I’ve always been torn when it comes to people saying they are celebrating Christ at Christmas. The holiday is not one of scripture. Sure Matthew 2 and Luke 2 talk about the heralding of Christ’s birth as a very anticipated event, and one that brought shepherds and wise men with gifts to see the Child. The Child the New Testament said was ‘planned from the beginning’. Still, any time that the world has to think about God’s Son is not a bad thing, and it is here where I am torn.

We do need to be very careful to observe what has been asked of us by God, and to note what is non-scriptural tradition and what is scriptural commandment.

Christ’s birthday was never celebrated by the disciples, apostles, or Christ Himself that we have record of. There are no instructions for his followers to mark the date (which no one is even sure of) or for the church to mark it as a time for celebration. We do know that His death was what he wanted us to note and remember…

Luke 22:19-20 (NKJV) – “And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”

It was not until some 400 years after Christ that certain branches of the New Testament church began to celebrate Christ’s birth as a mass (Christ-mass). Most historians agree that this celebration was part celebration and part a marrying of other secular festivals.

If we are tempted to skip worshiping God and Christ on Sunday for the sake of Christmas gift-giving at home, we need to be very, very careful. Luke 14 tells us that if we love our families, even our self more than Christ, we are not worthy of Him. We can also see that anything that we put higher or more important than Christ can be considered and idol, or a ‘god’ to us. That is, more important than serving God and Christ in our worship.

Humans will always be putting something before God, and it is for that reason that Christ said few will be saved. Let us be part of the few, and choose to do right even if it is tough on families and kids. We have to understand that God, Christ, and religion are the greatest gifts and the most important things we can have!