On the Sabbath
By Vesa Hautala | 6,000+ words
This post is divided into two parts. The first one examines theological views on the Sabbath, including the Biblical material, church history, and hermeneutical cruxes. The second part is focused on practical questions, especially on how to rest and the relationship between Effective Altruism and the Sabbath. Some of the questions I will examine include whether the Sabbath is binding to Christians and what should people aiming to do the most good think about resting on the Sabbath.
I. Theology of the Sabbath
Various Christian Views on the Sabbath
Sabbatarianism
Sabbatarians believe it is a commandment of God to reserve one of the days of the week for worship and rest. Typical to Sabbatarian views is that the Sabbath commandment was established at creation when God blessed and sanctified the seventh day on which he rested. Another key text is the fourth commandment “Keep holy the Sabbath day”, found in Exodus and Deuteronomy. This is understood to be part of the eternal, moral law of God because the Sabbath is based on the creation.
A major split within Sabbatarian views is whether the day of rest and worship for NT Christians is the seventh day or the first day of the week (Saturday or Sunday). Some may even think that Christians are free to choose the day for themselves, as long as they observe one day in seven. Adherents of seventh-day practice appeal to the creation account and the OT Sabbath commandment and argue these are essentially unchanged in the NT. Sunday Sabbatarians think the Sabbath day has been changed to the first day of the week in the new covenant because it is the day of Christ’s resurrection. They take allusions to Christians meeting on the first day of the week in the NT to be a Biblical basis for this interpretation.
There are differences in the level of strictness in observing the Sabbath. Many Sabbatarians have traditionally been rather strict about Sabbath observance regardless of the day, though no group except Messianic Jews observe Sabbath with the strictness of the Jewish law. In addition to paid work, some Sabbatarians think Christians should also abstain from other non-necessary earthly pursuits. This means that even sports and similar recreational activities should not take place on the Sabbath—the whole day should be dedicated to God.
The fulfilment view
The opposite view to Sabbatarianism is that the Sabbath commandment was part of the ceremonial law of the OT that is no longer in force for NT Christians. The Sabbath had a typological significance that pointed to the spiritual rest that Christ brings, but is fulfilled now that Christ has come. This means Christians are free to choose when to rest and worship. This view does not negate the need for communal worship, and there’s nothing wrong with doing that on Sunday (or Saturday).
Arguments for this view include a passage in the letter to Colossians that says Christians should not be judged on the basis of “feast, new moons or Sabbaths” (Col 2:16) and the lack of explicit commandments or allusions to continuing Sabbath observance in the NT, as well as references to Christians meeting on the first day of the week.
Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox views
The Catholic view treats the Sabbath commandment as expressing a moral commandment to render God public worship. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
The celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship "as a sign of his universal beneficence to all."109 Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people.
However, the Catechism also mentions refraining from certain kinds of work and activities:
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body.
The faithful are obligated to attend mass on Sundays (and other holy days of obligation) and not doing so without good reason constitutes a grave sin.
At least historically, some Catholic authors have posited that the holy day was changed from Saturday to Sunday on the authority of the Church, but I am not sure how official this teaching is and how common it is today.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the seventh day is still considered to be the Sabbath and has special significance as a day of rest and enjoyment. Saturday is never observed as a strict fasting day even within fasting periods where weekdays are strict fasting days. The Divine Liturgy is also often celebrated on Saturdays in addition to Sundays (though it can be celebrated on any weekday in addition to Sunday except during the Great Lent—but even then it can be celebrated on Saturdays). However, the Orthodox faithful are not required to abstain from work on Saturdays. On Sundays, one should attend the Liturgy. There seems to be some variation on how strict one should be about not working on Sunday but my understanding is that the Orthodox teaching is that one should not unnecessarily work on Sunday’s.
The Coptic church in Ethiopia historically observed both Saturday and Sunday as days of rest, but I didn’t find modern day references to this practice.
