We can all agree on the how of Christmas because Jesus was born. However, we will miss the bigger picture if we talk only about the how and not the why. Many people have been able to pass the how. This is why Merry Christmas has been replaced with Happy Holiday. The celebration of the birth of Christ has been reduced to material consumption and many other things. Many are uncomfortable mentioning the name of Christ because they have refused to acknowledge the WHY of Christmas. It is not X-Mass. Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, was born more than 2000 years ago. He was born for a reason. Therefore, to tap into the whole essence of Christmas, we MUST factor in the WHY of Christmas. God loves us. In short, God loves you and me. God loves everybody in the world.
Before we talk about the love of God, it will be helpful to define what love is. I was listening to a Rabbi who defined fish love not too long ago. According to him, many people say they love fish because the fish ends up on their lunch or dinner plate.
God’s love is different. It is an unselfish love that is eternal, and it is available to all who don’t merit it.
What passes these days in the name of love is nothing compared to God’s love
Here is an excellent definition of God’s love:
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 1Corinthians 13:4-8
You may be wondering that this type of love does not exist. You are correct in thinking like this because humans don’t have the capacity to love like this. Without God, we can’t do it. I say this because love is a person.
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8
Love is not a feeling or emotion. Love is a person, and that person is God. Therefore, to love, we must have God in us. This is why Christmas becomes very important because God came in the flesh and lived among us and is now available to us.
How do we know God loves us if love is not a feeling?
In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10
God’s love for us has been clearly manifested through the action of sending Jesus Christ to be born in the flesh. The how of Christ is the birth of Christ. However, God did not only end at his son being born. He had a bigger plan, and that it to save us from our sins.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Everlasting life is the why of Christmas. Jesus was born so that we can receive God’s free gift of salvation which includes the forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation to God.
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:13
Jesus was born to die. He died because of our sins. This action of love has paved the way for us to become God’s children. Now is the best time for you to accept God’s love by accepting God’s gift for you. This great gift is Jesus Christ.
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Jeremiah 31:3
God’s love is essential because it is eternal love and an unstoppable love:
Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39
The greatest news of all is that because of Christmas you have the capacity to love
We love Him because He first loved us. 1 john 4:19
When we accept God’s love, we are given the capacity to love because God will love others through us.
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Merry Christmas!
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