The Heart of Christmas: Love

As we prepare to celebrate on Christmas day with friends and family, there will most assuredly be a gift that you have to figure out how to respond to without hurting someone’s feelings or feeling foolish.

I want to offer you eight ways to respond to a gift that may be less than desirable.

You may want to take some notes and arm yourself with Christmas gift gratitude.

8. Well, well, well, now, there’s a gift!

7. No, really, I didn’t know that there was a Chia Pet tie! Oh, wow! It’s a clip-on too!

6. You know, I always wanted one of these! Jog my memory—what’s it called again?

5. You know what? I’m going to find a special place to put this.

4. Boy, you don’t see craftsmanship like that every day!

3. And it’s such an interesting color too!

2. You say that was the last one? Am I glad that you snapped that baby up!

1. You shouldn’t have! No, really, I mean it. You really shouldn’t have!

So, there you go. I hope this prepares you for any and all scenarios.

But, today, I want to speak about a gift for which we don’t have to rehearse a response.

It is the greatest gift that has ever been given to us, and Christmas is the time in which it was presented.

When God sent His son to be born, it was an expression of His unfailing and relentless love.

Galatians 4:4–7 (LSB)

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

As I read this verse it reminds me of John 3:16.

Let me blend them together:

Galatians 4:4–7 (LSB) & John 3:16-17 … when the fullness of the time came, because God so loved the world, He sent forth and then GAVE His only begotten Son,

This Son was born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law,

so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him — that we might receive the adoption as sons.

6 And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Can you hear the love of God?

I pray so!

You see:

The love of Jesus propelled and continues to propel Jesus into our lives at just the right time.

At just the right time, Jesus came into the world.

He came to free us from the crushing weight of the Mosaic law.

We could never be good enough to earn salvation, so Jesus lived a perfect life on our behalf.

Why? Because of love.

God wanted us to be a part of his family. Out of love, he adopted us through the work of Christ.

We are now the sons and daughters of God.

Jesus is our brother and we can rest in the love of the Father.

This week we continue to explore the heart of Christmas which is, of course, the birth of Jesus.

Too often, we can get lost in trees, decorations, gifts and parties and miss the central focus of the Christmas season.

Jesus was born to bring to us the gifts of joy, love and peace.

That is the REAL reason for Christmas.

Last week we learned that JOY is ours no matter the circumstances because God dwells with us.

This week of our series, we will take a look at a theme within the scriptures that truly holds the heart of Christmas together.

That is, the great love of God for each and every one of us.

Let’s always remember that God’s love is a gift that is thoughtful because it meets our greatest need—our sinful state.

It is a gift that is priceless because it could never be purchased apart from Christ’s blood.

It is a gift that is timeless because the grace of God is never ending.

God’s Gift is THOUGHTFUL

First of all, God’s gift of love is THOUGHTFUL.

Ephesians 1:3–6 (LSB) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, 5 by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.

God is omniscient and eternal.

He knew what Eve and Adam would do — that they would choose to disobey Him — even before they did it.

And so, even before He created humanity, God provided for their salvation through the Beloved.

Through Jesus.

From the moment creation was broken by sin, God began to unfurl a plan to restore and rescue all that He had made.

The Bible is an account of His divine efforts and faithfulness to reverse the effects of the Fall.

Motivated by love, God partners with those who love and trust Him to enact the greatest rescue plan in history.

Our text in Galatians 4 reminds us that when Jesus came and was born to Mary, the fullness of time had come.

It was the right moment in history to send His son to make a way for the world to be restored.

Because of love, God was not content to sit back and watch His creation suffer forever.

He went to great lengths to be with us and make us a part of His family once again.

Sending Jesus into the world by way of a manger in Bethlehem was NOT Plan B.

It was what God had planned all along to deal with our sin.

God didn’t rush some half-baked plan into motion.

His gift to humanity was first of all THOUGHTFUL.

God’s Gift is PRICELESS

And at the same time the gift God gave, of the birth of His Son at just the right time, was PRICELESS.

1 Peter 1:18–19 (LSB) knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

When we receive the gift of God’s salvation, we are receiving a gift of love that cannot be purchased with silver or gold — it is priceless.

Too many of us live our lives every day missing the fact that God loves us.

