Of course, the apostles did use the Sabbath as an occasion to preach to the Jews assembled in their synagogues. But they were no longer under obligation to keep the Sabbath.

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Not ‘Desecrating the Sabbath’

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES visit people in their homes to discuss the Bible every day of the week. In this they imitate Jesus Christ and the apostles.

From time to time local communities have charged the Witnesses with ‘desecrating the Sabbath,’ because they make house-to-house calls on Sunday. How have the courts viewed this matter? Typical are the following quotes from the Iowa Supreme Court:

“We are not prepared to hold that the calling at private homes in the middle of the Sabbath day, however unwelcome the caller may be, in itself, constitutes a desecration of the Sabbath.”

How about the leaving of Bible literature for a nominal contribution? Is that ‘selling on the Sabbath’? In this regard the court continued:

“[The Witnesses] were teaching and spreading their religious views without compensation and at their own expense. . . . The commercial aspect of sales was absent. We do not think the statute contemplates that the distribution of booklets of this nature and under these particular circumstances constitutes desecrating the Sabbath.”​—Supreme Court of Iowa, State v. Mead et al., 1941.