Should we celebrate Christmas or not?

Q: Should we celebrate Christmas or stay away from it because it has a Pagan Romanian origin to it?

A: The simple and a clear apostolic message regarding which days we should celebrate is clearly defined by Paul in Rom 14:5-6, " 5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks." Therefore celebrating Christmas is neither right nor wrong. So each one should be convinced in His/Her own mind whether he likes to celebrate it or not, according to the direction and conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13-14). A faction should never be created because of these things inside the Body of Christ.

Going one step further we see Apostle Paul saying in the book of Colossians, "15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.  16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.  20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh." (Col 2:15-23). Because Jesus has completely defeated all religious demons which made people to be too concerned about keeping the Holy days like the Pharisees rather than rejoicing in the Lord all the time (Phil 4:4), Apostle Paul in the above verses have clearly instructed the believers not to be again entangled in religiosity by keeping the religious obsevance of days, festivals, food that are acceptable or rejected based on religious traditions and thus lose the reward of living joyfully in the earth for the Lord and also be rewarded for it in the future. The worldly people are too concerned about which day to celebrate a particular festival in a fleshly way, but we as Christians should rejoice in the Lord and always not to be too concerned about whether to celebrate a festival or not. It is good "to rejoice with those who rejoice" (Rom 12:15) and not be regulated by any system which wants to formulate and regulate our behaviour [which are commandments and doctrines of men], as we are controlled and guided by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament when we walk by faith in the promise of God's word (Gal 5:16). Let us not be deceived by the so called appearance of the wisdom of self-imposed religion which promotes false humility, neglect of body and are completely powerless against the indulgence of the flesh which is the real enemy every human is fighting which includes Christians. 

So should we celebrate Christmas or not? Whether a person celebrates or not as a Christians is based on how much liberty in the Spirit that person has experienced in living the Christian life (2 Cor 3:17; Rom 14:22). If a Christian is too religious and is not convinced to celebrate it, it is better to stay without celebrating it. If a person is not convinced about a particular thing and he/she does it because of what some other person has said to him/her, to him/her it becomes a sin because of unbelief (Rom 14:23). The unbelief will affect their conscience. The bottom line is, "Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves." (Rom 14:22c).

Also whether we celebrate Christmas to show and remember our love for the Lord and His love towards us in humbling Himself to come to earth and die for our sins or not, let us do all thing "heartily to the Lord and not to men" because it is the Lord who will reward us if we have served the Lord by celebrating Christmas to share the Love of God with others who do not know the gospel of Christ or have spent the Christmas day in fellowshipping with the Lord alone in our Home because of believing that Christmas day has a Romanian pagan root to it (Col 3:23-24). God Bless You!                      

Share:

Previous Posts