Category: “A Real Christmas” series

A Real Christmas Is (Not) All About You

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(Luke 1:39-55)

Whether you have it on repeat or you skip it every time it comes on, the song is popular enough to engrain in our hearts and minds that Christmas is “the most wonderful time of the year.” Even if it’s been a while (or never) since you’ve sung carols in the snow (especially if you live in CA), toasted marshmallows, or gone “mistletoeing,” the song ushers in warm and fond memories of Christmases past that put us in the mood to celebrate once again. For so many, it really is the most wonderful time of the year.

But there’s another possible label that is very fitting for this time of year. It could also be known as “The Most Deceptive Time of the Year.” Consider how much of an emphasis is placed on giving. The expression “it’s better to give than to receive” probably gets more exposure during the month of December than it does the other eleven months of the year combined. Organizations have Giving Trees displayed to help those in need. Retailers even guilt us with the enticement to shop at their store to make sure you’re giving the perfect gift.

It might sound like I’m blasting all of those examples outright, as if they are inherently sinister or shady. That certainly isn’t the case. As they stand on their own, they are good reminders, and necessary ones, so that I don’t allow a season associated with gift exchanges to become entirely about what gifts I’m getting. 

No, the warning comes in recognizing how persistently our pride seeks to make everything – even giving – about us. Yes, our pride is such a master of disguise that it can even expertly hide behind something that on the surface appears to be all about other people. That’s why this season can be so deceptive. A season of giving and putting others first is simply another way for my pride to place itself on a pedestal for all to see.

Don’t underestimate our pride’s ability to hide behind giving. A whole season that is supposedly all about giving is the perfect cloak under which to hide my pride. So when I hear the reminder that it’s better to give than to receive, my pride perks up at the word “better,” and immediately zeros in on my own selfless acts of generosity and raises them up far above those other people who only complain about not getting this gift or that gift, or how cheap someone was toward them in their gift exchange. I don’t hesitate to impress others with my stories, making sure they haven’t missed the news of my participation in this Giving Tree campaign or that toy drive or that other cause for people in need. When others come to know me as the person who always gives such good gifts, is my giving really about finding that perfect gift for the other person or has it become more about keeping up that reputation of world’s greatest gift-giver? In each of these cases, can we see ourselves as the puffed up pharisee standing next to the tax collector, thanking God that he’s not more like that guy? It’s such a natural bent that we have toward sin that pride can even make something like giving all about me. Then we’re doing the opposite of everyone’s favorite Christmas magnet, “Keeping Christ in Christmas,” by taking out the “Christ” and replacing it with ourselves.

But here’s the rub: if we are going to experience a real Christmas this year, we have to come clean with our natural inclination to make it about us. As long as we imagine that the responsibility of making it a real Christmas or giving someone else a real Christmas, we’re going to end up with an artificial attempt that is worse than a fake tree so bad that not even Goodwill can unload it. So, want a real Christmas? Realize it’s not about you. 

Don’t you get a clear sense of that from both Mary and Elizabeth? Well, kind of, anyway. It was about them, but not about what they had done or achieved or about being recognized by others, but rather about what they had received: God’s grace. And as they express their amazement of being on the receiving end of such favor, they clearly realize how little they deserve it!

Appreciate first how Elizabeth reflected this. “In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” (v.42-45). Elizabeth’s attitude wasn’t one of arrogant expectation that Mary would visit her, since she would after all be giving birth to John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Savior. No, she asks why she should be deemed worthy of a visit from the mother of the Savior of the world. That’s genuine humility! And following that, she belts out blessings to Mary, not praising her for any Mother Theresa-type good works or anything along those lines, but simply for having a humble faith that believed what God had promised to do for her. Remember, Mary was the one who came to visit Elizabeth,yet Elizabeth made it all about Mary.

Mary did something similar. She came to celebrate the good news with Elizabeth, but her celebration was all about her Savior. Her song, known historically in the church as the Magnificat, is a beautiful example of genuine humility. When Mary references herself, it is only in the context of being on the receiving end of what God has done and is still doing for her. Otherwise, the whole song is filled with “He” – as an ode to all of the amazing things that God has done and continues to do for his people. So both Elizabeth or Mary didn’t make it about themselves; they made it about their Savior. They humbly – yet jubilantly! – praised their Savior.

