Fourth (last) Advent Sunday – 18 December.
Theme: Love
Advent considered hope, peace and joy. On the last Advent Sunday, 18 December, it contemplates love. Christ coming to us reveals Gods love for his people and for all of his creation.
1 John 4:9-10 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
The most important idea in these verses is that God showed his love. The Biblical understanding of love is that it is shown in actions. It is not so much what we feel, as what we do that is important when we try to understand this word “love” so often used in the Scriptures.
We know God loves us, because we know what he did for us. He created us to have fellowship with him, and when we strayed, he saved us and when we lost the battle against evil, he conquered for our sake.
We know we love God when we worship, serve, praise and want to obey God and when we live in awe of our Lord, because we know that he loved us first. Our actions in reaction to his love, show that we love him too.
We love our fellow Christians when we act as brothers and sisters towards one another and we know we love our neighbour when we act towards them in the way that we expect others to treat us as well.
Jesus is the demonstration of the love God has for us. He lived and ministered to reveal who God truly is. Jesus lived and acted in a way that showed us how God loves us: Jesus touched the “unclean”, he respected the rejected, he delivered the captives, he saved the lost and he healed the sick. Jesus showed the mercy, grace, love, compassion, patience and kindness of God.
This is the love we, as his children and witnesses, should show the world.
We hear a lot about the Christmas spirit and that this is a season for giving. We are more patient and show more compassion than we usually do. This is a good thing and it makes the season of Advent and the celebration of Christmas a most special time for many who are in ominous need to be loved.
But, as we await the complete and final coming of the Kingdom of Christ – we should prepare the way for the King by making practical, Christian love much more than a seasonal thing. It is supposed to be the Christian lifestyle displayed always and it shows God’s love all the time.
God loved us in sending his Son for our redemption. Now we should show his love that others may know his salvation and care. True Christian love is when we show through every aspect of our lives that God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. In sacrificial living, we do!
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