Family Advent Devotional: The Virtues of Christmas Week 2

The following devotion is the second in a series of four Advent family devotions for the busy pastor. While the busy Christmas season fills the calendar, it only takes ten minutes to gather the family and read through a devotion. Let us put aside every reason that would threaten to excuse us from our duty to disciple our family. As we take the time to read the following post, let’s remind our family that the reason we exchange gifts on Christmas springs from imitating the love of God. With the birth of his Son in Bethlehem, God gave us the greatest gift of all.

Christmas Love

Scottish author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, created the fictional character Sherlock Holmes as the crime-solving sleuth for his stories. Using his keen power of observation and intelligence to put facts together, Sherlock can solve the most difficult of crimes. As we study love, the greatest of our three Christmas virtues, we need to be a bit like Sherlock.

Put on your sleuthing hat as you read the following Bible verse and see if you can discover where Christmas is hidden in its meaning so that we might connect Christmas with the virtue of love.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Did you connect God sending his Son with Christmas? Let’s rewrite the verse to show where a Christmas promise is hidden.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son Jesus (to be born a baby to Mary and Joseph on the very first Christmas) to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

While the whole word “Christmas” is not found in the Bible, the first half of the word, Christ, refers to Jesus. Christ is the English word for Messiah, the promised deliverer. Christmas is the day we celebrate the coming of the Messiah—the day God sent his Son to be born as a human baby in the town of Bethlehem to reverse the curse that came upon the land at the fall.

Love (our first Christmas virtue) is repeated three times in 1 John 4:10. Let’s look at each of these three uses of the word “love” to try and sleuth out what love has to do with Christmas.

“In this is love”

The words, “in this is love” signal us to look for the essence of love. John follows these words by giving us two examples. The first example of love is that God sent his Son Jesus to us. The Son

of God came as a gift. Second, God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is a word that means taking the punishment we deserve for our sins.

God did not give up his Son Jesus to come to earth for a social visit. God gave up his Son Jesus to die. There was a cost to the Father in sending his Son. God the Father sacrificed his Son for us. When the angels appeared to the shepherds the night of Jesus’s birth, they announced, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

Jesus came as the promised Son of Adam to save, but his salvation would come at a great cost.

While Jesus lived a perfect life and never sinned, he was rejected by men, unjustly condemned, and crucified on a cross. While on the cross, Jesus took our sin upon himself and received the wrath of God—the punishment for our sin. John tells us that in this example of sacrifice is the very meaning of love—“in this is love.”

Sacrificing or giving up something for another person is the essence of love. This is most powerfully expressed in the love God demonstrated in giving up his Son to die and in the Son’s willingness to obey the Father and come to die. That is why love is the greatest Christmas virtue.

“Not that we have loved God”

John wants to ensure we understand the depth of God’s love. Paul wrote, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God loved us while we hated him by sinning against him. Sin is turning away from God to do what we want instead of what God asks us to do. Paul also described us as “enemies” of God (Romans 5:10). What makes the love God demonstrated on the first Christmas so special? Jesus died for us while we were his enemies. That shows us the depth of his love.

The moment Jesus died, the temple curtain tore from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). The temple curtain kept sinful people away from God’s presence, where he lived in the innermost room of the temple. But with the sacrifice of Jesus, the way into fellowship with God and eternal life was opened again.

“He loved us and sent his Son”

The greatest expression of love for all time is God giving up his Son for us. In the third chapter of John’s Gospel, he tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave up his only Son.”

The depth of love shown through any act is measured by the amount of sacrifice involved. God’s gift of his Son to die for our sins is the single greatest expression of love of all time. Today, we show others love by giving up our time and attention, laboring for their good. All these flow from God’s example of giving up his Son for us.

Today, many people give gifts at Christmas. But few people do this to imitate the love of God. If you were to ask, “Why do we give gifts at Christmas?” many would not know to point back to Jesus. We give gifts at Christmas to share our love, following the example of love in the giving of the greatest gift of all time—Jesus.

©2024 Marty Machowski. Used with permission.