The Bible
The most relevant Biblical material is, briefly summarised:
Genesis 2:2–3 where God rests on the seventh day after the six days of creation and blesses and sanctifies the day.
The Sabbath commandment of the Ten Commandments
The version in Exodus grounds the commandment in the days of creation (Exodus 20:11),while the one in Deuteronomy grounds it in the release from slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15)
Passages in the Prophets rebuking people for not keeping the Sabbath
Isaiah also has a passage that promises that God will remember eunuchs who keep the Sabbath day even though they are formally excluded from membership in the congregation of Israel by the Torah (Leviticus 23:1)
Isaiah 66:23 mentions the Sabbath and new moon celebrations in the state of eschatological fulfilment.
Seventh-day Adventists argue that this passage shows the Sabbath to be an eternal ordinance that is in force at all times because it will continue in the new heavens and new earth.
Nehemiah enforcing Sabbath-keeping in the rebuilt Jerusalem after the exile (Nehemiah 13:15–22)
The disciples pluck grain on Sabbath, Jesus defends them and says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, and that the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27)
Healings of Jesus on the Sabbath and his teachings related to these incidents
Romans 14:5: “One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike. Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind.” (All Bible quotations from the RSV unless otherwise noted)
Paul’s language is quite general. Paul is addressing matters of indifference, but the Sabbatarians say the Sabbath is not a matter of indifference and is therefore not included. This passage does not seem decisive.
Colossians 2:16–17: “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”
This seems like a verse that could rule out seventh-day Sabbatarianism. if “Sabbath” here refers to the Jewish seventh-day observance, this would mean Christians should not be judged in questions relating to it and that it is only a shadow of what is to come. More on different interpretations of this verse below.
References to the first day of the week or the Lord’s day in the NT in Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 16:2, and Revelation 1:11
Acts 20:7 describes Christians being gathered together to break bread in the city of Troas on the first day of the week
1 Cor 16 doesn’t explicitly mention that there was a meeting on the first day though, just that people should put money aside for the collection to the Jerusalem poor on the first day. Some think this implies a church meeting on that day but others disagree.
Rev 1:11 says John received his apocalypse on “the Lord’s day”. This is commonly understood to mean Sunday as this expression is used for Sunday in later texts
Hebrews 4:9: “So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God”
Seventh-day Adventists sometimes (but not always) McCarthy interprets this verse as promoting a continuing rest on the seventh day of the week, though the majority interpretation is curiously the opposite—that the passage shows the OT Sabbath to be a type of spiritual rest in the NT and therefore not something that remains in force.
Early church history
The very earliest non-Jewish Christians were likely mostly unable to observe any weekly day of rest unless they belonged to a Christian household. Slaves and employees would very likely have been required to work according to the usual schedules of the society, which did not have Sundays or Saturdays as rest days.
The Didache, a church order commonly dated to the first century, instructs Christians to gather every Lord’s day. The original Greek is ambiguous, though, as it literally says to gather on (or according to) “[the] Lord's of [the] Lord” (kata kuriakên tou Kuriou). The adjective kuriakê, “[the] Lord’s” is usually understood as referring to the Lord’s day because the word was used this way in a later period and would fit the context nicely. However, Adventist scholars dispute this interpretation (you might notice a pattern here).
By the second century, we have unambiguous references to Christian worship taking place on the first day of the week and explicit rejection of the seventh-day Sabbath. In the early second century, St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote:
If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death… (Epistle to the Magnesians IX, transl. by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson).
It is contested whether the text refers to keeping the Lord’s day or the Lord’s way. Similar to the Didache passage discussed above, the original Greek has only the adjective kuriakē, “the Lord’s”. Nevertheless, the text does speak approvingly of “those not keeping the Sabbath” (mē sabbatizontes).
Around the middle of the second century, St. Justin Martyr talks at length about Christian worship of his day and affirms it took place on the first day. He also makes jabs at Jewish Sabbath-keeping.
