Giving the Gospel (Friday Devotional)

So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

- 1 Thessalonians 2:8

With Thanksgiving now in the rearview mirror and hordes of shoppers descending on stores, the season of giving is officially upon us. For the next month the lines will be long, the parking lots will be packed, and presents will steadily pile up beneath Christmas trees.

For Christians, the season of giving is about more than consumerism or generic holiday cheer. It is during Advent that we reflect on the awesome truth that God is with us in Christ, that the Son of God came to this earth in humility and brought us salvation. As we celebrate this gospel during Advent, we are also inspired to share it, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ with renewed fervor. So how should we give Jesus to people in this special season of giving?

Some do so with such passion that they become combative—fearing that the world has “taken the Christ out of Christmas,” they resolve to put him back in themselves by forcefully inserting Jesus into every otherwise innocuous holiday exchange. The trouble with such an approach is that nobody ever savored a meal they were force-fed—it’s hard to appreciate the goodness of the Good News when it’s being shouted at you.

So others take things to the opposite extreme, virtually ignoring the Christmas story and counting on generic themes of joy and generosity to carry forward the specific message of the gospel. The problem with this approach, of course, is that it’s tough for anyone to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ without ever mentioning his name. While generalized talk about hope, peace, joy, and love is fine, if it isn’t eventually tied to the person of Jesus Christ then it’s a gospel so diluted of specificity that it ceases to be gospel at all.

From Paul’s first letter to his beloved church in Thessalonica we get a look at a third way to give people the gospel, one that goes beyond words and remains true to Jesus’s own witness. Referencing his ministry in Thessalonica, Paul remarks that he is “determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves.” Paul was not content to leave the church merely with sermons about Christ’s love, he wanted to show them that love.

During the holidays, believers want to give people the gospel more than ever; we want the world to sing along with the heavenly host that Jesus Christ has come to save. But for the message to cut through the noise, we need to take a page a page out of the apostle’s book. We need to give the world more than religiosity or moralism; we need to serve when we could be indulging, to help when we could be passive, to give when we could be receiving. We need, in Paul’s words, to give ourselves for others' sakes. What could be more Christ-like than that?