The Lord’s Day

The day the Lord rose

The name comes from Scripture. John writes: "On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit" (Revelation 1:10). The word for ‘the Lord’s’, kuriakos (κυριακός), appears only once more in the New Testament, for the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11:20): the Lord's day and the Lord's table share a name.

It was the day he rose (John 20:1). That evening, and again eight days later (John 20:26), the risen Lord stood among his disciples:

It was the first day of the week, and that very evening, while the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be with you!” He said to them.

John 20:19

From then on the church met that day to remember the resurrection and worship. At Troas, "On the first day of the week we came together to break bread" (Acts 20:7), and Paul told the Corinthians to set gifts aside "on the first day of every week" (1 Corinthians 16:2).

How the church has kept it

The Didache, from the late first or early second century, says: "But every Lord’s day do ye gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving" Didache 14.1. Writing c. 150–155, Justin Martyr describes Christians meeting on Sunday to read from the apostles and prophets, pray, and give thanks over bread and wine, because on the first day God made the world and Jesus Christ rose from the dead Justin Martyr, First Apology 67.

In 321 Constantine bade city people rest on ‘the day of the Sun’ Constantine, Law on the Day of the Sun. His law gave civil rest to a day the church had kept since the apostles, and it names neither Christ nor the Lord's Day.

The sabbath and the Lord's Day

The churches that gather on the resurrection day relate it differently to the fourth commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy" (Exodus 20:8). The Reformed hold two views. The Westminster Confession teaches that God appointed one day in seven ‘by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages’, a day

which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord's day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.

Westminster Confession 21.7

The Shorter Catechism Q. 59 and the Reformed Baptists' Second London Confession of 1689 22.7 agree. They teach that the whole day is kept as a holy rest from worldly work and recreation, given to public and private worship and to ‘the duties of necessity and mercy’ 21.8. Many Puritans kept it so, as have many churches in Korea.

The Heidelberg Catechism, used by the continental Reformed, asks that on the day of rest I attend church for the Word, the sacraments, prayer and alms, and adds:

In the second place, that all the days of my life I rest from my evil works, allow the Lord to work in me by his Spirit, and thus begin in this life the everlasting Sabbath.

Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 103

John Calvin taught that the sabbath's ceremonial side was abolished in Christ, while a set day for the Word, the sacraments and prayer, and rest for servants, remain for the church's order; he would not bind the church to the number seven Calvin, Institutes 2.8.28–34. Many churches in this line keep the day less strictly. Both views are Reformed.

The Lutheran Augsburg Confession says that Scripture ‘has abrogated the Sabbath’ and that the church appointed the Lord's Day so the people might know when to gather, as ‘an example of Christian liberty’ Augsburg Confession, art. 28: the day is kept for good order, not to bind consciences. The Catholic Church teaches that Sunday looks back to the first creation and, as the eighth day, forward to the new creation; it fulfils the sabbath, and the Sunday Eucharist stands at the centre of the church's life Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2174–2177. The Orthodox gather each Sunday, the day of the resurrection, for the Divine Liturgy.

Seventh Day Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists keep Saturday, the seventh day, as the Sabbath, from the fourth commandment and the day God blessed at creation. Whatever their differences, Christians worship together and receive rest as God's gift: "The Sabbath was made for man" (Mark 2:27). See the lessons One day in seven and Worship and the Lord's Day, and Why should we rest?