The Didascalia Apostolorum, another church order document commonly dated to the 3rd century says
The apostles further appointed: On the first day of the week let there be service, and the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and the oblation, because on the first day of the week our Lord rose from the place of the dead, and on the first day of the week he arose upon the world, and on the first day of the week he ascended up to heaven, and on the first day of the week he will appear at last with the angels of heaven (Didascalia 2).
In 321, Emperor Constantine decreed Sunday as the day of rest by law. From the fourth century, local church councils started forbidding resting on the seventh day as Judaizing.
It is possible there was early on a sort of dual observance, at least in some areas, where both Saturday and Sunday were observed as special days. Early historians Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen say that the Liturgy was celebrated weekly both on Sabbath and Sunday except in Alexandria and Rome. The Apostolic Constitutions say slaves should get both Saturday and Sunday off to go to church.
Hermeneutical cruxes
I will not attempt a comprehensive analysis of the Biblical material. In this section, I’ll instead outline what I see as some of the most important points that the interpretation of the Sabbath hinges on. In addition, I’ll briefly discuss a specific passage, Colossians 2:16–17.
Crux: the Sabbath and the Old Covenant
The relationship between the old and new covenant seems to be an interpretive crux. In some ways, the discussion parallels that on tithing. A key distinction is that, unlike tithing, the seventh day is mentioned in the creation account in Genesis 2:2–3, where God rests on it and blesses it. This raises the question: does the Sabbath reflect a universal moral law established at creation? The Genesis account does not explicitly command humanity to rest on that day.
The Ten Commandments in Exodus connect the Sabbath commandment to this creation narrative, but in the Deuteronomic version of the Ten Commandments, there is no mention of the creation but only the slavery in Egypt. The Sabbath is mentioned in Exodus prior to the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. This suggests it was practiced before the giving of the Law. But even if the Sabbath is a pre-Law ordinance, does this mean it should be observed perpetually? Other pre-Law practices, such as circumcision and levirate marriage, are no longer binding. The Sabbath is arguably distinct, though, given its grounding in the creation story, unlike circumcision, which was introduced later.
This question is often more specifically focused on the role of the Ten Commandments (the Decalogue). Are they a central summary of God’s moral will that endures unaltered to the new covenant, or does the Sabbath commandment belong wholly or in part to the cultic and civic legislation that no longer applies? (It is common to make a distinction between the cultic, civic, and moral legislation in the Torah: cultic legislation refers to the ritual parts of the law, civic legislation includes legislation about courts, punishments and such, and the moral legislation means ethical commandments. Only the last one is thought to apply directly in the new covenant.) Most Christians would likely say yes if asked whether the Ten Commandments present a summary of God’s commandments that still applies to Christians today. None of the other commandments appear to be ceremonial or civic in nature. On the other hand, the Sabbath commandment is the only one that is not cited in the NT.
The Decalogue clearly has special significance. It was the part of the Torah written by God on the stone tablet Moses received on Mount Sinai. The tablets were to be put in the Arc of the Covenant and preserved there. On the other hand, the Decalogue is referred to as a unit in the Bible only three times in the Torah (outside the passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy) where the commandments are given. There are of course many more passages that mention one or more of the commandments, sometimes in groups, and Paul speaks of the tablets the commandments were written on in 2 Cor 3.
The Deuteronomic formulation of the Sabbath commandment connects it with with Israel’s release from slavery, but doesn’t mention creation. This framing makes the Sabbath look like a covenant marker specific to the people of Israel. This doesn’t really contradict the “Sabbath as a creation ordinance” view since all kinds of laws with a moral character have a covenant marker status (cf. the holiness code in Leviticus 19). But it does give the commandment more of a Sinai-covenant-character, at least in the Deuteronomic version.
For what it’s worth, in the Jewish understanding, the Sabbath is not binding for the Gentiles. In Judaism, the Seven Laws of Noah are a set of laws that are binding on all human beings. Non-Jews keeping them are considered righteous Gentiles who will have a place in the World to Come. These laws do not include the Sabbath commandment.
