Trying to keep Sabbath in a non-Torah culture can be challenging, especially if family and friends are not aligned. Are we violating Sabbath if we put gas in the car? go to a grocery store or a pharmacy? eat out at a restaurant? go to a movie or a concert? What if a friend needs help on Sabbath? or we need to travel for a business trip or vacation, or attend a wedding or a funeral? In the complexity of living in a broken world, if we aren’t thoughtful and careful in our application of Sabbath, it can become a stressful burden rather a blessing of rest. (He 4:4-5)
There are three questions to consider: [1] Do our individual activities violate Sabbath? [2] Are we requiring / encouraging others to work? and [3] Are we setting a bad example or causing others to stumble?
Firstly, we note God never clearly defines work in the context of keeping Sabbath; this is not an oversight on God’s part – it is inestimable brilliance. He’s inviting us to participate with Him in how we observe Sabbath, to use the guidelines He has provided to sort out what it means in any given circumstance. In other words, this isn’t about thoughtless, rote obedience to a set of rules; we must understand the heart and spirit of Sabbath in order to properly obey it. (Mk 2:27)
The primary Sabbath principle is to remember it (Ex 20:8a), remind ourselves why God blessed and sanctified it (Ge 2:3), setting it apart from the other days. (Ex 20:8b)
We set Sabbath apart (keep it holy) primarily by doing all our work (Ps 104:23), how we typically generate income or value and provide and care for ourselves (2Th 3:10), on the other six days (9): we are forbidden to work on Sabbath and to require others to work. (10) As God rested on the seventh day (Ex 20:11), so should we. (Le 19:3)
So, we’re evidently within Sabbath guidelines if we abstain from the types of activities we typically engage in the other six days, especially income-generating activities, so long as we’re not neglecting our duties to ourselves or others, continuing to live responsibly and charitably in the world. (1Co 16:4) The more of this routine activity we can do before Sabbath, to prepare for it without creating an inappropriate inefficiency or burden, the better. This can be a learning process, where we get better at keeping Sabbath the more we observe it.
So, if a friend has an emergency on Sabbath and requires our help (De 22:1-2), we shouldn’t think of this as a violation. (Mt 12:11-12) But when friends or family routinely plan chores on Sabbath and count on our help, wisdom advises them of our Sabbath observance and kindly asks them to respect it.
And if we need to go to a store to pick up something we overlooked, or want to relax at a restaurant or go out to a performance on Shabbat, does this promote our rest and recovery from our weekly labors? Is it something we can easily put off until after Sabbath? Would it increase our stress or decrease it? We should pray through each situation with the spirit of Sabbath in mind.
As to how the world views our Sabbath activity, God deals with each of us according to our hearts. (Pr 24:12) Unless we are in Israel itself, most people in our culture work voluntarily on Sabbath, ignorant and/or heedless of God’s commands; benefiting from this isn’t necessarily inconsistent with Torah since we aren’t requiring others to work, or even encouraging it.
It isn’t our responsibility to require others to obey Torah, or to rebuke, admonish correct or instruct those who aren’t seeking after God and wanting to obey Him. God evidently enforces Torah violations differently depending on one’s understanding and permits His own to benefit from the voluntary Torah violations of others so long as we ourselves are being obedient. (De 14:21a)