Around Christmas time, kids come to mind for many of us. Whether it’s our own childhood experiences, watching kids open gifts, their excitement leading up to Christmas, or their Christmas performances, kids are such an exciting part of the Christmas season. So this season we get to take our cue from kids and act a little childish in having love, wonder and joy like a child.
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Big Idea: Love like a child.
3 aspects of love to reexamine this Christmas
1. Love and Discipline
- 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. — Hebrews 12:4–7 (NIV)
2. Love and History
- 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. — 1 Corinthians 13:4–5 (NIV)
- 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16 (NIV)
- 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ” –Luke 15:28-32
3. Love and Safety
- 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. — Luke 15:20 (NIV)
- 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. — John 3:17 (NIV)