Crux: “Sabbaths” in Colossians 2
Colossians 2:16–17 reads:
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
On first reading, this suggests that the Sabbath was only a shadow of things to come and that Christians should not be judged based on the Sabbath. Festivals, new moons and Sabbaths seem to form a triad extending from the annual festivals of Israel to the monthly new moon celebration and then the weekly Sabbath. Yet some have offered rather detailed arguments about how combinations of the words “feasts”, “new moons”, and “Sabbaths” are used in the OT in order to call the identification of “Sabbaths” in Col. 2:16 with the weekly Sabbath into question.
Later in the passage, human rules are discussed, which some take to include the feasts etc. mentioned in Colossians 2:16. They think this means the Sabbath can’t be in view because it is not a human rule. (Though neither were the appointed feasts and new moons in the OT.) The majority opinion, however, is that Colossians is referring to the weekly Sabbath.
The opposing views tend to come from scholars with a Sabbatarian theology. They have a strong prior that the weekly Sabbath can’t be in view because it is an ordinance established at creation for all time. For most others, this passage is proof that the Sabbath is no longer something that Christians should be judged on, commonly interpreted to mean keeping it is not mandatory—at least in its OT form.
Crux: natural law theology
Natural Law theology affects how OT commandments are understood to apply in the NT. It sees moral commandments in the OT as reflecting the natural moral law. Conversely, commandments that don’t have a basis in natural law are understood as ceremonial or social precepts bound to the old covenant. They may still point to important moral or theological truths even if they are not literally binding anymore.
From the perspective of natural moral principles, there doesn’t seem to be anything particular about the seventh day that would mandate people to rest on it specifically. It’s possible to see an ethical character in the idea of a rhythm of rest and worship but it's harder to see one in the specific details of the Sabbath commandment. Why every seventh day as opposed to every eighth or every sixth? Why the last day of a seven-day week in particular?
Natural law theology guides the interpretation of the Sabbath commandment in the Roman Catholic and Lutheran approaches. This means that the Sabbath commandment is understood as no longer literally binding—this is part of the old covenant—but as expressing universal moral principles that still bind believers today. The need for public worship and an obligation to attend remain. For Roman Catholics, this is further shaped by obedience to the holy days and feasts ordained by the church. Lutherans would add, though, that natural law theology is not extrabiblical. They would ground their rejection of the continuing literal validity of the Sabbath commandment on its nature as a ceremonial ordinance and a symbolic sign of the Sinaitic covenant as well as its typological character, which they think can be determined on the basis of the Bible itself.
Sabbatarians might reply that even though there isn’t anything particular about the seventh day by itself, God has nevertheless established it as a universal sign of a covenant that he made with all of humanity in the creation that is still in force. The Sabbath would then be based not on a universal moral truth but a particular commandment by God (though some might not make a distinction between the two). However, this basically gets us back to the questions of whether the Sabbath was a particular commandment for the Old Covenant only. I’m also unaware if any Sabbatarians actually embrace this line of argumentation.
Crux: view on tradition
What authority one gives to the historical tradition of the church also affects the Sabbath question(s). Historically, the Christian church started to celebrate Sunday as the day of rest and worship. For Roman Catholics, the matter is settled by magisterial authority. For Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, the tradition is also decisive. Many Protestants would find some authority in the tradition but opinions differ. Some Protestants like Seventh Day Adventists explicitly reject the tradition in the question of the Sabbath.
Crux: view on scripture
A lot of the discussion on what the Bible says about the Sabbath happens with a tacit assumption that there is a single Biblical teaching on the subject. Those with more liberal views on Scripture would think there can be different ideas about the Sabbath among the Biblical texts that are not necessarily harmonizable. More generally, different views on how the Bible is to be read to arrive at theological truths affect the conclusions on the Sabbath.
