Christmas and Love – The Connection
Scripture: John 3:16; Mark 12:30-31; First Peter 4:8; First John 4:16-19
This morning I want to talk to you about the connection between Christmas and love. This Saturday we will celebrate Christmas. This is the time of year when people tend to be more generous, more loving and more caring. We tend to have more patience with one another because it’s Christmas time. This feeling of brotherly love, what some call “the spirit of Christmas”, is shared across religious boundaries because for many, Christmas is not a religious holiday, it’s a secular one. So my question to you this morning is, “What’s love got to do with it?” If Christmas is truly a secular holiday, why do we feel more brotherly love during this time of year? Some would argue that they don’t and they would be right as there are people who actually hate this time of year. But for a Christian, someone who has accepted Christ as their personal Savior, what does love have to do with Christmas? My answer to this question is “Everything!” John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Also, Romans 5:7-8 says, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Christ was born because God loved us first. Christ died for our sins, because God loved us first. I do not care how you view Christmas, it started with love and it will end with love!
A few years ago there was a controversy in reference to the use of the word “Christmas” being used to describe this particular holiday season. It was politically incorrect, and to some degree it still is, to wish someone a Merry Christmas unless you knew for sure that they were a Christian. Even though a lot of our holiday stories center around Santa Claus, for Christians, Christmas started as a celebration of the birth of Christ. Christmas, as we know it, is a rather modern innovation. Christ’s birthday was not celebrated until more than 300 years after His death and resurrection. For the early Christians, His birth was not as important as His death and resurrection. Based on biblical account of His birth, Christ was born in the spring. Celebrating Christmas on December 25 was chosen to coincide with a Roman holiday in which the sun god was worshipped. By 386 A.D. church leaders set up the celebration of “Christ Mass” so that Christians could join in the festival activities that the Romans were already participating in without bending to paganism. After the Roman Empire dissolved, Christians continued the December 25th birthday custom. Through the years other customs were added to the celebration to get us to what we celebrate today as Christmas, which does not resemble what was originally celebrated. Today, Christmas is focused more on gift giving than the One it is to celebrate – something that none in the early Church would ever have imagined. So we find ourselves in the midst of wondering can I wish someone on my job a “Merry Christmas” or must I say “Happy Holidays.” Retailers are also moving away from using “Christmas” in their advertising as to not be offensive. They are now wishing everyone a very “Happy Holiday Season”. Again I ask you, what does love have to do with this?
I think I shared this story before, but it bears repeating again in this message. Several years ago I watched a talk show where the host had an atheist, a Jewish rabbi and a Catholic priest on as his guest. The host was also Catholic. The focus of the conversation was why “religious” people believe in God and why the atheist did not. They also discussed the obvious fact that there is a division among those who believed in God but rejected a belief in Christ. Both the rabbi and the priest could not believe that the atheist could teach her children that all that they were existed within them now; that there was no higher power than them. Her response to them was that the so-called “religious” people cannot agree with one another either. The first place she went to was Christ. She said to the priest and the rabbi that one of them must be wrong since one believed in Christ and the other did not. The rabbi responded by saying that both believed in God and that was more important. He took it a step further and said that he believed that Christ was truly the Messiah for the Gentiles, but he did not think that Christ was God’s Son. Well the prevailing thought of the atheist was that if the religious people could not agree how could she agree with and/or believe either group. It was easy to see the difference between Christians and Jews, but it is much harder to explain the differences between Christians, which is a point that the atheist quickly pointed out next.
You see, Christians are divided on a lot of issues, from how to baptize correctly to the words that must be said when the baptism takes place. We are divided on worship service, to have music or not, beliefs around the gifts of the Spirit, Church buildings versus meeting in someone home. We are divided on how we should dress, how we should act, what can and cannot be done in Church. We are divided on what we can eat, what we can watch or what music we can listen to. We are divided on who can stand in the pulpit or who can serve in other ministries of the Church. We are divided on what we believe about Jesus Christ, His teachings and the Word of God. We are divided on what are sin and its true penalty. We are divided on what we believe about salvation, who can have it and who cannot. We are divided on Church names, if the name of your Church is not right, you cannot be saved. Christians are divided, not just between denominations, but it can be found in individual Churches. And all of this is destroying our witness for Jesus. There were people in this congregation that did not hold all of the same beliefs as someone else, and that could still be the case today. Is it important for everyone to believe the same thing?
