By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. - 1 John 4:9
In the midst of a substantial financial loss, and at the beginning of a long four year litigation, P.T. Barnum quipped, “Talk is cheap, until you hire a lawyer.” The first half of this witty remark has become an American idiom. Simply put, anyone can say anything, but the only way to know what is in a person’s heart and mind is to see their actions.
How do you know if one person loves another? It’s hard to know, because, as Barnum said, talk is cheap. Anyone can say they love others, but can turn against them, treat them unfairly, or hurt them in other ways. And even if none of those things happen, simple words don’t always convince us of what is in others’ hearts.
Of course, the best way to know if someone loves is through their actions.
One of the clearest ways that we can express love for others is by blessing them with various forms of life. For example, when we serve someone else, we remove work or suffering from their experience. In bringing a meal to someone who is sick, we offer life—a piece of our life to lessen the suffering of theirs. Or when we serve someone else by taking part of their responsibility on ourselves, we offer them quality of life at that moment.
In fact, in many ways, serving is a constant willingness to trade our life for the blessing of the life of another. We relinquish our schedule, our strength, our desires, our finances—our life—to bless the life of another.
But of course, we have limited life resources. At some point, our schedule is full, our strength diminishes, and our finances run out. Much as we might desire to do so, blessing the life of another is outside of our ability. Nevertheless, love remains, and the willingness is present in us.
However, consider the magnitude of the resources that the Son of God has. He has infinite power, He is the Sustainer and Creator of all matter, His strength never fails, and, gloriously, He has infinite life to offer us.
Christmas is the great manifestation of the love of God toward us, because it is the moment that the infinite Son took on finite flesh in order to offer life to all who would trust in Him. It is through Him that eternal life is offered, and in Him, there is no limit to the life that He can give.
But eternal life wasn’t the end goal of the life and death of the Son of God. No, the end goal was that the love of God would be manifested—made known—gloriously revealed to His people. God’s love was manifested toward us in the moment that the Son of God took on flesh, with the purpose of offering life through His death.
So this Christmas, consider, do you have this life in Jesus? It is offered freely from the loving heart of the Father!
