John 7:22
Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; ( not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; ( not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man.
Circumcision did not originate with Moses but with the fathers, though it was given through Moses to Israel as an inherited practice commanded to the nation. It was performed on the Sabbath when necessary, for the Jews circumcised a man even on that day. The law required a boy to be circumcised on the eighth day even when that day fell on the Sabbath.
The verse sets up a lesser-to-greater argument: since an act affecting only one part of the body was already accepted on the Sabbath, making a whole man well on the Sabbath should not be condemned. Healing the afflicted and making a person completely well on the Sabbath is therefore lawful and right. Such healing fulfills the Sabbath's purpose. Such healing relieves suffering, as shown by the healing of the paralytic on the Sabbath. Such healing is consistent with the Sabbath law and in harmony with the spirit of the law.
The matter must be judged rightly rather than by mere appearance, so healing completely on the Sabbath is no ground for condemnation. The verse belongs to a rebuke of those who claimed authority over others as judges while themselves failing to keep God's law, charging that the nation had broken the Sabbath and other precepts. The breaking of the law was repeated, and the men who claimed authority as judges and censors were themselves among those who did not keep the law.