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Transcript 003B — The Question of Sharing Gifts at Christmas
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Good evening. I have a question concerning Christmas. My question is, is it biblical for us to give gifts at Christmas time, to celebrate Christ's birth? Is there any biblical reason for us not to give gifts?
HC: Interesting question. Are we out of God's will when we give gifts on Christmas? I think the main reason that we give gifts on Christmas is that we see the Magi, these men from probably Persia, and when they came to greet the Baby Jesus (who was about two years of age by that time) they brought gifts, gold frankincense and myrrh. They brought gifts to the baby Jesus, and these gifts anticipated the whole work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The frankincense and myrrh were, the myrrh related to the coming death of the Lord Jesus. The frankincense related to the prayers of Christ, and the fact that He would be the firstfruits of all who would ever believe on Him. And the gold really referred to the fact that believers would come from all over the nations to the Lord Jesus. We are typified by gold and silver and precious stones. But they brought gifts to Him.
And therefore, when we celebrate Christmas, we decide we're going to give gifts to each other. Now that practice of giving gifts when we are very happy, when we are rejoicing, incidentally is a practice that the world has done from time immemorial. We find this dramatically related in Revelation 11, where in verse 10 it talks about the time when the two witnesses are killed. Then those who look at the bodies of these two witnesses rejoice and are happy because these two witnesses have been a torment to them, and they exchange gifts. Exchanging gifts is an idea in which we are rejoicing because of something that has occurred.
The problem, however, is that when we exchange gifts at Christmas, and the idea itself is not foreign to the Bible because the Magi brought gifts to Christ, but we unfortunately frequently and very normally, perhaps, forget to whom the gifts were brought. Now the Lord Jesus of course is the one who received the gifts from the Magi, because it was His birthday. When we have a birthday at home of a child, everybody brings a gift to that child.
But now the question is, how do we bring a gift to Christ on His birthday, that is, on Christmas, when we are celebrating His birthday? One way of course is, the Bible does say that because you have given this to one of the least of these My brethren you have given it unto Me. And so as we give gifts to family members who have a need of this or a need of that, we can say, because we love them and because we have a desire for the very best for them, this gift for our loved one is, as it were, a gift unto Christ. And I suppose that would stand some scrutiny.
However, when we think about the gifts that we give to our loved ones, a lot of them are very frivolous. A lot of them are very unnecessary. A lot of them are very luxurious. They really are not serving that individual well at all.
But there is a way in which we could become far more careful in our gifts and far more Biblical and God glorifying in our gifts. Now remember, the end is that we want to give gifts ultimately to the Lord .Jesus Christ, to His glory. Suppose now that we would give gifts so that the body of Christ could be built up, because after all, the body of Christ is intimately identified with Christ Himself
But how do you build the body of Christ? You build the body of Christ by sending forth the Gospel. But how do you send forth the Gospel? Well, by providing funds so that missionaries can be sent out, so that a radio ministry like Family Radio can send out the Gospel into all the world.
And so while I do not think that it is unbiblical to give modest gifts to family members, I believe that we can enhance our gift giving to a very high degree by making gifts to various individuals and organizations who are about the task of sending forth the Gospel to enable them to do a better job of sending forth the Gospel. That is, I believe, the highest kind of giving we can do. And that will match, as accurately as possible, the gifts that the Magi brought, as they came to worship the baby Jesus.
Thank you for sharing that question.