1 John 2:18-3:6 - What Child Is This?

It's time for Christmas music! You have to love the fact that for a little while we can walk about in public places and catch phrases like "Jesus, Lord at thy birth" and "Joy to the world, the Savior reigns." Spiritual truths in secular places - awesome! Now if we can get people to really hear and consider the lyrics that are floating past their ears. If we could get folks to seriously and sincerely ask the hymn question, "What Child is This?"

In 1865, at 29 years old, William C. Dix fell suddenly and severely ill. Out of his suffering and the accompanying depression, he wrote the lyrics ...

What child is this, who, laid to rest,

On Mary’s lap is sleeping,

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet

While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;

Haste, haste to bring Him laud,The babe, the son of Mary!

Out of an experience that placed the young writer face to face with the fleeting nature of health and mortality, he communicates to us our urgent need to settle the identity of Mary's baby and to worship Him. "Haste, haste ..." Wait no longer to acknowledge the son of Mary as the Son of God and the Savior of the world. He is your Savior and mine. Laud Him, praise Him, honor Him ... now.

Today's reading in 1 John also speaks to identity - the identity of Jesus and the identifying marks of the true follower of Jesus.  In regard to the identity of Jesus: He is the Messiah, the Christ, He is co-equal with God the Father, He is righteous, without sin, pure, He is the giver of eternal life, and He is coming again. John says a lot about Jesus in a few sentences! Do we embrace these clear and powerful truths? When we imagine Mary's baby on the hay, a swaddled newborn, is this who we say that He is? If you do, you bear one of the marks of a true follower of Jesus.

In regard to the identifying marks of a true believer, a child of God, John declares: they remain faithful to the doctrine and to the church of Christ, they have an "anointing," which is John's poetic way of saying that God's Spirit lives in them, they pursue right living, purity, and put aside sin, and they recognize the blessed condition and hope that they have as a lavish gift of great love from their heavenly Father.

Who do you say that Jesus is? Are you a child of God? Do you possess the marks of a true follower of Christ? When the Christmas carols ring, do you understand the lyrics deep in your soul and sing with a heart of worship? Or will you have to be diseased and depressed and near death for the light bulb to finally go on?

"Haste! Haste ..."

Pray: Jesus Christ, son of Mary, Son of God, Savior of the world, have mercy on me. Heal my unbelief. Anoint me with your Holy Spirit. Adopt me as a true child of Yours. As Philips Brooks wrote in 'O Little Town of Bethlehem,' "be born in me today!" Grant me your truth, hope and perseverance.