Let's get to it, shall we?
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
The first few lines of this section seem pretty straight forward. Jesus told us to love each other. Great! Love and peace sounds fantastic! Breaking chains of bondage, seeing slaves as our brothers? Cool. I like the sound of that also. Oppression shall cease? Awesome! But again, let's step back and think about what's going on here.
Love is an odd thing to define. There are 4 Greek words for love. Storge, which means affection, Phileo, which refers to friendship and brotherly love (hence the reason why Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly Love. Random side note: I have an odd inclination to cheering for Philadelphia sports teams because my name is in the city), Eros, which mainly concerns romantic love, and Agape, meaning unconditional love. In the New Testament, the original Greek language uses Agape, pure unconditional love to describe God's love for his people. Unconditional love is hard to come by in this day in age. Even the strongest marriages can end in divorce, and relationships between parents and children are never ideal. But God's love does not fail. The love that compels God to send his Son, that allows Christmas to even happen is truly incredible compared to human attempts at agape. What Jesus did on this earth, living a perfect life and dying on the cross for our sins is the ultimate act of love. John 3:16 is a very popular verse that does a good job of illustrating God's love for us. Perhaps a lesser known verse is found in the book of 1 John in chapter 3, verse 16 which says, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." When the Bible talks about love, it goes beyond just being nice to people. It calls us to truly give of ourselves, to make sacrifices, to go beyond our comfort zone, not just during a season of giving, but for the entirety of our lives.
His gospel is peace.
Gospel means good news. The good news is peace. That's what everyone wants right? Politicians and high school seniors writing college essays always talk about establishing world peace. Call me a pessimist, but I don't think that's happening anytime soon. But I can take solace in the fact that God has offered peace to us through Jesus. For there to be a peace, it is implied that there was war, rebellion going on. Humanity was in open rebellion against God, fighting God, using sin to tell God that we didn't want Him reigning over our lives (hey I worked in the title of my blog there!). But Romans 5:10 says "While we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." We couldn't bring about this peace by ourselves, only Jesus can bring peace.
The song continues and states that the slave is our brother, and all oppression shall cease. By claiming that slaves are our brothers, doesn't that also imply that we ourselves our slaves? We are all slaves to sin. When you realize that everyone, you and me alike, were once seen as enemies of God, slaves to sin, wouldn't the oppression that exists between people groups fade away? No one is supreme over anybody. Comparisons become moot points when you are trying to figure out who is worse off than someone else. You're missing the point if you're doing that.
You'll notice that each section of the song ends the same way. Thanking and praising God for what he has done. The primary response to hearing the Christmas story is not to give gifts to other people in an effort to make you feel good about yourself, or even to brighten someone else's day. The first response is worship. Declaring that Christ is the Lord. If you have made Jesus the Lord of your life, then forever and ever, you will praise him for his glory. You will want to proclaim his name to the world, because of what he has saved you from: the grave, sin, eternity without God. It's not something you do once a year as the calender turns to December, it's something you do with all your heart.
In some versions of the song, I noticed that instead of ending with a proclamation of Jesus's divinity and kingship, the song ends with the words "Noel" which simply means Christmas. So often, I hear people talk about "keeping the Christ in Christmas" and how they will say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays". I have been known to be one of those obnoxious people. But nowadays, all I hear when people say things like that, is just white noise. Do not simply yell Noel, without reflecting on what you really mean. This isn't a time to make a political statement. It's a time to worship and reflect on the fact that 2000 years ago, God entered into the world on a holy, divine, night in the form of a helpless baby, and the life of that child would change the world forever.
Well I hope you've enjoyed my posts on this classic. And I applaud you on making it this far. I just now realized that I may have been rambling and this post is quite a bit longer than previous entries. I hope you enjoy the Christmas season, and you'll hear again from me again as I continue to share my thoughts about this wonderful season. It's been real.
Love is an odd thing to define. There are 4 Greek words for love. Storge, which means affection, Phileo, which refers to friendship and brotherly love (hence the reason why Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly Love. Random side note: I have an odd inclination to cheering for Philadelphia sports teams because my name is in the city), Eros, which mainly concerns romantic love, and Agape, meaning unconditional love. In the New Testament, the original Greek language uses Agape, pure unconditional love to describe God's love for his people. Unconditional love is hard to come by in this day in age. Even the strongest marriages can end in divorce, and relationships between parents and children are never ideal. But God's love does not fail. The love that compels God to send his Son, that allows Christmas to even happen is truly incredible compared to human attempts at agape. What Jesus did on this earth, living a perfect life and dying on the cross for our sins is the ultimate act of love. John 3:16 is a very popular verse that does a good job of illustrating God's love for us. Perhaps a lesser known verse is found in the book of 1 John in chapter 3, verse 16 which says, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." When the Bible talks about love, it goes beyond just being nice to people. It calls us to truly give of ourselves, to make sacrifices, to go beyond our comfort zone, not just during a season of giving, but for the entirety of our lives.
His gospel is peace.
Gospel means good news. The good news is peace. That's what everyone wants right? Politicians and high school seniors writing college essays always talk about establishing world peace. Call me a pessimist, but I don't think that's happening anytime soon. But I can take solace in the fact that God has offered peace to us through Jesus. For there to be a peace, it is implied that there was war, rebellion going on. Humanity was in open rebellion against God, fighting God, using sin to tell God that we didn't want Him reigning over our lives (hey I worked in the title of my blog there!). But Romans 5:10 says "While we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." We couldn't bring about this peace by ourselves, only Jesus can bring peace.
The song continues and states that the slave is our brother, and all oppression shall cease. By claiming that slaves are our brothers, doesn't that also imply that we ourselves our slaves? We are all slaves to sin. When you realize that everyone, you and me alike, were once seen as enemies of God, slaves to sin, wouldn't the oppression that exists between people groups fade away? No one is supreme over anybody. Comparisons become moot points when you are trying to figure out who is worse off than someone else. You're missing the point if you're doing that.
You'll notice that each section of the song ends the same way. Thanking and praising God for what he has done. The primary response to hearing the Christmas story is not to give gifts to other people in an effort to make you feel good about yourself, or even to brighten someone else's day. The first response is worship. Declaring that Christ is the Lord. If you have made Jesus the Lord of your life, then forever and ever, you will praise him for his glory. You will want to proclaim his name to the world, because of what he has saved you from: the grave, sin, eternity without God. It's not something you do once a year as the calender turns to December, it's something you do with all your heart.
In some versions of the song, I noticed that instead of ending with a proclamation of Jesus's divinity and kingship, the song ends with the words "Noel" which simply means Christmas. So often, I hear people talk about "keeping the Christ in Christmas" and how they will say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays". I have been known to be one of those obnoxious people. But nowadays, all I hear when people say things like that, is just white noise. Do not simply yell Noel, without reflecting on what you really mean. This isn't a time to make a political statement. It's a time to worship and reflect on the fact that 2000 years ago, God entered into the world on a holy, divine, night in the form of a helpless baby, and the life of that child would change the world forever.
Well I hope you've enjoyed my posts on this classic. And I applaud you on making it this far. I just now realized that I may have been rambling and this post is quite a bit longer than previous entries. I hope you enjoy the Christmas season, and you'll hear again from me again as I continue to share my thoughts about this wonderful season. It's been real.
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