A real Christmas is about giving. But not about using giving as an outlet to put our pride into practice. And, even in those cases where our giving is genuine (and not a pretense for our pride), it’s still misguided if the intent of our giving is to somehow manufacture a “real’ Christmas. Instead, the kind of giving that makes for a real Christmas is giving Jesus the attention that Elizabeth and Mary did. 

And he deserves it, because as Mary confessed, in his mercy, he doesn’t give us what we deserve. “His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation” (v.50). “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever…” (v.54-55a). God’s mercy means our pride no longer damns us! Mercy means God hasn’t treated our selfish pride as it deserves. Mercy means we have just as much reason to celebrate the Savior as Elizabeth and Mary did!

But for those not interested in that mercy, who prefer to remain in their pride, God has something for them, too. “He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones…” (v.51-52a). Pride is nothing more than a human attempt at raising oneself above God, and God is no stranger to dealing with it. He has shown throughout history how he handles it, and he won’t hesitate to humble those insisting they have something of which to be proud.

But that is not God’s greatest desire. Think about it differently. If God’s greatest interest was merely behavior modification (for example, to make us more humble), if that’s all that Christianity was about – doing the right things and living the right way, then God would have addressed pride (and all other sin!) much differently. He would have sent his Son – but perhaps with a team of elite angels to sniff out sin and immediately punish it wherever they found it. That would get people to shape up very quickly, wouldn’t it?!?

But his preference is to show mercy. And Christmas is proof. God didn’t send his Son to change your behavior; he sent his Son to be your Savior. When we set aside our pride long enough to see that Christmas isn’t about us, that’s when we’re free to see Christ clearly, and see that… he already made Christmas all about us! 

Do you get it? When I make Christmas all about me, I suffer the most, because I am blinded to the reality that God already made Christmas all about me. If not, he would not have sent his Son to save. But he did, which is how you can be certain that Christmas is all about you.

When we know that Christmas is actually all about us – in the right way! – then we can revisit that whole matter of giving. And we can do so by following in the footsteps of humble Elizabeth and Mary. Yes, give. Give glory and praise to God this Christmas! Make Christmas about Christ. Give to God by going to church. Give to God by getting in the Word. Give to God by giving a special Christmas offering. Give to God by taking time over the twelve days of Christmas to consider how to give him more of you in the next year. Give thought to how you can make Mary’s words your own and how you can put those words into practice in your life: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” (v. 46-47). 

A Real Christmas Is Filled with Delight

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(Zephaniah 3:14-17)

When someone bursts out with “Let’s celebrate!”, it’s hard not to get excited. Who doesn’t like celebrating? And there all kinds of ways to do it. It could mean planning a big party. It might mean booking a vacation. It might also be a very nice dinner out or a special, home-cooked favorite and a movie. No matter what it looks like, everyone likes to celebrate.

But long before you start cranking out celebration plans, a natural question arises: What are we celebrating? The answer to that question matters, because the cause for celebration determines the scale of celebration. Going out for ice cream might be an appropriate celebration for a Third Grade daughter’s good grade on a quiz, but it falls short as a celebration for that daughter’s college graduation. A special getaway could be an appropriate way for a couple to celebrate a 25th Anniversary, but it would be overkill as a celebratory reward for the husband actually remembering to stop and get milk on his way home from work. The cause for celebration determines the scale of the celebration.

So when we have a celebration on a scale like the one Zephaniah describes, “Sing, Daughter Zion; shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem!” (v.14), we want to know: what is the cause of the celebration? Singing, shouting, and glad rejoicing – it sounds like something pretty significant is the cause of celebration! 

Zephaniah, who served during the reign of Josiah, one of Israel’s few respectable kings, explains why such a celebration is justified. “The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm” (v.15). We might assume he was referring to some pretty awful times that Israel was going through. He was… only they hadn’t happened yet. In the first two chapters of Zephaniah, he prophesied the judgment that would be coming on not only Israel, but the surrounding enemy nations who had opposed Israel. Their downfall was coming. For Israel, that would be fulfilled through their Babylonian Captivity. Yes, they would be taken captive, displaced from their homes, and relocated to a foreign land.

