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Transcript 003A — A Christian Perspective on Christmas
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Good evening, Mr. Camping. I have a question I would like to ask, and I would appreciate any comments that you might be able to give to me. My family is fairly well to do, and at Christmas time we usually go all out with the traditional celebration. And they're used to drinking egg nogs and hot toddies, and they always expect to exchange expensive gifts. But now that I am a Christian I just wonder what my attitude should be about this, and what about my participation in our family celebration? And I'll take my answer over the air.
HC: All right. Thank you so much for calling and sharing. This is a problem that is very very difficult and a problem that is caused by the fact that there are two kingdoms in this world. On the one hand there is the dominion of Satan, to which all of us belong by nature. The whole human race are slaves of Satan by virtue of the fact that we are the human race. And on the other hand, there is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, which we enter into when we have become saved. We read in Colossians 1:13, "We have been translated out of the dominion of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son," that is, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
These two kingdoms are mutually antithetical to each other. That is, they are in direct opposition. They are antagonistic toward each other. When we were in the kingdom of Satan, that is, before we were saved, and all of our family and all of our friends were in that kingdom, we got along very well. Everybody was in general agreement that our lifestyle was agreeable, our mores, our conduct was generally agreeable. Oh yes, we fought and scrapped somewhat with each other, but nevertheless there was a certain harmony because we all agreed that we could drink and carouse, and we all agree that we could spend our money this way or that way, generally speaking.
But now one of us becomes a child of God, and that's where the problem arises, because whether we recognize it or not, or whether our loved ones recognize it or not, we have betrayed our kind. We have left the dominion of Satan, and we have been transferred over into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, we have joined the enemy.
And Jesus speaks about this, that if any man does not hate his father or mother then he cannot be His disciple. Now that doesn't mean that we are to physically hate our father and mother, but the context indicates that He is simply saying there that we must love God more than our father and mother. And we are to hate our father and mother only in the sense that they are still slaves of Satan, and we don't like the world any longer in which they live.
The fact is, Jesus said in another place, "I 'did not come to bring peace on the earth but a sword." Now that seems to be directly contradictory to another verse that says that He came as the Prince of Peace. Indeed, the peace that He came to bring was the peace that comes to those who have been in rebellion against God, who were at war with God and now have come to be at peace with God. That is the peace that Christ brought. But in so doing, when we become at peace with God we become at war with our fellow men who remain unsaved.
Now generally speaking, this goes along fairly well. The fact that we have become a child of God does not trouble the family too much. They may think we've become a little odd, or they may think we have become involved in some kind of a sect or a cult. They may think that we have been brainwashed somewhat and they worry about us. But generally it doesn't shine through too much. They simply wonder what happened to us.
But it's at a time like Christmas that the antithesis shines through, that indeed there are the two kingdoms. Here is the dominion of Satan. We love our loved ones dearly. Traditionally, historically they have served their drinks and had their booze around and their partying and their Santa Claus, and all of these things. This is a tradition in the family. It has no useful spiritual significance at all. It is simply a time to engage in this kind of revelry.
And now we come along and we become a child of God, and now what am I going to do? I don't want to drink anymore because that's the hallmark of the world. That's the badge of the world, if you will, the one thing that the world today thinks that they need, and it's the ever present item at every party – the spiked punch or the booze – that is readily available. And because we are not of the world any longer, we don't want to serve the world, and we are in a different kingdom altogether, we decide we're not going to drink.
Well, all right, they can countenance that. We don't have to. They will just think, "Well, she's become a teetotaler, what an oddball!" But then some of the other things that go on make the true believer cringe just a little bit. It seems so wrong. Now how are we to conduct ourselves?
We must remember that we are in the world but we are not of the world. We cannot get out of the world. That's the first thing. We cannot become a hermit and go out to the side of a mountain someplace and isolate ourselves from the world, to become separate from the world. Occasionally someone will get that idea and he'll get his little band of followers, and they'll go off to the wilderness someplace and set up a commune of some kind, in an effort to do this. That is contrary to the Bible.
