The Spirit of Christmas

At Christmastime we celebrate God sending His Son into the world to save the world. In doing so God met our greatest need, saving us from our sin, by giving His Son to die on the cross. This was the ultimate demonstration of God’s amazing love. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Thus, the spirit of Christmas is God giving of Himself to meet the needs of humanity.

The Christmas season has so much sentiment because most of us enjoy the celebration and tradition that accompanies Christmas.  However, we also acknowledge that there is a struggle between celebrating the true meaning of Christmas and trying to avoid the commercialization of Christmas. How should we handle that tension?  Should we have nothing to do with Christmas Trees or Santa Claus in protest to secularization and commercialization of Christmas?

As Christians who have accepted God’s gracious gift, we should live out this spirit in our relationships with others because we have the hope of salvation. Around two thousand years ago the Church of Jerusalem was going through severe financial hardships. The Apostle Paul instructed another church, the Church of Corinth, to take up a collection for the struggling Church of Jerusalem.  In instructing Corinth to give, Paul used our Lord’s great act of love for us as his basis for the Corinthians to give. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)  Jesus Christ, on that first Christmas morning, left the glory of heaven and humbly subjected Himself to humanity. He did all this just to save us. Knowing this to be true, we should be willing to give and to help others even if it means self-sacrifice.

However you feel about Santa, Rudolph and Frosty, if you believe that God sent His Son into the world to save the world, the most profound way you can celebrate Christmas is by acting on the spirit of Christmas. As Christians there is no better way to celebrate Christmas than by giving of ourselves to meet the needs of others. Personally, the more I live out the spirit of Christmas and give of myself to meet the needs of others, the more I feel the liberty to enjoy some of the traditional sentiment that comes with this time of year.