The Worship of the Church – The Day of Worship

The Scriptures nowhere command what day of the week the church should meet or how often it should meet. Nevertheless, the New Testament suggests that the church in every place was meeting on the first day of the week, Sunday:

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. (Acts 20:7)

On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. (1 Corinthians 16:2)

The apostle John received Jesus’ revelation on the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10), which seems a designation for Sunday that became widely used as such by the Church. It is likely John used this phrase, the Lord’s day, because it was the day Jesus rose from the dead and the day most churches met together.

Paul makes clear in Romans 14 that no day in particular can command sacredness:

⁵ One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. ⁶ Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. (Romans 14:5,6)

This is in contrast to the Sabbath, Saturday, being sacred for Israel. The “new wineskin” of the New Covenant era has a different law. It might make sense to meet weekly on Sundays because that is the resurrection day and now a tradition, but we are certainly free to meet on any day and however many times a week we desire.