But on the other side of that captivity would be reason to rejoice and be glad; to sing and shout: the Lord would end that punishment, overcome the Babylonians, and allow them to return to their homeland with the assurance that the Lord – the true “King of Israel” – would be with them. Zephaniah further cements that certainty. “On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves” (v.16-17a). While it would be understandable for them to question if God had deserted them while in Babylon, let there be no doubt that he would be among his people once again as a Mighty Warrior to save them. Their gracious God, who had warned of their judgment if they continued to turn from him, is also concerned about making sure they know he would be with them and accept them again. 

We may not be all that open about our need for it, but we also crave acceptance. It may be more important coming from certain people than others, but deep down, we want to be accepted. When therapists talk about working through a person’s “father wound(s),” they are referring to the lack of acceptance a child felt coming from their father. Maybe dad was never in the picture, leading the child to feel abandoned because dad didn’t care enough to be a part of their life. Perhaps dad put work over family and/or kids. Sadly, emotionally and physically abusive dads compound the problem by replacing that desired acceptance with harmful rejection. Children in those settings tend to seek out acceptance from other outlets, and those often less desirable outlets snowball into bigger problems down the road. 

The father-child relationship isn’t the only one that craves acceptance. We want our boss to appreciate and accept us for the hard work we do. We want our spouse to accept us for the effort we put into marriage. We want our friends to want to hang out with us as a sign of acceptance. We want our kids and grandchildren to accept us. At times, the acceptance we crave in any one of these relationships can even cause us to go to extreme and even unhealthy lengths to earn it.

Sadly, some of us never feel like we have it. No matter how hard we try, it never seems to be good enough. We lack this or that. We fall short. We don’t measure up. This time of year can also easily amplify the lack of acceptance we feel. 

Take heart, Christian. God has a word for you this morning. He accepts you. More than that: he is delighted in you, even breaking out into song over you! “He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (v.17). The Lord delights in you. The very acceptance you crave from others is already yours in the Lord. 

While this Sunday has been traditionally labeled “Guadete” Sunday (Latin for “rejoice”), in reference to our rejoicing, here it is the Lord who is doing the rejoicing over us! He doesn’t just delight in us, but takes great delight in us, AND rejoices over us in song! 

Here’s why being the Lord’s delight actually surpasses the acceptance you might otherwise desire from others: you weren’t required to earn it. You did nothing to be deserving of it. But it’s yours nonetheless!

Contrast that with the acceptance you crave from others. Suppose you get it. Suppose you finally receive the acceptance you crave, whatever that looks like for you. Your next natural step is to assess what you did right to finally receive that acceptance. When you pinpoint whatever it is you think you did (cooked your spouse the perfect meal, over performed for your boss, etc.), now what? Do you have to maintain that same standard indefinitely? What happens when you fail to hit that mark in the future (you will at some point!)? When you miss the mark in the future, do you miss out on that acceptance as well? Is it conditional, entirely dependent upon something you did or didn’t do? Then what happens when that falls short in the future? 

Poof! There goes your acceptance.

But not with God. The Lord delights in you because he’s already done all the work to make you delightful! He carried out what was necessary to delight in you. You can’t undo it. You can’t improve on it. The Lord delights in you because he’s the one who made you delightful. 

Imagine how these words must have hit the ears of God’s people when they came from Zephaniah. Zephaniah, along with his contemporaries, prophesied the imminent judgment that was going to be carried out against Israel. Remember, they were going to be picked apart by the Babylonians and taken into exile to live in a foreign land. Worse than refugees, they would be conquered captives, forced to adapt to new customs and a new language and the list goes on. This was going to be the consequence of their repeated unfaithfulness to God. 

Do you imagine this reality would lead to doubts about where they stood with God? Do you suppose they second-guessed their status as his special, chosen people? Wouldn’t rejection – not affection – better describe what they were going to be experiencing? And they knew there was no negotiating with God. They had repeatedly cheated on him. They ignored him. He was an afterthought in their minds. He was far from first in their hearts, and they had no one to blame but themselves.

