When we think of Christmas spirit, we usually think of gifts, eggnog, songs, and food. Nothing wrong with any of that!
But according to J.I. Packer’s book Knowing God, that’s not the true Christmas spirit. The true Christmas spirit is that of Jesus voluntarily restraining his power; accepting hardship, malice, understanding and death; loving to the uttermost unlovely human beings; becoming poor so that we could be rich. All of this means “hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.”
“We talk glibly of the ‘Christmas spirit,’” Packer writes, “rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But what we have said makes it clear that the phrase should in fact carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of him who for our sakes became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round.”
The Christmas spirit is expressed in Philippians 2: to have the same mind in ourselves that is ours in Christ Jesus, following his example by considering others as more significant than ourselves, and then looking to their interests.
“Did Christ humble himself?” asks Spurgeon. “Come, brothers and sisters, let us practice the same holy art.”
Our Legacy
We live in an age of self-promotion, strategy, and opinion. Everyone’s got an angle to get ahead. Everyone’s got an opinion to share. It’s easy to join the fray.
It’s surprising when you meet someone who doesn’t operate according to those rules. I thought of this as I listened to an interview with David Wells, a theologian whose influence has spread beyond his fame.
“When you kind of look back at your life as a whole, I guess when you think about what’s going to live on, what’s your legacy going to be, what are things that you think of when you look back on your time?” the interviewer asked.
“Oh, Sarah, I don’t think about that at all. I think you just have to follow the Lord, and in the best possible way that you’re able, serve Him, depending on Him and on His grace, and let Him dispose of your efforts however He will. I’m not looking back and asking about legacy or any of those things. I am actually looking forward to the time when I’m with the Lord and all of the chaos and suffering and evil of this world has been finally judged.”
What’s your legacy going to be? That’s up to God. I wonder if we’re supposed to worry about that at all. Our job is to take on the Christmas spirit: to voluntarily choose sacrifice and service, depending on his grace, and letting him decide the outcome.
I hope to enjoy Christmas this year, but as I do, I’ll try to remember: the true Christmas spirit is service and humility. “And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round.”