God believes it is. In First Corinthians chapter one and verse 10 we read: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (First Corinthians 1:10) As always, I’m with God on this. It is important for all of us to believe the same thing if it’s foundation is the Word of God. In God’s eyes, it’s really not optional. For example, the Bible says Christ was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life and died for our sins. Every Christian must believe this. Every Christian must believe that Christ rose on the third day and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. Every Christian must believe that Christ is the Son of God and He is the only way to God. This means that if you are a Christian you must believe that Jesus is the only way into heaven. Period! These are non-negotiable because of love. Can a person be a Christian and not believe these things? The Bible says no. Everything that Jesus did for us was because God loved us! No one else loved us enough to die for our sins in our place! NO ONE!!! This time of year increases my awareness of just how divided we are as Christians, even though our foundation is supposed to be love. For a group of people who are supposed to live by love and who are supposed to be family, we truly have a hard time expressing it to one other. The bridge that must be built to close the division will be built on love. Love birthed this season and if we are expressing love, love is welcomed regardless of beliefs.
If you recall from my message last Sunday, I talked about what Jesus said about the sixth commandment. Jesus related the commandment about us not killing being equal to our being angry with someone without a cause. When He talked about forgiveness, He said that we should forgive and settle the issue with the person before we bring our offering to Him and before we pray. The only way that we can move beyond our anger and discover a desire to forgive (whether the person asks for it or not) is to love. We have to love enough to forgive. Let me share with you a few points on love so that you will understand the true importance that it has on your life.
First and foremost, everyone, regardless of age, race, cultural background or religious beliefs, needs love. There are many people who have taught themselves that they do not need love, nor do they want it. This decision is often based on a need for self-protection because they had experienced hurt somewhere along their path in life. This decision, while common, is not natural. Let me tell you why from a medical viewpoint first and then we will look at Scripture. As I have shared with you before, there is a medical condition found with newborns and younger children called “Failure to Thrive (FTT)”. Children are diagnosed with failure to thrive when their weight or rate of weight gain is significantly below that of other children of similar age and sex. It can be organic or non-organic so it is important to determine whether failure to thrive (FTT) results from medical problems or factors in the environment, such as abuse or neglect. With organic FTT there is something physically wrong with the baby that is causing the baby not to get its nutritional needs from the food it eats. With non-organic FTT, there is nothing physically wrong with the baby. Emotional deprivation (lack of love and attention) as a result of parental withdrawal, rejection or hostility is one of the non-organic causes of this condition. This condition is diagnosed initially by monitoring the baby’s weight gain. This is the first initial sign, a baby that is losing weight or is not gaining weight based on parameters that are set. One of the later outcomes is the size of the baby’s head gets smaller. This is caused by malnutrition because the baby is not taking in the nutrition it needs. When this condition is diagnosed, the physician admits the baby into the hospital and monitors the baby and its interaction with the parents while increasing the baby’s nutritional intake. Although the baby will start gaining weight while in the hospital, if something is not done to correct the interaction between the mother and the child, the baby will revert back to losing weight when discharged from the hospital.
My reason for telling you this is simple: a newborn baby is born into this world with a physical need to be loved, held, caressed and interacted with. Since the baby is a newborn, this is not a learned response; it is something that was placed within them by God. It is as much spiritual as it is physical. When this does not happen, the baby literally begins to die. Yes, the condition can lead to the death if not corrected quickly. So when they bring the parents in, they teach them how to interact and express their love for the baby. However, in the studies that have been done, the prognosis has been disappointing because if the child does not receive the love and interactions they need to develop, they remain behind physically, emotionally and intellectually. They easily become the “troubled” kids in the school system. I want you to understand this clearly, you were born with a need to be loved. God placed that within you. The Bible says in First John 4:16 that “…..God is love.” God is love and therefore He created us to love and be loved! Christmas is a reminder of the love God shows towards each of us which likewise we should be showing towards others at all times. If you believe you do not need love and you can be an island unto yourself, you are only fooling yourself. God created us to love and to be loved. When God made Adam, He saw that he was alone. God knew that this was not good for Adam. Adam needed someone to be there with him, someone he could love and thus love him in return. Genesis 2:18 records “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make him a helper, suitable for him.” God made Eve so that Adam would not be alone; so he could love and be loved.
Jesus also spent a lot of time talking about love. He said the greatest commandment is “….you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31) We were created to love and to be loved and Christmas, for a Christian, is a physical reminder of the love we should have for everyone.