Sound familiar? “And they knew there was no negotiating with God. They had repeatedly cheated on him. They ignored him. He was an afterthought in their minds. He was far from first in their hearts, and they had no one to blame but themselves.” That’s not just idolatrous Israel. That’s me! That’s you! We have no wiggle room to negotiate with God, and we know it. 

So, let the words sink in again. “He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (v.17). But why? How? How can we be sure that this is true and that he won’t change his mind???

As we draw closer to our celebration of Christmas, it is time. Time to shift your gaze from the clouds, where we await Jesus’ return, to the manger in Bethlehem, where we celebrate his arrival. This is true: if God did not delight in us, in you, there would be no celebration at Christmas, because he wouldn’t have given us Christ. But he did! The gift in the manger seals the deal. The gift of Jesus Christ our Savior is the proof. God does delight in us!

We don’t often focus on feelings as they relate to our faith. There’s a reason for that: we want to guard against our feelings about God overshadowing (or ignoring!) what the Bible says about God. But as we consider the words from Zephaniah this morning, and as we apply them to our Christmas celebration, you have permission to bask in the feelings associated with knowing that God takes great delight in you. How can we not?!?

Your feelings do matter, because the more Christmases we celebrate, the more we realize that the most likely indicators of memorable or forgettable Christmases are not really the gifts given or received, but how we felt. Gifts are quickly forgotten, but how we felt is not, and the strongest feelings we experience are often those that involve our relationships with others. The Christmas spent estranged from an otherwise close family member is one you’d like to forget because you didn’t enjoy feeling that way. Ask the military wife which Christmas stands out to her and she’ll tell you the one when her deployed spouse surprised her and the kids with an early return at Christmas time. The Christmas engagement is going to stand out in memory over the year you didn’t get that gift you really wanted. 

So how will you feel this Christmas? It depends on where you focus. Will everything get done? Nope. Will everyone be thrilled with their gifts? Nope. Will everyone get along peacefully without anyone losing it? Nope.

Does God take great delight in you? Absolutely. Always. May that fill you with feelings of joy for A Real Christmas. 

And, if the cause for celebration determines the scale of the celebration, you have all that you need for an incredible celebration this Christmas: you have Jesus, and all the divine delight that he brings with him.

God Gives Return Gifts

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(Malachi 3:1-7b)

It’s good business for retailers to have a good return policy, since anywhere from 15% to one-third of Christmas gifts are returned. However, since those returns also amount to hundreds of billions of dollars in purchases needing to be refunded in, one might think retailers would make returns difficult or at least very inconvenient for shoppers. But one reason it pays for retailers to have a good return policy is that shoppers are more likely to buy from them in the first place. In other words, when purchasing gifts for others, if a retailer doesn’t have an easy or favorable return policy, shoppers are less likely to buy from them and will take their business elsewhere. Another reason to have a favorable return policy is that those returning gifts to the store from which it was purchased are more likely to spend their refund – and perhaps a little more – in that same store. So it bodes well for retailers to have good return policies. But shops and stores aren’t the only ones focused on handling returns; so was the prophet Malachi.

Malachi’s whole message is all about returns. While he isn’t the most well-known prophet in the Old Testament, Malachi does have the distinction of being the last one recorded. After the book of Malachi, the Lord silenced his notifications for about 400 years until Jesus’ birth, after which point the Holy Spirit picks up pen again through the New Testament Evangelists and writers and resumes recording the truths of his Word for us again.

Malachi served long after the era of patriarchs and kings in Israel. He was a messenger to the Israelites who had returned from their exile in Babylon. But, since things weren’t as magical as the Israelites expected them to be once back home, they took issue with God. The message recorded for us in Malachi is a back and forth between God and the Israelites, with their complaints directed at God, and God’s response, which essentially amounted to, “You are no different from your ancestors; you are the problem, not me. Return to me and I will return to you.”

He isn’t talking about returning gifts after Christmas, though. He’s got more important returns on his mind, and wants to make sure that God’s people do, too. So what are the returns Malachi mentions?

The Lord’s messenger will return.

The Lord himself will return.

The Lord’s people are called to return. A real Christmas is all about the returns.