II. Practical matters, Sabbath, and EA
In this section, I will present a mishmash of practical considerations. Due to my own views, I will at times use Sabbath and Sunday interchangeably (not very logical given that my church still considers Saturday the Sabbath even though it celebrates Sunday as the principal day of rest) but the points should remain valid for people who take a different view.
Guiding principles
In my understanding, the purpose of abstaining from work on Sunday is to create space for:
Rest: A state of mind free from earthly cares and unnecessary stress.
Conducive to spiritual goals but also practical benefits (I will examine this more below)
Spiritual focus: Time dedicated to attending church, prayer, and other forms of worship.
Time off from work is trivially important to enable this because you can’t be in church when you’re at work.
Celebration: Recognizing every Sunday as a "little Easter," a day to joyfully commemorate the Resurrection and the inauguration of the new creation in Christ.
It also has a festive character because it’s the primary day when Christians come together for public worship. The Psalms associate going to the temple of the Lord with celebrative joy.
These principles help evaluate whether specific activities align with the Sabbath’s purpose.
Work
Assuming you keep a Sabbath day, what should you abstain from? Work is the obvious answer, but defining “work” is less straightforward.
Paid work is a clear category. Abstaining from paid labour on the Sabbath makes intuitive sense for many, but it’s important to recognize nuances. Some people’s paid work involves essential tasks, such as healthcare or childcare, which must continue regardless of the day. However, jobs that require weekend shifts but are less critical—such as some retail positions—present a more complex case.
Many unpaid activities are also clearly work. Subsistence farming is an example of what could be considered someone’s primary job even if money is not directly involved. However, forms of making a living where food and other needs are directly produced are extremely rare in rich countries today so this is more of a theoretical example.
Housework like cooking, cleaning, and childcare is often as demanding as a paid job. For a homemaker, it can be equivalent to a full-time job, even if it’s unpaid. Yet many housework activities are unavoidable even on the Sabbath. Christ himself implies the necessity of certain tasks when he asks those who criticised him for healing on the Sabbath, “Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?” (Luke 13:15 NIV). This highlights that some labour, particularly work tied to basic care, is permissible and even necessary on the Sabbath.
On the other hand, the work-like nature of domestic work invites us to examine whether some less essential housework should not be performed on Sundays. For example, a thorough cleaning of the house that could be done some other day doesn’t seem to fit the spirit of a day of rest. Taken to an extreme, domestic work could even prevent church attendance (though there are cases where this happens legitimately—suppose your children are sick, for example).
The principles guiding Sabbath observance—rest, spiritual focus, and celebration—help in discerning what should or should not be done.
Mental work deserves special attention. Modern life constantly demands our cognitive engagement. Avoiding unnecessary mental strain on the Sabbath can help create a more restful atmosphere and free us to focus on God and loved ones. In today’s world, work often follows us everywhere, thanks to smartphones and the omnipresent internet. Turning off these persistent demands can be key to achieving true rest.
Secular Sabbath Insights
Interestingly, the Rationalist community, which overlaps with Effective Altruism, has explored Sabbath practices despite being largely secular. Benjamin Ross Hoffman and Zvi Mowshowitz have some interesting insights into how modern “leisure” often mirrors the demands of work. Hoffman defines leisure as:
Time when you are not responding to a persistent stream of demands. Not your boss, but not a television commercial or newsfeed either. You can take a walk, or sit silently with friends, and let your mind wander.
Zvi Mowshowitz writes about the Sabbath as freedom from work, interruption, choice, and stress. He builds his secular interpretation on the foundation of Orthodox Jewish Sabbath rules but I think these are interesting points for Christians as well. Decision-making, constantly updating information etc. are stressful and antithetical to rest. From a Christian perspective, they also consume mental bandwidth that could be spent on God and our close communities, mainly church and family. Mowshowitz advises:
Cut off the outside world. Especially cut off anything continuously updating and all periodic rewards. … Stressful conversations are not allowed. Doing work is not allowed. Making decisions is not allowed. Outside information is not allowed.
