Today is Sunday and we celebrate Christmas in a few days. That is, those of us who believe mankind has the authority to establish holidays that recognize the biggest events in what some of us believers consider to be our history. There are a lot of differing opinions about Christmas, and I completely agree that some humans have twisted the meaning of it to where it’s hardly recognizable as Jesus Christ’s birthday and has instead become another opportunity for the wealthy to exploit folks and increase their wealth. A lot of regular folks seem to have lost what should be the intent too, and get caught up in the lights and decorations, the beautifully wrapped presents, and the air of celebration itself, rather than staying focused on exactly what should be celebrated. Whether or not the date is correct is beside the point.
Many claim there’s evidence that the celebration of Christmas may have some of it’s origins in pagan festivities, and it’s true enough that elves, Santa Claus and decorated trees don’t have much to do with the events surrounding the birth of the Savior of the world, but people have become accustomed to seeing these things at this time of the year, and I really don’t believe most of us are thinking of pagan things. If believers would use this opportunity as a teaching moment – due to Christmas festivities, the subject of Jesus Christ has been broached in a very obvious way – to try and get the message of salvation out to those who do not know Jesus, it might prove to be an excellent time to witness to them. There are many believers who are dead against celebrating Christmas due to what they believe to be pagan beginnings, and I’m not arguing that they’re wrong, it’s just that in the short time we have left to help with the Lord’s harvest in which we are mandated to do, it looks like too much energy is being expended on trying to speak to people against celebrating Christmas. Especially people who aren’t well-versed in Christ’s message.
The nonbeliever doesn’t know enough about religious contention like this to understand such arguments, and even in their ignorance of the meaning they still want to enjoy Christmas festivities, so one of the best ways I know of to turn them off to the idea of serving the Lord is to condemn them for wanting to enjoy the holidays. After all, if someone knows absolutely nothing about Jesus Christ to begin with, and if believers try to start witnessing to them by claiming their participation in Christmas festivities is sinful, it would make it much harder to win them over to Christ.
There’s a good argument to be made that everyone should be apprised that there certainly are behaviors that are unacceptable to those of us who want to please the Lord, but I’m rather skeptical of the notion that recognizing a day that men have set aside to remember the birth of Jesus is necessarily one of them. That is, if we are genuinely out to please Him. We should be willing to shoulder the responsibility to our testimony and use the opportunity this holiday provides to teach folks about who Jesus is and what He means to us – and the whole world.
When Jesus came to this earth, He brought a covenant that men had a tough time learning to accept. Things changed drastically from the way they had been before He was here, and if the truth was known, men are still struggling to deal with those changes. We received authority in the very beginning to manage things on the earth. We were given stewardship, God allowed men to name animals and tame some of them. Mankind was tasked with the responsibility of managing the earth. [Genesis 1:26]:“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
A time came when God saw that men weren’t managing the earth and they kept falling short of living the way He wanted them to, so He sent them His law, through Moses, for guidelines to live lives pleasing to Him, but nobody could even comply with that law and sin continued to abound until God decided to send His Son to the world to take the sin away. At least the sins of those who believe. That’s why we celebrate Christmas; we don’t observe pagan rituals – at least those of us who strive to understand the incredible plan and what it is about. God set up a new covenant through the ministry of Jesus Christ and sent His Holy Spirit to actually dwell in the hearts of men who believed in Jesus. I choose to believe that the Holy Spirit in men of long ago gave them the heart to do many things they had not previously been able to do, such as establish their own days in which they were able to show the world in Whom they placed their trust, and I believe that Spirit also gave men the authority to do so. I also think the problems that arise between people who celebrate Christmas and those who don’t believe in it arise as a result of believing – or doubting – that men have that authority. The New Covenant (of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts) that Jesus established gave us a lot of leeway as far as how we run things (such as establishing nations, governments, and holidays), but He tightened the requirements on our motives and behavior. Some of us get that concept backwards. As long as we are not submitting to pagan gods or beliefs, we are free to set up our own observances without displeasing the Lord. There’s no argument against it. [Colossians 2:16]:“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths…”
As with every other Godly endeavor of decent men, there was an attempt, actually a largely successful one, by Satan to interfere with it, and now instead of widespread recognition of Jesus, we have a highly commercialized holiday, amenable to making wealthy men (who largely do not know Christ) richer and if there is a perversion of Christmas, that would be it in my opinion. The root of all evil, money, has corrupted the hearts of men so they try and render our holiday into just another cash cow. But we don’t have to acquiesce to sharing their greed, and we can still observe what we like to think of as Jesus’ birthday by praying, exchanging gifts (as examples of brotherly love started by the wise men), and yes, using the Christmas opportunity to witness to folks who enjoy Christmas but might not know much about what it really is.
Even if today’s Christmas celebration had its beginnings in days of some pagan rituals, I like to think faith in Jesus has won all times of observances over to Him and the pagan trappings are no longer in effect. There may be some leftover groups or tribes who still use it as a pagan holiday, but I don’t see any of them around – most of the folks I know celebrate Christmas as the day we recognize the birth of Christ and the pagan part of it is long gone. In fact, recognition and celebration of anything to do with Jesus Christ is in direct opposition to anything pagan. Jesus has been victorious over the hearts of men who have come to see Christmas as a day to celebrate Him. As far as the commercialization and Santa Claus, etc., we don’t have to get involved in all that, but I really think Christians have bigger fish to fry than spending all their time and energy fretting about people recognizing Christmas. We have more important work to do. The harvest is abundant. [Matthew 9:37,38]:“Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. As I said before, we can use Christmas as an opportunity to witness for Christ.
There are growing movements these days of organizations and groups who do not believe in Jesus, some even hate Him and His name. They try incessantly to remove Christ from our lives, there’s nothing they would like better than to see Jesus’ ministry erased from the world and by removing Christmas (properly observed as the day set aside to recognize Jesus Christ’s birth) there would be less opportunity for unbelievers to encounter His name. His name needs to be out there in the world at large as much as possible and if nothing else, Christmas helps to serve this need.
I believe the bottom line is that if you think it’s a sin to celebrate Christmas, then by all means don’t do it, but please allow those who believe they are free to recognize it as the day of Christ’s birth to do so however they see fit within moral bounds. If they are wrong but are sincerely trying to please Him, God will convict each heart.
May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us in this Season of Joy.
MK