The Lord’s Messenger Returns

The first return will be of the Lord’s messenger. “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me” (Malachi 3:1a). About whom was Malachi speaking? He is none other than John the Baptist. But wait. Why do we speak of John the Baptist’s arrival on the scene as a “return”? Because Malachi pictures him metaphorically as Elijah, one of God’s well-known and respected past prophets who lived and served in the past during the time of Israel’s monarchy. In one of the final verses of the whole Old Testament, picturing the arrival of John the Baptist, Malachi writes, “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes” (Malachi 4:5).

John the Baptist, the second Elijah, returned for a very specific purpose: to prepare the way. In the Christian Church year, the Second Sunday in Advent always focuses our attention on the messenger who came to prepare the way for someone greater. That was John’s role, he was well aware of it, and he carried it out faithfully. Another prophet, Isaiah, foreshadowed John’s work by illustrating the type of preparatory work that would need to take place in hearts to be ready for the Savior (cf. Isaiah 40:3-5).

The Lord Returns

Through John the Baptist, God prepared his people for another return: his own.“Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?” (Malachi 3:1b-2b).”  This “return,” so to speak, from Malachi’s perspective, looked ahead to two fulfillments: Jesus’ first coming and his return on the Last Day. 

While we spend a significant part of our lives in anticipation of our Christmas celebration each year, we are celebrating an event that already took place 2000+ years ago. God already came into our world in the flesh when Jesus was born. Malachi, along with so many other messengers in the Old Testament, looked ahead to that day, but we look back on it. For them it was an anticipation of a future event to come. 

In that regard, we can relate to the anticipation of a future event to come when we speak of Jesus’ return on the Last Day. Just as Malachi’s audience in his day understood his words to speak of a coming event, so we see his words also referring to a coming day, when on that Last Day he appears again for judgment, and the question is asked, “Who can stand?”

When Jesus returns on the Last Day, it will be as a judge, and he is right to ask “Who can stand,” based on the evidence stacked against the Israelites. Malachi exposes them. “‘So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them’” (Malachi 3:5, 7a).

Indeed, who can stand before the Lord with all that evidence stacked against them? Here is the good news. That day of Jesus’ second and final return, Judgment Day, even with all the sin stacked against mankind, will not be be a day of dread for those who by faith receive the work Jesus did when he came the first time. 

Malachi described that work, too, using pictures to illustrate why the Lord would have to return to his people and the work he would come to do in Jesus Christ. “For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years” (Malachi 3:2c-4).

Jesus came first to refine and purify, to wash away sins and make us presentable before God. Now we can stand! Jesus came to bring the righteousness we needed and to remove the sins we didn’t. Since we have been made holy by faith in Jesus, we have nothing to fear when thinking about standing before the Lord at his Second Return.

That day will be radically different from his first coming, where joy was initially confined to a local hillside among a group of shepherds on a hillside and an angel chorus. The whole world will be the audience when Jesus returns, and the outcome for all people at that return will be entirely dependent upon what each individual believes about Jesus’ first coming at Christmas, and his perfect life, death, and resurrection that follows. 

But until that day, here we stand, sandwiched in the middle. In the past, the Lord returned to his people when Jesus was born into this world on Christmas. In the future, Jesus will return on the Last Day. How do we spend our days in the meantime? The same way. By returning. Returning back to God. 

Our Returns

Why is that such a priority? Because Satan and sin do not take days off. They do not stop doing everything possible to turn you away from God permanently. We already saw the evidence Malachi presented in verse five, but when we read through a list like this, it might be natural for us to presume it’s referring to someone else – those wayward Israelites. But we must know better, right? It’s not an exhaustive list – there could have been many more sins included.

If Malachi was alive today, his warning to us would read a bit differently. “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against, drunkards, greedy shopaholics, sex/pornography addicts, lovers of violence, foul & filthy language, worshippers of sports, celebrity idolators, etc.” He would name different sins, but the sin doesn’t matter – it all does the same damage, trying to gain the upper hand and lead us off the path of righteousness along the path of selfishness that leads to permanent separation from God. 

So Malachi’s message then, along with the other OT prophets, along with John the Baptist, along with any Jesus-loving, Bible-treasuring believer today, is the same: return. For example, listen to just one other Old Testament prophet,  Hosea. “Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount warhorses. We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.” Who is wise? Let them realize these things. Who is discerning? Let them understand. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them” (Hosea 14:1-3,9). Return to God. As often as it takes, return. Get back on track and don’t step too freely and frequently on that other path so that it becomes comfortable. Return to grace, return to goodness, return to God. 

