It's Tough to be a Christian at Christmas

"it's tough to be a Christian at Christmas." That's what a friend of mine said the other day. Or something like it. He added that during other times of the year where things that are blatantly not God-honoring are paraded in front of us, it is easier to stand up for our convictions and live what we believe.

Why is it difficult to be a Christian in America at Christmastime? Because there are so many temptations that can pull us away from worshipping Jesus. There are so many unbiblical influences that saturate our souls at Christmas that are the antithesis of the Savior. So many subtle ways to get sucked into things that dishonor Christ. The magnet pull of the lust of the flesh and of the eyes, and the boastful ride of life being what they are, so enticing and deceptive, it takes large amounts of Spirit-produced self-control to not get swept up in loving the world (1 John 2:15-17). In our consumeristic-saturated context in which we live, we must remember that our life (as Jesus said in the context of being on guard against greed) does not consist of the things we possess (Luke 12:15).

In order to pull this off we must do what does not come naturally to us. We may be tempted to only treat the symptoms rather than the true disease of soul that the worldly trappings of Christmastime expose. We fool ourselves if we do not acknowledge that it is as much an inward battle and as outward one. The response of some is to boycott anything that is not explicitly Biblical, but we risk eliminating some implicitly Biblical things or cutting ourselves off from purposeful engagement with people for the purpose of living and giving the gospel in the process.

In order to resist the riptide that threatens our souls at Christmastime we must exercise wisdom, knowing that we can engage in idolatry even if we have nothing. We must exercise caution, knowing that our adversary is a deceived. We must exercise discernment as we engage with others during the season. And above all we must rest in Jesus who is our true life (Col.3:4).