So what does love have to do with it? As I said at the beginning of this message – it has everything to do with it. Earlier I told you that the only way to close the division that separates us is love. Love can do miracles when nothing else works. Love can penetrate the thickest wall and the heaviest heart. It started with love and it will end with love. John 3:16 tells us that God sent Jesus because He loved us. Jesus volunteered to leave heaven, suffer and die on a cross because He loved us. No matter how we say it, the truth of the matter is that we are about love and that’s what love has to do with it.
What is the impact that love can have on our lives? First Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” When you love, it covers a multitude of sins. It covers the faults, the weaknesses, the hurts, the transgressions, the differences, everything. Now don’t misunderstand me. When the Bible talks about love covering sin, it’s talking about us loving the person despite the wrong things they have done to us. We may not trust them like we did before and it may even change our relationship with them to some degree. But, our love for them must never be an issue. And when it says love “covers” sin, it does not mean love accepts and or tolerates sin. Again it is talking our response to the person regardless of how they are act. When we begin to walk in love we do not choose who we will love based on what we receive back from them. We love indiscriminately. We love everybody. Yes, I know some of you have been hurt, but love can heal it. Yes, I know you do not want to put yourself out there, but love can heal that fear too. When we perfect love, our fears are released. How many Christmases have been spent with family members not talking to one another because their love could not bridge the other issues in the family? If you believe love covers a multitude of sins, then the door should remain open for that possibility. I mention First John 4:16 earlier, but I want to read the whole passage.
First John 4:16-19 says, “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because He first loved us.” These verses are talking about our relationship with God. We have come to know and understand God’s love for us and who we are in Him. That understanding gives us confidence that when we stand before Him, we will not receive punishment, but eternal life. We have no fear of hell because we are wrapped up in the love of God. God’s love when perfected within us casts out all fear of hell. That is what these verses are saying to us. But I want to take it one step further so that you can understand what love can do for us right now, today, and for the rest of our lives.
Everyone one of us in this sanctuary, or who are watching this broadcast, or will read this message later, have been hurt at some point in our life. Some of our hurts run deeply, so deep that we are afraid of truly caring for someone else or allowing them to care for us. What these verses tell us is that the fear and torment that we carry within can be replaced with our understanding of God’s love for us and our accepting that love. When we accept God’s love, we become love. Why does this happen? Whoever God abides in becomes like He is. We cannot make God become like us because He has already made us like Him! God is Love and love lives in us! When we allow His love to be perfected within us, the fears that we carry, whatever they are, but especially pertaining to relationships, cease to control us. Does that mean we will never experience any hurts again? No, but you always have a Father to go to when it happens. When we love, we receive love in return. If we focus on loving others while allowing others to love us, we live. If we believe that we are an island unto ourselves and we do not need the love of others, we are living, yet we are already dead. We are dead emotionally and possibly spiritually. Physical death is all that remains.
Love is the bridge that will enable us to interact with anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs even if they are atheist. Love is the one gift that we can give, over and over and over. It never fades, grows old or stops positively impacting people’s lives. During this Christmas season, wherever you are spiritually and emotionally, will you give love a try? It can change the rest of your life. Allow God’s love to envelop you and you will find how easy it is to share it with others. I know this can be scary because it will require that you lower your walls, but give love a try. We cannot know and fully walk as children of God if we do not have love for others. That’s why love is so important and that’s why Christmas is not a secular holiday for Christians. It’s a day we celebrate the birth of our Savior. I am not talking about the gift giving, the presents under the trees or all of the decorations. I am not talking about the Christmas cards, dinners or other festivities that go along with this holiday celebration. What I am talking about are those still, quiet, moments of reflections that we have that God truly loves us and through His love we can show love to others. I am talking about the desire to forgive during this time of year. I am talking about the desire to do something for someone else during this time of year. Christmas is a reminder for us of what we should be doing every single day of our lives – loving others.
I hope that you will have a blessed week leading up to Christmas day next Saturday. I hope you experience fully the love of God this week and share His love with others, especially with people who are not a part of your family.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(We are once again conducting live services on Sunday morning beginning at 9:15 a.m. We will continue to broadcast live on Facebook Live at 10:00 a.m.. Please tune in to "New Light Christian Fellowship Church" and like our page if you wish to watch our broadcast and be notified when we go live. If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. We also have Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. via Zoom that you are also welcome to attend – please email me for the link. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. If you would like to donate to our ministry you may do so through our website: newlightchristianfellowship.org by clicking on the PayPal or Cash App buttons. May God bless and keep you.)