That’s really just another way of saying “repent.” We often think of repentance as being a call to get our act together and stop sinning so that we can somehow make ourselves presentable before God, and that he’ll will be happy with us as a result.

But if we know the gospel, then we know that God’s happiness with us isn’t based on our repentance or lack thereof; it’s based entirely on what Jesus already did for us. So we don’t return to God in hopes of winning his affections; we return to God because we already have God’s affection. And don’t let sin and Satan fool you – they cannot ever offer you anything better than what you already have with God because of Jesus Christ. 

God says to you through Malachi, “Return to me, and I will return to you” (v.7b). Is there a better gift than that permanent promise? God’s returns are the best gifts. He returns his messengers to us as often as we need to hear their message. He himself will return on the Last Day to make all things new. And in the meantime he give us the gift of returning to him through repentance, and attaches to it his promise to never turn away from us when we do. 

When it comes to your Christmas gifts this year, hang on the ones you like. Return the ones you don’t. It doesn’t really matter. But what does matter is that you don’t miss out on the best return gift of coming back to God again and again. That’s his gift to you, and it’s the key to A Real Christmas. 

A Real Christmas Requires Remembering Why Christ Came

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(1 Thessalonians 3:9-13)

Although it’s unlikely that Paul had just stuffed himself full of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, too many pieces of pie, and then passed out on the couch while the football games were on the TV. Nonetheless, the sentiments of Thanksgiving certainly are in line with what he wrote in this section to the believers in Thessalonica: “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of God because of you?” (v.9).

Paul was feeling gratitude. He was grateful for what God had done and had continued doing in the lives of the believers there. He directed his gratitude, his thanks, to God. He was rightly thanking God for the joy that the Thessalonians had brought into his life. And, as is the case with genuine gratitude, Paul was interested in more than just empty words, but backing that gratitude up with action. That’s why he desired to return among the Thessalonians to continue what had been started: keep feeding their faith by supplying what was still lacking (v.10-11). What Paul wrote after that is essentially a prayer.

In that prayer, Paul expressed his desire that  “the Lord make [their] love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else…” (v.12). It’s as if Paul is providing a flow chart for us to see how the Christian life works. It all starts with God, who then funnels his gifts to us through faith. Then, as we grow in our faith, those gifts – like an increase in love as well as the other blessings that will follow, will all increase, too. Do you want a “Real Christmas” this year? Here’s your recipe! Go back to the basics: God and his gift of faith and growing it, which leads to other spiritual gifts spilling over, like the ones Paul continues to pray for. 

Paul’s prayer continues. “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones” (v.13). We know the physical dangers of a weak heart. Not only can it cause complications, but even the slightest physical activity with a weak heart can potentially cause serious damage or even be fatal. 

But a weak heart spiritually is even more dangerous. A spiritually weak heart can lead one to drift from God or depend on some other source for strength and sustenance. That will certainly do damage for this life, but the greater concern of having a weak heart is how it potentially will leave us “in the presence of our God and Father” (v.13).

When will we find ourselves in that situation? Paul is looking way beyond the celebration of Christmas to the most monumental event, the Last Day, “when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones” (v.13). The Gospels in the Bible record Jesus teaching and preaching about this day. Even Paul, in this same letter, speaks of what that day will be like. The Thessalonians believers were someone what confused on the details of that Last Day. It’s worth noting that even that much closer to the life and ministry of Jesus, Paul was already focusing on his return and what its looks like to be ready for that day.

What does being ready for that day look like? It means we “will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God.” The first part of that may grab your attention, as “will be” almost sounds as if that status of being “blameless and holy” is something still to come, something to strive for, something to be attained at some point in the future. 

That view would certainly fit the common ideas people have of good people getting into heaven. It’s based on the idea that good people would do – and keep doing – good things. Then, at the end of the day when their time is up, God would sit down with them for what amounts to a sort of performance review to determine if they’re in or not. So long as they have a strong enough track record, they’ll be fine. It’s no surprise then, that since we all imagine ourselves tending to have a pretty good track record in our own minds, replaying the “best-of’s” and the highlights of our lives, we’re rather confident that we’ve got nothing to fear.