Number two, the Bible indicates that we are witnesses to the world. We have a testimony to bring to the world. That is the number one priority of every child of God. You must recognize that if you have become saved your number one mission field is your family. Oh, I don't mean that now you are to start preaching at them every time you see them. I don't mean that now you've got to become a pastor to them and make a big nuisance of yourself by talking about Christ every time you speak to one of them. The chances are they wouldn't put up with it anyway. They would drive you out of the house after awhile.
But it does mean that first of all your life ought to be lived to the glory of God. You must be the one in your family who is especially patient, who is especially tender, who is especially concerned about others, who is especially looking for the one who needs a little encouragement. Your whole family gets together. And before you were saved, what is the thing that very frequently you wanted? You kind of wanted to be the center of attention. Oh, that's true of most of us anyway. We have a lot of pride in our life. We like to kind of be in the limelight. We like to be recognized. We like to show off. our stuff. This is one reason that booze is so nice because you take that drink and your inhibitions drop away, and you feel so carefree and happy, and what you say seems so wonderful now, so wise. You don't really know that you're making a donkey of yourself, but in your own eyes you really think you are achieving your goal of being acceptable to the most people.
But now you go to that party. You're invited to a family dinner or a family get together. Go there. But go there thinking, "I'm going to be the fragrance of the Lord Jesus Christ." No, not in order to gain any pride for yourself, not in a holier-than-thou attitude, now looking down your long nose at the sins of others. There's going to be plenty of sin on display. But remember, the sin is not against you. The sin is against the Lord Jesus Christ. But we live in a sinful world. But in that very sinful environment (which is just a caricature of the sinful environment this world is anyway) you are going to try to serve.
How are you going to try to serve? Well, you have your cousins there, you have your family, and there's someone over here that's kind of sitting off on the side, and a little morose and a little bit downcast, for whatever reason. And very gently you go over and you say, "Tell me something about yourself." Or start talking about something that you know he is able to talk about. And try to open him up, and be a friend to that person. Maybe the hostess of the party is beside herself with anxiety, running in and out of the kitchen, to make sure that the food is going to be properly served. Go to her and say, "Look, I'm here. Is there any way I can help? Where's an apron so that I can help you?" Now you don't try to take over. Don't make that mistake. But you're there, you're available, and try to do what you can.
This particularly becomes acute if it's the kind of a party, now in your case, if it's a wealthy home maybe you have people who come in to do the dishes and clean up. But frequently at these kind of activities the hostess is loaded with the responsibility. Everybody else gets busy chatting away in a corner here or there, and she's stuck with trying to keep the food moving, and so on. You can be the first one over there to see if you can assist in any way.
In other words, just be around to be the one ready to take on whatever task has to be done, no matter how humble it may be. And just be the fragrance of Christ. And if there is an opportunity to witness, gently witness. Seize that opportunity. Don't make a big announcement. Don't stand in the middle of the floor and say, "Now I'm going to tell you about Christ." And you know full well that in their drink-filled minds this is going to, this is not the place for this. It's not going to be accepted. It's just going to be a wet blanket on the whole party. This is not the place for it.
But there may be one individual there who needs your prayers, who needs your thoughts, and you try to minister to that individual. And otherwise just quietly on the sidelines try to be as unostentatious as possible. Whatever you do, don't try to call attention to yourself. And remember, the environment is very sinful because people are sinners. Remember, it is only God's grace that you have become saved. Remember that you have the truth and somehow God may be providing an opportunity for you to share that truth. And you might be praying in your heart for that opportunity, that it might arise.
Someone may drink too much and get in his cups and he is miserably suffering because of it, and you might be there to comfort, where everybody else is too busy with their own getting of attention. This I think is the way you can serve. And while you're in a sinful environment, you don't have to take part in the sin, you may be there ready to serve, so that in the midst of their sins there may be an opportunity to share the Word.
I hope this will help a little bit.