Dec 12th, 2021: Religiosity and Christmas


Christmas has been commercialized for many years now. We might talk about changing that, but it appears as if we cannot do much about it. The Christmas season has become a significant marketing time for many businesses. However, the real struggle is not the commercialization of Christmas. It is the religiosity that has destroyed the real meaning of Christmas.


Religiosity frames the account of Christmas in such a way that we might not have the opportunity to truly explore and appreciate the power of God in the lives of Joseph, Mary, and many others. It fails to acknowledge the human experience in the account of Jesus' birth.


Religiosity creates a hollow form of worship. We might say or sing all of the right words and yet do not experience their power. The power transforms lives. The very same power God used to bring Jesus into the world and raise him from the dead. It looks nice and proper, but it has no life.


Religiosity misguides us in our search for God and His involvement in the world. It elevates cultural and traditional commitments over the essential meanings of Christmas. It celebrates idolatry. Christmas calls us back to God and asks us to walk away from our false worship.


2 Timothy 3: 5


"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."

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