Modern life—even leisure—can make cognitive demands that are counterproductive to rest. When “powerful and pervasive cultural forces are out to get you” as Hoffman writes, taking a Sabbath helps reassess whether you’ve allowed these forces too much control over your life. Mowshowitz adds that the Sabbath can serve as an alarm: If you constantly need to work or face interruptions on your day of rest, it might indicate you’re living in a state of perpetual emergency. This is a signal to reexamine your choices and priorities.
John Mark Comer and Practising the Way on Sabbath
I decided to devote some space to John Mark Comer specifically because he is a notable voice in contemporary Christian discourse on the Sabbath . Comer is an author, teacher, and founder of Practicing the Way, a nonprofit ministry that creates free resources for spiritual formation, and also the former founding pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon.
Comer argues that we are pathologically busy as a society. He makes the case that constant hurry is bad for us and spiritually destructive. In his book Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, he writes that hurry “is a form of violence on the soul” (p. 47) and incompatible with love. (p. 23) He takes Jesus as the role model of living a life of being “fiercely present” (p. 91).
Sabbath is one of the four practices Comer recommends based on the life of Jesus (the others are Silence and Solitude, Simplicity, and Slowing). Comer’s Sabbath practice is characterised by the following points (see also the Practicing the Way pages on Sabbath here):
Stop Working:
Complete cessation of professional and productive labour
Includes stopping work-related emails, messages, and digital communication
Extends to household chores, to-do lists, and productivity-driven activities
Deliberately interrupting the cycle of constant production and achievement
Rest:
Physical rest
Mental rest - giving your mind a break from problem-solving and constant stimulation
Involves sleeping, napping, sitting quietly, or engaging in low-stress activities
Recognising rest as a spiritual practice and a form of trust in God's provision
Delight:
Intentionally doing things that bring joy, pleasure, and life, celebrating God's goodness through them
Could include spending time in nature, playing with children, enjoying art, sharing meals with loved ones
Breaking away from a mindset that values everything only by its productivity
Worship:
Includes prayer, meditation, and spiritual reading in addition to formal church services
Cultivating a sense of gratitude and spiritual awareness
Remembering that you are more than your work or achievements
Comer emphasizes that these aren't rigid rules but a holistic approach to creating space for spiritual and personal renewal. The Sabbath can be an act of resistance—it is a way to say “enough” against the continuous “more” of society.
It’s interesting how closely the rationalist ideas about Sabbath track some of the ideas of Comer and Practising the Way. Comer’s idea about deliberate spiritual practices, or disciplines, also echoes traditional Christian ideas about character formation and spiritual disciplines—he speaks of a “rule of life”, a term originating in the first millennium and connected with the monastic rule of St. Benedict. The recommendations for the Sabbath also align with traditional praxis in many ways.
However, Comer is flexible about the day of the Sabbath. He recommends people pick a day that works for them. This is at odds with the historical praxis that emphasises the communal nature of Sabbath and the centrality of the community coming together to worship.
Choice, Complexity, Obligations, and Stress
Many of the stresses of modern life stem from constant decision-making, overwhelming complexity, and mounting obligations. On the Sabbath, reducing these elements can foster restfulness:
Choices: Modern life floods us with decisions, from selecting what to stream to managing personal schedules. Even small decisions take cognitive energy. Simplifying choices on the Sabbath can make it more restful.
Complexity: While some forms of complexity may be spiritually enriching, many are not conducive to rest. Effective Altruists are often inclined to analyse everything and might benefit from resisting the urge to overcomplicate their Sabbath.
Obligations: While obligations are unavoidable, especially in family life, reducing unnecessary ones is key. Basic caregiving, like walking the dog or feeding a baby, is still be required, much like leading an ox to water in biblical times.
