This is the first year that Lisa and I have not celebrated Christmas. It's something that we feel the Lord has led us to do over the last few years. A lot of different factors have been a part of that process, but I think the central reason we have chosen this is that we don't personally feel drawn to worship Jesus in our hearts through observing that holiday. It's great if others do, but that's not the case for us. Romans 14 seems to imply that either way is ok as long as we are “fully convinced” in our own minds. For Lisa and me, our hearts very clearly lean away from celebrating Christmas.
There are a lot of things surrounding that holiday that we don’t particularly like, including materialism (a sin that I particularly struggle with at this time of year) and the non-Christian origin of Christmas. But I think there is freedom for believers to separate themselves from the way the world celebrates this holiday and still remember the birth of Jesus in this manner. This simply isn’t what we feel the Lord wants us to do. By the way, don’t worry, it’s ok to talk about Christmas with us. It isn’t some taboo subject. We’re open to questions about it, and we don’t want others to feel like they have to walk on eggshells around us either. The same goes for Easter, which we also don’t celebrate for the same reason.
2 comments:
Hi Ryan~
Blessings to you and your family. I have a hard time relating your meaning here to what is contained in Romans 14. Would you care to elaborate? Let me testify as to what I see written in these verses.
Overall, this chapter speaks of the wonders of Christ's sacrifice. By staying clean, we are able to achieve mutual edification. We can help one another stay clean, but we cannot take another's sins upon ourselves. Does what I see here make sense?
Thanks for your comment, George, I'll try to elaborate.
I think the general idea is that we are to build up one another in love, even if we have different convictions on certain things. Using Paul's examples, believers can have a difference of conscience about whether or not to celebrate certain holidays or about what sort of diet we should eat. Those differences should not lead us to judge one another, but instead we should allow each other to do what the Lord leads us to do. Verse 19 sums this up: "..we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another." This could even mean changing what we do so we don't cause another brother or sister to stumble.
There is another element of this that is important to what I originally posted. The end of verse 5 says, "Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind." And verses 22-23 say, "The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God.....But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin."
With regards to matters of conscience, we need to be convinced of what we do. We shouldn't just "go with the flow," but we need to seek the Lord and ask Him how He wants us to walk in regards to these matters. As we considered them, Lisa and I found that it bothers our consciences to celebrate Christmas and Easter, so we stopped. Others live differently, and that's great if the Lord has led them there. There's room for different ways of living where matters of conscience are concerned, and we should enjoy the resulting diversity.
So as you said, having a clean and clear conscience before the Lord is central to this. That will and should look different from one Christian to the next. We shouldn't judge one another when this happens, but instead we should bless one another.
Thoughts? I appreciate what John Piper has to say on these matters here:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByScripture/10/225_Each_One_Should_Be_Fully_Convinced_in_His_Own_Mind/
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