The Reason

This is really a Christmas post -  although not just about Christmas - and I've regretted that I didn't write or say something earlier. It was one of those comments (on Facebook actually) that had a grain of truth in it - just enough to make it dangerous and to blind people to the deception.

It went something along the lines of this: if we show love to others, work for peace, forgive others, care for the needy, then we're keeping Christ in Christmas even if we don't mention His Name because it's implied in the other things that we do.

Sounds good at first but dig deeper and what you discover is that it's just another ploy to throw Christ out of Christmas and replace Him with something else. Peace. Love. Good Works.

There is nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves. We all seek love. We all want peace. We are called to do good works.

But without Christ we end up with only poor imitations of true love and peace. Without Christ, good works are just, well, works. They do not show Christ to the world. They might fulfil something within us, but they do not in any way replace Christ in Christmas.

Perhaps it was because the original post had been shared by a person whom I suspect is anti-Christian and then was being reposted by Christians that I was so disturbed by it. It contains some truth, enough to make it sound appealing, enough to make us think that it must be true, but it is an incredibly deceptive lie designed to lead people astray.

Yes, Christ came to being us peace. Yes, He came because of love. But He came. And the reason He came was to bring salvation to a fallen world. That is the true meaning of Christmas and we must not throw it out for a more politically correct message that will not go one step towards turning mankind's hearts towards God.

Comments

Fox said…
I agree with you! Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. How exactly do you celebrate Him without saying His name? How could you celebrate anyone's birthday without acknowledging that person? Good deeds are great, but you don't have to be a Christian to do them. If you are a Christian, you will do them, but you'd also never leave out the name of Christ at Christmas. Now, if they meant that in everyday life, you can reflect Christ without saying it, this is true. Our lives can point to Christ, but the only way people know for sure is when we tell them why we do the things we do. It's not enough to always be silent and politically correct. There is one thing Christmas is about, and that is celebrating that Christ came. How you do that without ever saying His name? You can't!
Jules said…
Thank you for your thoughts, Fox. I think the original post I saw was having a go at Christians who complain that the true meaning of Christmas is ignored. The author of that post claimed that as long as Christian virtues were shown then the meaning hadn't been lost. But to me, that was just a sneaky way of still keeping Christ out of Christmas. And sadly, because there was a grain of truth in there, people were applauding those sentiments without thinking too deeply on the message behind the words.