Working on a Sunday

I worked on Sunday and I wonder if I will go to hell for breaking one of the Ten Commandments?

Hi,

Thanks for your question.

The Ten Commandments were given to us to help us live good lives, and we (us and the people around us) are blessed if we keep them. They are good rules for life and they create good relationships and a good society that is stable and safe. One of the Ten Commandments is to keep the Sabbath holy. We believe this is important for many reasons. The balance between work and rest is something God created in order to help us live healthy lives. Christians interpret ‘keeping the Sabbath holy’ in different ways, and people even have different ideas about which day the Sabbath is. You can think of it like this: pastors and priests work on Sundays almost every week, and many choose to have a day of rest on a Monday. So the pastor might not go to church on his day of rest, but will perhaps go for a walk, pray, spend time with family or just relax.

We believe that the Ten Commandments are good principles to live by, but that as human beings we can never attain their standard. Jesus said clearly that the sacrifice He made and the grace He gives is enough for those who believe. When Jesus was on the cross He told the thief who was on the cross beside Him that he would be with Him in paradise. The thief couldn’t do anything about the bad things he’d done, all he could do was say ‘Yes’. This is grace, it’s extremely important and it’s a central point in the Christian faith.

It says in the Bible that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, and that those who believe in Jesus have the right to be called children of God (Romans 10:9–10 and John 1:12). With this in mind, don’t be anxious about having worked on a Sunday. On the other hand, check what your life with Jesus is like, you can read Psalm 139:23–24. Do you believe in Him? Have you given your life to Him? Do you pray to Him? He can forgive all your sin, and through the Bible He can show you what He thinks of the way you live your life. When God created the world, He walked in the garden of Eden (see Genesis 1) and had a relationship with people. He also wants this now, both on the Sabbath and on every other day. We have a relationship to God through Jesus Christ, He who saved us from sin and to eternal life.

Good luck as you find the balance between work and rest, and as you get to know God’s good will for your life and for eternity.

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Working on a Sunday