Strict Sabbath observance—avoiding errands, shopping, unnecessary housework, and overly complex personal projects—naturally limits these stressors. Still, avoiding stress entirely isn’t always possible. Worship, family dynamics, and unavoidable life circumstances can introduce some level of strain.
To maintain the spirit of rest, it seems wise to adopt simple, clear rules. This avoids the stress of overthinking or debating whether an activity is permissible. Focusing on obvious, low-hanging fruit (e.g., avoiding work emails) is a good starting point before tackling finer details. Minimising complexity and decision-making also reduces cognitive load. For instance, pre-planning meals or activities can help avoid deliberation on the Sabbath itself.
The Digital Realm
Digital activities deserve special consideration in today’s context. Social media, for example, is often non-restful and demands constant attention. Most of us are somewhat addicted anyway, so having one day off every week seems useful. Limiting or eliminating social media on Sundays can help conserve mental bandwidth and reduce stress. Similarly, avoiding email (even non-work-related), news scrolling, and other digital distractions can contribute to a more peaceful day. Limiting social media is also a great idea for fasting, which is in a sense the opposite of a day of rest but ultimately aimed at the same spiritual goals.
Video games and other forms of digital entertainment also warrant scrutiny. While some games may be relaxing, others can be cognitively demanding or stressful. Mobile games, with their built-in addictive design, are particularly likely to detract from a restful Sabbath. Taking intentional breaks from the digital realm can help us be more present and aligns with the Sabbath’s goals.
Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?
Traditionally, works of mercy or acts of service are considered appropriate on the Sabbath, even among those who require strict observance. There is ample biblical support for this. Christ often healed people on the Sabbath and strongly rebuked those who criticised him for it. The Jewish law also has a principle called pikuach nefesh, which means that almost any commandment can be violated in order to save a life, including the Sabbath commandment.
EA activities would seem to be acts of service by definition: they are activities aimed at helping those in need based on altruistic motives. EA work is often more indirect than personally giving food to the hungry or visiting the sick etc., but it has a similar goal and usually similar motivations than more traditional works of mercy. This would be a point in favour of allowing work on EA projects on Sunday. However, it’s worth noting that if we stretch the definition enough, almost any kind of work could be included—most work serves our neighbour one way or another, yet the whole idea of rest from work is lost if most kinds of work is continued normally.
Is it okay to keep doing paid work on the Sabbath if one’s day job is something that serves the poor and needy etc.? If your day job is something like a doctor in an underserved area in a developing country, there might be good reasons to take patients even on Sundays (assuming you would not normally be on duty on Sundays). However, if you’re sticking to a 40-hour work week anyway, it would seem right to clear one day of paid work entirely even if your work is very directly about helping those who are suffering. There will of course be a myriad of different exceptional situations and the number of weekly hours worked isn’t necessarily the deciding factor.
What if you are earning to give? A person in a high-earning job could be making, for example, $150 in an hour. If she worked for Sunday afternoon and evening, even after taxes she might still have earned enough money to cover a sizable fraction of GiveWell’s estimated ~$5,000 cost to save a life. Can you break the Sabbath to save 1/10th of a life? 1/5th? I don’t think there are easy answers to this question, similar to how there are no easy answers for how much you should work overall in such cases or how much money you can keep for yourself. With the necessary changes, similar questions would apply for impactful direct work.
Practical reasons suggest taking enough time off from EA work. Burnouts happen among EA-engaged people (more on this in the next section). Work productivity might also be lowered by overworking, especially over the long term. However, even though there’s not space to discuss this further here, I want to note that there are dangers to justifying rest and self-care by their effect on a person’s impact potential, because it instrumentalises them and promotes a frame of assessing everything in life through impact.
EA can also draw some people in too strongly. Having one EA-free day in the week might be very useful for such people—not just a day free of paid or volunteer EA work, but also free from consuming EA content or hanging out in EA spaces, online or virtual.
