“The Twelve Blessings of
Christmas: Love and Joy”
Galatians 5:22
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. For the Advent and Christmas seasons this year, we are having a sermon series on “The Twelve Blessings of Christmas.” The first nine of these blessings are from St. Paul’s list in Galatians of the fruits of the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” This morning we are looking at the first two fruits of the Spirit, love and joy. “But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE.” It is probably no accident
that God arranged world history in such a way that the New Testament would be
written in Greek. A list of the world’s greatest philosophers begins with
the Greeks, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The Greeks laid the
philosophical foundations of our culture, and the Greek language is the language
of philosophy, uniquely suited to communicate to humanity the profound teachings
of the New Testament. A prime example is the word “love.” While in English we have just
one word for this emotion, Greek has four distinct words for different types and
aspects of love: Erao, Phileo, Stergo, and Agape. Erao is sexual love, from which we get “erotic.” The word Erao
does not occur in the New Testament, but that does not mean that sexual love is
wrong or sinful. WITHIN THE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP of man and woman as
husband and wife sexual love is a part of God’s plan, a good gift and a blessing
from God. Genesis reports, “male and female he created them,” and then
just a few verses later says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and,
behold, it was very good.” Phileo and Stergo are the Greek words for brotherly love, friendship,
and fondness. These are the words we would use on those bumper stickers
with a heart, where we proclaim “I Love” various things. Phileo and Stergo
don’t occur very much in the New Testament. One example is in Romans,
where Paul says, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” What these first three categories of love, Erao, Phileo and Stergo,
have in common is that they represent love motivated by self-interest: “What’s
in it for me?” Love that you show either because others have earned it and
deserve it from you, or because you expect, by showing such love, to get
something back which benefits you. St. Paul says in Colossians, “Once you were alienated from God and were
enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” We have done nothing
to earn or deserve God’s love. Because of our sin, we instead deserve only
God’s wrath and damnation. As St. Paul says in Romans, “The wrath of God
is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of
men.” But, the Good News is Greek has a fourth word for love, the word used
most of to describe love in the New Testament: Agape. Agape is a word we
don’t really have an equivalent for in English. It means first of all an
UNdeserved love; a love which you have not earned nor have a right to expect; a
love which is given to you, not because of who YOU are or what you have done,
but because of who the one loving you is, because showing love is that person’s
very nature. St. John expresses this aspect of Agape when he says: “This
is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us . . . for God is
love.” We humans have a tendency to “love the lovable,” to show our love to
those who earn it in some way. But, even though your sins deserve not his
love but his wrath and anger, because “God IS love,” because underserved love,
Agape, is his very nature, he shows to you love. Agape is undeserved love, and it is also self-sacrificial love, love
which shows itself in action, giving up oneself for the sake of others.
St. John tells us the action God took to show his Agape, his self-sacrificial
love toward us: “This is how God showed his love for us: He sent his
only-begotten Son into the world that we may live through him. . . he
loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” St. Paul
puts it this way in Romans: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” At the Last Supper, Jesus said: “This is my commandment: Love one
another as I have loved you.” We respond to God’s Agape, God’s undeserved,
self-sacrificial, forgiving love toward us, by showing Agape, undeserved,
self-sacrificial, forgiving love, toward others. As St. John says:
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY.” Recently a woman
wrote to Dear Abby, “There is an annoying woman in my office who insists on
telling people to ‘smile.’ She expects everyone to go around with
permanent grins on their faces for no reason.” Some people think that’s
what Christian joy means, going around with a permanent grin for no reason. But, Christian joy, and our Christmas joy, is not just putting on a
plastic smile and pretending everything’s great. St. Paul says in 1st
Corinthians, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied
more than all men.” If all Christianity means is that we gloss over our
troubles with a thin veneer of phony happiness, we are to be pitied more than
all men. St. Paul says in Philippians, “Rejoice IN THE LORD always.”
Christian joy is joy “in the Lord,” on account of all that the Lord has done for
you. All the earthly blessings he bestows upon you, but especially his
spiritual blessings of forgiveness, salvation, eternal life in Jesus Christ.
As Isaiah says, “Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” Rejoice and
be glad, for your sins are all forgiven on account of his Son. St. Paul says in Romans that this Good News of salvation in Christ, and
the hope of eternal life, gives us JOY, even in the midst of this life’s
struggles: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by
faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we REJOICE in the hope of
the glory of God.” The angel proclaimed to the shepherds, “Fear not, for, behold, I bring
you good tidings of great JOY, which shall be to all people. For unto you is
born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
THAT is the reason for our Christian joy, and our Christmas joy. “Good
tidings of great JOY, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born .
. . a Savior.” “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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