Devotionals for December 15, 2005
By Connie White
Member, First Baptist Church, Newport News
Editor's note: As the Christmas season approaches, we offer the following daily devotional thoughts.
Week Four: Love
December 18
And the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).
Luke records the account of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist. Perhaps we miss the significance of this event in Jesus' life because we often think only of him as God. His baptism marked the beginning of his ministry, and the human Jesus may have needed an affirmation from his Father. God chose to affirm him by identifying Jesus as his Son and by declaring his love for Jesus. God could have said that he cared for Jesus, that he liked him, that he empowered him, and so on. Instead, as Jesus prepared for 40 days of temptation followed by his earthly ministry, God declared his love for him. This event reminds us that love is the essential element in our relationships with each other and with God.
Help us to love as you do, Lord, with encouragement and affirmation. As the Christmas celebration nears, guide us to focus on your great gift of love.
December 19
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus replied, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 23:35-40).
Always trying to trap Jesus, the Pharisee hoped to trick Jesus into an unacceptable answer to his question. Loving God is foundational to our faith. Loving God is not a difficult requirement. After all, he did love us first, and he has made our salvation possible. The ability to love people who do not believe as we do, who have hurt us, or who do not love us or God is a God-given gift and responsibility. Because God empowers us to love as he loves, we can choose to love others. We may not agree with their beliefs or affirm their actions, but we must love them. The unredeemed world will take notice when we love others in the same way that we love ourselves.
Help us, Father, to remember these, the greatest commandments. May we learn to love you completely because only then can we love others as you would have us to love them.
December 20
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:12-13).
In yesterday's verse, Jesus commands his followers to love others as we love ourselves. If that seems like a tall order, let us consider his teaching in John 15:12-13! Not only does he tell his followers to love others as he has loved us, but he also elaborates with the ultimate example. Undoubtedly, Jesus was looking to his coming crucifixion when he said that the greatest love a person can demonstrate is love that is willing to die (sacrifice itself) for others. We may never be called upon to die a physical death for others. We will, however, need to sacrifice our own desires or possessions for the welfare of others. In those moments, we begin to demonstrate the love that Jesus describes in these verses.
Lord, help us to live such authentic lives that sacrificing for others just comes naturally to us. May we be ever willing to set our desires aside sacrificially because we love others as you love us.
December 21
Dear Friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:7-8).
One of the first Bible verses that preschool children memorize is 1 John 4:8b, “God is love.” The apostle John understood God's love better than most. He had walked with Jesus during his earthly ministry. He had joined Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. He had looked into Jesus' eyes when from the cross Jesus commanded him to take care of Mary. He had felt the earth quake and observed the noon sun fade to darkness. He has seen the empty tomb and the risen Lord. When John says that those who do not love do not know God because God is love, John knows what he is saying. The Bible repeatedly calls believers to be a people who love both the lovable and the unlovable. Christian love takes root in ministry. Unless we are willing to reach out to the unlovable with God's love, we can never really know him.
God, we know that you are love and that you call us to love others the way that you love us. We also know that we will miss the mark many times. Help us learn to love your world with your love.
December 22
The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:9-10).
In his letter to the Romans, Paul simply but eloquently captures the essence of the Christian life. Love fulfills the law because genuine believers are so motivated by love that we do not break the other commandments. While we affirm the commandments, we also understand that love reaches beyond their scope. Obeying commandments because they come from God is admirable. Keeping commandments because we seek to love as Jesus loves is authentic Christianity.
Father, help us to be authentically Christian. May we keep your commandments because we have learned to love as you taught us to love.
December 23
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).
Securely anchored by our belief in Jesus, we can face our futures with the joyful assurance that nothing will ever remove us from God's love. May we never forget that the best gift of all arrived humbly, died sacrificially, rose victoriously, will return triumphantly, and loves eternally.
Again words fail us, Lord. Thank you for loving us so completely and so securely that we can never be separated from you.
Christmas Eve
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you; You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told (Luke 2:1-20).
O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today!
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Immanuel! Amen.
(Phillip Brooks, 1835-1893)