That He paid a price for our redemption — for our salvation — for our adoption into His family.

The price was the death of His Son on a Cross.

It is a priceless gift!

When we miss the fact that we have been adopted into His family, we have a hard time loving ourselves.

In turn, we have a hard time loving others who are also valued and treasured by God.

The reason this aspect of Christmas should not be missed or avoided is because it is central to us living the full lives that God wants for us.

The late pastor J.I. Packer wrote about this incredible expression of love that came to us at Christmas.

“Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification. To be right with God, the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God, the Father is greater.”

Looking again at Ephesians 1, but reading all the way down to vs. 14, we see that …

as a part of God’s family, we are made blameless in God’s sight (vs. 4).

Our sins are washed away by his love.

God’s will and way are made known to us as a father might share with a child (vs. 9).

We are chosen to receive hope and salvation (vs. 13).

We are marked with a seal to ensure that we are filled by the Spirit of God and will inherit eternal life as one of God’s precious possessions (vs. 14).

All of this is only made possible by the arrival of Jesus at just the right time to one day sacrificially give his life on a cross to validate God’s amazing love for us.

God’s Gift is TIMELESS

Finally, God’s gift of love, His PRICELESS gift given to us THOUGHTFULLY, is a TIMELESS gift.

Have you ever received a present from someone and you could not believe how perfect the timing was?

Maybe because of something you were going through or because of a need that was met, it was as if the giver knew just what your heart wanted.

The text we read at the beginning, Galatians 4:4-7 talks about the timing of Christmas as Paul wrote to the church in Galatia.

What is perhaps most amazing is that when Jesus came, He came to meet us exactly where we are and the exact right time that we need Him.

He was born under the law of God in order to redeem ALL of humankind, which is under the judgment of God’s law.

As says Hebrews 10:27 (LSB) [there is] … a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.

In coming at just the right time, His perfect life met the requirements that the law demanded.

Where we fail, Jesus is successful.

Oh, thank God for the TIMING of the coming of Jesus.

That timing makes the gift of His love, the gift of salvation available to all.

So, today, in the 21st century, God’s gift of love is a TIMELESS gift — reaching down through 2000 years to meet our need even today in 2022.

Receive the Gift

May God help us to accept the Gift of His love.

A gift that is THOUGHTFUL, PRICELESS and TIMELESS.

The reason love must be at the heart of Christmas is because, if we miss this being the central message of the season, in the midst of the lights and presents…

We may never receive it for ourselves.

We may forget to offer to others, what WE have received.

What is perhaps most tragic about this oversight is that if we have not received the gift of God’s love we often give a kind of love that is inferior.

But, if we have not experienced the grace of God, it is difficult to offer the grace of God.

If we do not know the compassion of God, it is difficult to express the compassion of God.

But when we recognize the kind of love that God has for us, it becomes the way in which we treat others around us.

The most famous of all passages in the Bible about love helps us understand God’s feelings toward us and the way we should feel about our spouse, children, friends, and neighbors. It comes from 1 Corinthians 13.

1 Corinthians 13:1–13 (LSB)

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up;

5 it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered;

6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

7 it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails, but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things.

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

13 But now abide faith, hope, love—these three; but the greatest of these is love.

In the Christmas season, we can get caught up in all kinds of things, even good things, and miss the whole point if love is not our motivating factor.

Love like we have been given from God should cause us to be patient and kind to one another.

It should cause us to avoid being envious of one another or proud.

Love drives us to honor others and to keep a cool head.

Love is present when we avoid evil and rejoice with good.

Does this sound like the love you have received from God?

Does it sound like the love you display in your life?

The way this passage might sound during Christmas would be like this:

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights, and shiny ornaments but do not have love, I’m just another decorator.

If I work hard in the kitchen baking Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals, and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime but do not have love, I’m just another cook.

If I work at a soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties, and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the spouse. Love is kind even when harried and tired. Love does not envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens. Love does not yell at the kids to get out of the way but is thankful they are there to be in the way.

Love does not give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who cannot. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails.

“Toys will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust; but giving the gift of love will endure.”

(Ministry127.com)

So, this Christmas see the arrival of Jesus as the ultimate gift from God.

The kind of gift where the only proper response is to receive it.

May that love you receive in your hearts cause you to live it out every day of the year.