The idea of eventually arriving at being “blameless and holy” might also seem to be supported by Paul’s own words, even in these very verses. After all, a faith that is “lacking,” love that can “increase and overflow,” and hearts that can be “strengthen[ed]” would imply that “holy” hasn’t quite been achieved yet.

So which is it? Are we holy right now, or is holiness a status that is arrived at by putting in the appropriate time and effort? How do we ensure that we’re blameless and holy on that final day?

Both can be true. We can be holy right now, and we can also be becoming holy. Now that doesn’t mean that we’re following in the footsteps of the world that says truth is relative and subjective, and that we can all have our very different truths, even when those contradict each other. There’s a difference between each of our individual constructs of truth as we drum it up in our own respective worlds and what we’d call a paradox in Scripture. Our subjective truths have no backing or support from anything authoritative – they are based purely on our own personal thoughts or feelings. The Bible, however, as the Word of God, is authoritative.

So when the Bible speaks both ways, so do we. And the Bible does. It says that we can grow in our faith. Nearly half of what Paul writes in the New Testament is Paul addressing Christian living and spiritual growth. It lines up with exactly what he is writing in these verses, encouraging growth in our spiritual lives. Moreover, we personally know how necessary it is for us to grow as Christians in all areas of our lives. Yes, we are saints, but on this side of heaven we are saints who still sin and are still a work in progress. We want to grow and mature in our daily responsibilities and vocations, and rightly so!

But the Bible also speaks about our status before God. God calls us holy, and he calls us holy right now, in the present, as we are in this very moment. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).

We notice two things in just these two passages – and we could have mentioned many other passages as well. First, there are no “ifs” in these verses. There is no carrot-on-a-stick holiness that is held out to us if we meet certain conditions or criteria. Holiness isn’t conditional.

Second, the tense of the verbs speaks volumes! We “are” holy because we “have been made” holy. There is no “someday down the road if you play your cards right.” There is no “once this happens, then…” There is only who we are because of what happened to make us that way.

So how does it feel? You are holy right now! And it is because God declares you to be holy right now that you also strive to live holy lives right now as you grow in holiness.

Perhaps one of the clearer Bible passages that ties our status as holy before God with our call to continue growing in holiness is found in Colossians 3:12. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12). Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience aren’t the prerequisites to achieving holiness; rather, they are how our holiness is expressed as we grow in them and put them on display in our Christian lives. You are holy right now. And you are growing in holiness right now.

But if this holiness isn’t something we arrive at or achieve on our own, then how does it happen?

The answer is Christmas. Holiness left heaven and entered earth to bring holiness with him. If holiness is required to get into heaven, but holiness cannot be achieved outside of heaven, then holiness had to be brought to us. And to be brought to us, God had to come to us, which is exactly what happened at Christmas.

When you assemble enough things over the years, at some point you’ve experienced the frustration of arriving at a dead end. You can’t move forward because something is missing. You retrace all of the previous steps in the directions to make sure you didn’t use the wrong piece in the wrong place, and confirm that each step was properly followed. Just as you are getting ready either to disassemble everything and return it or contact customer service, convinced a piece was missing, in trots one of your children, caught up in some imaginary game, or possibly pretending to “help” you, and you notice they have in their hand the piece you need to finish the assembly. Now that you have that piece, you finish putting everything together.

Jesus is that piece. Only he is much more than a missing piece to our holiness (as if we were somehow almost there and he just needed to come in and supply what was missing)! He isn’t just a missing piece; he is the whole thing! He IS our holiness, through and through. We cannot have holiness apart from him. 

And for him to be able to be our holiness, he had to provide our holiness by entering a holi-less world and bringing it with him. On Christmas, he was born to bring his holiness into a holi-less world. His perfect life in perfect obedience to God’s perfect law resulted in our holiness.

Therefore, dear friends, because of what Jesus came to do in the past, we know that we already have what we need when he comes again in the future on that Last Day. By faith in Jesus, we have holiness. His holiness. Yes, we have all that we need to be “blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones” (v.13). Christmas can’t get any more real than that!