Generally, I think the church community can be a helpful antidote for losing oneself in the EA bubble. Churches can certainly have their own bubbles but often they also help people encounter others from diverse backgrounds that they would not otherwise interact with. For example, church is the only context where I regularly interact with people over 65 who are not family. Churches can also bring together people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, though unfortunately, this is not always fully realised. Another helpful aspect of the church community is its locality. EA tends towards the abstract and far-away, whereas church communities are (usually) strongly defined by people being regularly present in the same space.
Works of mercy in general may sometimes be in tension with Sunday as a day of rest. Helping people can be hard. The laboriousness of works of mercy is not necessarily a problem—after all, Sunday is not a day of rest only for rest’s sake but to free up time from regular work for other things. Making it a day of service, first to God in church and then to our neighbour afterwards, seems to be in accordance with the day’s spirit. However, I believe restfulness is also part of a proper celebration of the Lord’s day. If service entirely subsumes rest, this seems amiss. But once again there are many situations where rest may have to be forgone.
Personally, I have noticed that certain acts of service can take more out of me than my regular work. This is very person-dependent, but church burnout is also a thing. Even if charity activities are not church related, there is a chance that they have a similar effect on a person. EA work is often somewhat different from more personal help but it can be stressful and often cognitively demanding.
Burnout
One thing relevant to address in connection with the Sabbath is burnout. I’m not talking only about burnout in the classical sense, but also adjacent things like tiredness, depression, or anxiety related to both paid and volunteer work demands that might not fill the diagnostic criteria, but are still part of the same spectrum.
Sometimes people experience burnout because their jobs have bad working conditions, or are a bad fit for them. In such cases, there isn't ultimately much else to do than to change jobs. But sometimes it’s not just the job, and people’s choices about spending their time have an effect on the situation. This is where the Sabbath becomes relevant.
The Sabbath might serve an especially important alarm function for people who are prone to aiming for the minimum of self-care or otherwise pushing themselves dangerously close to their limits, or beyond them. Being in such a state means there is no slack in the system. It narrows one's perspective and makes it harder to see or think clearly about one’s current situation. If life has become unmanageably busy, there might not be time to notice it. A day off from the usual responsibilities and distractions would seem like a good (though not necessarily sufficient) countermeasure. Another angle is that if you feel bad without surrounding yourself with work, digital stimuli and other non-leisurely activities, this could be a sign that something is amiss.
A day of rest constitutes a bulwark against sacrificing more than you have. Granted, it’s entirely possible to get overworked in just six days of work per week. But having one seventh of your time guarded against work seems to ensure at least some level of protection.
Don’t trust it too much, though. For a person who does a lot of acts of service on Sunday and/or has duties at the church, or for whom attending worship has other elements that feel worklike or require spending extra energy (for example, having to struggle with getting kids to the service, facing emotional difficulties with the church community), Sundays can be less unburdening than one would think. Health problems (mental or physical) and difficulties related to life situations may also be burdensome regardless of the day, so in the end the day of rest might end up much less restful than intended even if “Sabbathing hard”.
Burnout is about much more than one day of the week. Still, Sabbath observance embodies principles that could be helpful overall. The practice might make it easier to employ them during the rest of the week.
Concluding thoughts
As with tithing, the subject of the Sabbath touches both on various theological views and practical matters relevant to EA. Rest and time management are a perennial concern for people who want to dedicate their lives to doing good. Christianity has a long tradition with a lot to say about it. In this post, I’ve tried to explore both the theological aspects and how the insights apply in the contemporary worlds and specifically to EA.
I think some of the biggest insights for me while writing this piece were outside the areas of theological controversy, though I did learn many interesting theological tidbits as well. The insights that stimulated my thinking the most are the ones about media use, attention and complexity. I also gained a new appreciation of a weekly day of rest as a measure against work (in a wide sense) taking over one’s entire life. Regardless of different theological stances, I think these insights are worth thinking about for contemporary Christians, especially those interested in EA.
Very interesting, thanks!