Eric Liddell’s story was told in one of my favorite movies, Chariot’s of Fire. He was called “The Flying Scotsman” after the record-breaking locomotive. He wanted to compete in the Summer Olympic games, while his family wanted him to begin his missionary career in China. He decided to put off his missionary work until after the Olympics. His family was very unhappy with his decision. When he made the British Olympic team, he went to the games in Paris in 1924. When he arrived, he found out that the qualifying heats for the 100-meter, his best event, were to be held on Sunday, in the movie. In reality, he knew before when the heat was and had determined not to qualify on Sunday… He had made up his mind that he would not race on Sunday – and instead, he preached in a church in Paris that day.
Eric entered himself in a different race – the 400 meter. It was not what he had trained for, but Liddell ended up winning the race and setting a world record at the same time. Liddell served the rest of his life until his 1945 death in a Japanese civilian internment camp. In the midst of the debate with his family over whether he should put off the ministry and run in the Olympics, Eric delivered the wonderful statement to which I believe the apostle Paul would say, “Amen!” Eric said, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”
Was Eric Liddell right for not qualifying on Sunday?
In Romans 14:5, Paul says the weak believer esteems one religious day above another and the strong esteems every day the same. Is Paul saying that those who believe the first day of the week is the Lord’s day are weak? And those who say you can worship any day are strong? What religious days was Paul discussing? Paul is settling the debate over OT Jewish regulations concerning diet and religious days. The weak who were saved out of the strict Jewish background could not bring themselves to eat pork. The strong knew this prohibition was no longer in effect because believers were no longer under the law (see Acts 10:9-22).
The same was true with OT religious days, such as the Sabbath. In OT the Sabbath was the holy day, the one day of the week set apart by God according to Ex 20:8-11. This was true for 1500 years. The Sabbath celebrated God’s rest from creating the universe in six days. Some Jews saved were having a hard time not observing the Sabbath. They were weak. Other converted Jews knew that now the new day of worship was Sunday, the first day of the week.
The resurrection of Christ changed 1500 years of tradition. The four Gospels record that Jesus resurrected on “the first day of the week” (Mt. 28:1). The early church, who were not under the law, honored Sunday as the Lord’s Day as seen in Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2.
Here is John Piper’s view: 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 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 (From John Piper’s Is There a “Lord’s Day?”) (click to view).
Albert Barnes agrees: The Lord’s day was doubtless observed by all Christians, whether converted from Jews or Gentiles. See 1 Corinthians 16:2; Acts 20:7; Revelation 1:10. The propriety of observing that day does not appear to have been a matter of controversy. The only inquiry was, whether it was proper to add to that the observance of the Jewish Sabbaths, and days of festivals and fasts (His Commentary on Romans 14).
Charles Ryrie wrote of the distinctiveness of the Lord’s Day: Clearly, the early church made this day distinct, for though they went to the synagogue services on the Sabbath, they went to evangelize. When they met with other believers it was on Sunday. Romans 14:5 does not mean that Christians did not distinguish the first day for worship. Rather, Paul was exhorting them not to be pressured by the Jewish element in the church to observe or fast on certain days (Basic Theology, p. 500) (click to view).
Paul was teaching that if Jewish converts wanted to observe OT religious day, they should be able to without being judged. Just like Paul took the Nazarite vow in Acts 18 as an act of dedication to the Lord so should these believers be able to attend religious days. He also cut his stay in Ephesus short so he could attend the Passover in Jerusalem. Not because he was weak but because he was Jewish.
Ryrie also noted that although the New Testament church used Sunday as their day of corporate worship, Sunday was not a weekly holiday in the Roman Empire. Slaves were on call every day including Sunday (Basic Theology, p. 499). Perhaps this is the setting for the Sunday evening service in Acts 20. Eutychus, who worked all day, rushes home, cleans up, and comes to church. He is sitting by the window on the third floor to get fresh air and stay awake. Torches are sucking up oxygen. Paul is long preaching. Eutychus loses the battle and falls to his death. With great difficulty, God’s people observed the Lord’s Day.
John MacArthur in his sermon Why is Sunday the Lord’s Day? (click to view) defends Sunday being the day of corporate worship for the church. Here is only one excerpt:
I don’t call Sunday Sunday. I call it the Lord’s Day. You hear me say that a lot. The Lord’s Day, the Lord’s Day. It was on the Lord’s Day that John received his vision, his first vision was of Jesus the Lord of the church, right? What does he say there? “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, the sound of a trumpet.” He turns around and sees Christ ministering in the candlesticks, Christ ministering in His church. This is the Lord of the church serving His church, and he got the vision of the Lord moving in His church on Sunday. The Lord is the one who initiated that vision and He initiated it on a Sunday, on the Lord’s Day.
John had a lot of visions in the book of Revelation. None of them is identified with a day, none of them, this is the only one. This is the Lord’s Day because this is resurrection day, this is Holy Spirit day. It’s not the Lord’s morning. It’s not the Lord’s afternoon. It’s not the Lord’s evening. It’s not the Lord’s hour. It’s the Lord’s Day.
What does that mean to you? There’s a reason we don’t have a Saturday night service. Would it be wrong? No, not law, not necessarily wrong. I don’t want to be the guy that breaks the tradition. I don’t want to be the guy who breaks this marvelous, glorious tribute to the risen Christ. Christ should be exalted 24/7, right? And He should be exalted Saturday morning, and Saturday night, and every other day. But it just seems to me that God has placed His almighty hand on the first day of the week and said, “This is My Day. This is My day.”