“Love Came Down At Christmas”
Text: 1 John 4:7-16
12-25-2025
In the name of Love Incarnate, dear friends in Christ. It is an understatement to say that there are many teachings of the Christian Church which are difficult, if not totally impossible, to wrap your mind around. And if you’re a Missouri Synod Lutheran, that list gets even longer because we confess certain Biblical doctrines that other Christians reject. My purpose is not to delve into all of those right now. But on this Christmas Day, we’re faced with a huge mystery that we’d do well to examine. We’ve gathered to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus in Bethlehem nearly 2,000 years ago. On the surface, that’s easy to accept. A child was born in some pretty rough circumstances. Not all that uncommon in our world then or now. However, when we delve into Who that baby really was, well then, we have a real conundrum, don’t we? Allow me to explain.
As we learn from the 4 Gospels, this child was none other than God in human flesh. If you’ll take the time to ponder that... well, let me stop you right there. You could cogitate on it for the rest of your life and never fully understand it. Think about it. How could the all-powerful Son of God, who is present everywhere—how could He squeeze Himself into the body of a newborn infant? Better yet, go back 9 months. How could the Son of God be confined to a tiny, microscopic, newly-formed embryo in Mary’s womb? In the bigger scheme of things, how can the perfect and holy God of heaven come down to rub elbows with sinners? Holiness and sin don’t mix. They’re like oil and water. Not only did the Son of God come near to us sinful humans, He was born from the womb of a sinner, that is, Mary His mother. What an enormous mystery for our puny brains to handle!
Okay, is your head hurting yet? Probably, and it’s not due to the spiked eggnog from last night either. Seriously though, if that’s not enough, we still need to take it another step deeper. In the reading that I just shared with you; St. John tells us that “God is love.” Normally we think of love as a verb. If you love someone, it’s an action, right? But here John tells us that when it comes to God, love is a noun. God IS love. In other words, love is the essence of who God is. Yes, that love is expressed to us in tangible actions by God. But love is the core of His being and the source of God’s loving actions. His love (a noun) is shown in His deeds of love (a verb).
Now I didn’t share that with you simply as a brain teaser for Christmas morning. No, this is foundational for grasping the mystery of what really happened when Christ took on human flesh. You see, at the incarnation of Jesus, not only did God express His love with actions, He actually sent us His love in the person of His Son. Jesus is true God; therefore, He too is love. Love is His essence also. And so, when the Christ Child was conceived in the womb of Mary, God’s love came down to this sinful world as a wondrous gift. St. John says “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world...” To put it into the terms of the season, God sent His love to earth and that gift of love was unwrapped, “made manifest,” for all the world to see when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This gift of love brings us salvation and eternal life. So, you see, we celebrate more than just Jesus our Savior being born at Christmas. We also celebrate the very love of God in human flesh lying in that manger.
You may have heard the ads before that tell you to “give the gift that keeps on giving.” Several products have used that phrase, but you can be sure that any earthly gift will fail to deliver on this promise. When love came down at Christmas, however, that divine gift truly does keep on giving, because when we receive the gift of God’s love in Jesus, He fills us with His love. And filled with the love that came down at Christmas, we then are able to share it with others through our loving actions. Verse 7 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” God is the source of all the love that we possess, and our loving others is the fruit of the love we have received from above.
Ah, but a mature Christian will quickly note that we don’t always use this gift of love properly, or at all. We must confess that we’ve been extremely unloving at times, perhaps more often than we care to admit. Due to our sinfulness, we often abuse this gift of love by hurting and hating rather than loving. But our abuse of that gift of love isn’t only directed at others, it’s also directed at God. Jesus says, “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” When we disobey God’s will and commands, we are despising rather than loving Him. Abusing God’s gift of love is like receiving a bar of pure gold and then using it to smack the giver and everyone around you with it. That’s what we tend to do with God’s gift of love.
Thankfully, God’s love is perfect and unconditional. Even our sinful unfaithfulness won’t change or thwart His love. When God sent His Love down to earth in the person of the Christ Child, He knew in advance that sinful people would abuse and reject that gift. He knew that His Love would be crucified on a cross, even though He was innocent of any wrongdoing. And yet, God sent His Love anyway. Because this is the very reason why His only Son came into our world–to live and to die in our place. God’s Love incarnate, Jesus Christ, was born in Bethlehem in order to deliver God’s gift of saving and sanctifying love. As 1 Peter 4: tells us, “Love covers over a multitude of sins.” That is indeed what God’s love does. It covers and removes our multitude of sins. My friends, this is what happened when God’s love came down at Christmas. May we all now cherish that gift of love by which we are forgiven and saved. And through that Love dwelling within us, may we gladly share it by loving one another with Christ’s pure love. May you all have a very blessed Christmas celebration. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!