we don’t believe the tithe is required, yet i would argue that giving less than tithing is taking the freedom we have in Christ the wrong way. yes, we are to give what we feel called to, not legalistically, but i’d have trouble believing you if you said you felt called to give less than tithing.

in the same way, we’re freed now from the law, not to give less of our time to Jesus, but more of it. we’re freed to give our lives to Him. we don’t have to follow a bunch of rules about what we can and cannot do on a given day, but are free to give all of our time to Jesus, not less. so i’d say that spending less than a day a week devoted to spending time with Jesus through prayer, and the study of Scripture, and the fellowship of His Body, and the praise of His Name, is a misuse and an abuse of your freedom in Christ.

and i say this, knowing full well i fall short of this, and that i need to relook at how and more importantly why i do these things. and i’m not saying this as a strict rule or water-tight argument, but i urge you to think over that, and more importantly pray about that, and see where the Lord leads you. i think that’s what paul means in saying “be fully convinced”: that after much prayer and pouring over God’s Word and taking Godly counsel from our brothers in Christ we make the choice based on what we know and what we can discern.

so i urge you, pray, seek, and find Him. may He make Himself known to you and show His ways, to the praise of His glorious Name, amen.

What follows is from the bottom of here: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2005/226_Is_There_a_Lords_Day/

So, does Romans 14:5 refer to the Lord’s Day when it says, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind”? I answer with Paul Jewett: “It is unconvincing . . . to press Paul’s statement in Romans 14:5 so absolutely as to have considered John [the apostle] a Judaizer for having called one day in the week the Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10), thus giving it the preeminence.” (The Lord’s Day, p. 78). Jewett takes John’s conviction as having apostolic authority and assumes he is not among the “weak” of Romans 14:2. That is, John does not call one day in the week “the Lord’s Day” as one option among many. He calls it “the Lord’s day” because he and the early church treat it in a special way among all days.

I cannot escape what seems to me compelling evidence that the Lord’s Day remains till Jesus comes and that it is set apart for the glory of Christ and the good of our souls. May the Lord give you wisdom and freedom and joy as you display his work and his worth on his day.

Colossians 2:16-17, “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 a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

I think it is clear that Sabbath does fall under the category of “each one should be fully convinced” (Piper preached two sermons on this under a similar title).

Perhaps it is the very nature of “each one should be fully convinced” being applied graciously and non-legalistically to a subject such as whether to keep the Sabbath, in which God is glorified?

As far as explicit NT references – when Jesus says, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath,” doesn’t that imply some level of continuation? He didn’t say, “the Son of Man is Lord of Saturday, just like he’s Lord of every other day.” He could have killed the concept of the Sabbath, right then and there, but he clarified it instead, saying “you missed it all along… it’s all about ME.”

In response to Liang’s actual question, to be “fully convinced” means basically what we’ve been talking about making decisions from a positive perspective. That is, not a question of “what can I get away with?” but one of “is this (keeping the Sabbath, not keeping the Sabbath, etc.) glorifying to God?”

sabbath is certainly good and practical and i try and keep it. but it’s really hard to find support for it being a new testament command/requirement/whatever of any kind.

actually, Carson edited a whole scholarly book on this, “from sabbath to Lord’s day”. i started reading that while at grove city where all the presbyterian kids dont do hw on sundays because “Sunday IS sabbath” apparently. (i never got through much of it though)

From Gill: “therefore, that it must be understood of Jewish days, or of such as were appointed to be observed by the Jews under the former dispensation, and which some thought were still to be regarded; wherefore they esteemed some days in the year above others, as the days of unleavened bread, or the passover;”

From Wiersbe: “The Jewish Christians might want to cling to special holy days and OT dietary laws, while the Gentile believers might turn their Christian liberty into license and offend their Jewish brothers and sisters. Many Christians have the false notion that extreme legalism (observing days and diets) shows strong faith, but Paul states that just the opposite is true!”

From Calvin: “He had spoken before of scruples in the choice of meats; he now adds another example of difference, that is, as to days; and both these arose from Judaism. For as the Lord in his law made a difference between meats and pronounced some to be unclean, the use of which he prohibited, and as he had also appointed festal and solemn days and commanded them to be observed, the Jews, who had been brought up from their childhood in the doctrine of the law, would not lay aside that reverence for days which they had entertained from the beginning, and to which through life they had been accustomed; nor could they have dared to touch these meats from which they had so long abstained.”

What does it look like to be fully convinced and not have a set sabbath day weekly?