the potential for grave consequences.
This challenge to that outward display of piety signaled the new covenant God was hewing with God's people. Christ asks, what good are the laws if they are not tempered with mercy? The Sabbat law was established so that Jewish workers and slaves would have a respite from their exhausting drudgery and provide a time to escape the bonds of labor to focus on their relationship to God. None of the laws were intended to be an excuse to persecute offenders and coerce people into a particular form of God worship.
Jesus ushered in a new covenant, a personal relationship with God. Christ changed the meaning of Sabbat from a ritualistic exercise and physical rest to a spiritual way of being in which one could imitate God's love and mercy and rest in the promise of God. In doing so, Jesus released us from the empty practices of faith so that we may have a more authentic practice, exercising compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.
The Sabbath is not just one holy day. We Christians are free to celebrate a Sabbath every day. At that moment, when our love of God ignites the expression of our profound love for others is always a Sabbath moment. We are free to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy each and every hour of every day. PrayPray so that you will exercise your freedom to practice your faith. Pray so that each day will be a Sabbath, holy and resting in the guiding arms of the Holy Spirit. Forward to a friend | 
