Is it considered sin for a husband and wife to participate in sexual activity on the Sabbath?
God created man on the sixth day, and the very first command He gave Adam and Eve was to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:27–28). Since they were created on the sixth day, they would’ve experienced their first Sabbath the following day, and there is no record of God forbidding marital intimacy on the Sabbath.
The fourth commandment of God simply states we are to “do no work” on the Sabbath, and while some may consider marital intimacy to be work, there is no biblical evidence that God considers it laborious in nature; otherwise, He would have forbidden it on the Sabbath.
The very principle of Sabbath-keeping should be kept in mind when such questions arise. If God considered sexual activity to be laborious work, then certainly He would have said “be fruitful and multiply—except on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath!” We rest from the labors through which we make money and do no work that may cause us to violate the principle of Sabbath-keeping, leading us to forget our Lord and Creator.
Jesus said that the “Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath is His gift to us! We should keep it holy by refraining from the labors of the world, but we must also make it a pleasurable experience. God never intended for the Sabbath to be a time of drudgery, but rather, a time of joy and happiness. So, while we should make sure that we do not violate the holiness of the Sabbath, we should always look forward to it being a time of rest, worship, joy, visitation, and yes, even some special marital time with our spouse.