Love Came Down at Christmas

Welcome to the start of our Advent Devotionals. Each day during December, we will be posting short thoughts based on Sinclair Ferguson’s Love Came Down at Christmas, a phrase-by-phrase meditation on 1 Corinthians 13.

In his introduction to the book, Sinclair talks about how the theme of love is everywhere at Christmas, but that our world doesn’t really understand that Christmas exists only because of love. We could answer the question, “What do you mean by ‘love’?” with just two words: Jesus Christ.

Jesu shows us what love is, and how to we are to show love to others. Sinclair writes, “…what we are called to be and do is rooted in who God is and what he has done for us in Christ.”

So before we begin looking at the individual phrases of 1 Corinthians 13, all the different and wonderful things Paul says about love, why not take time today to read the whole chapter out loud? Then read it through again, but when you get to the second paragraph, replace ‘love’ or ‘it’ with your name. Does it sound true? Or do some of the phrases challenge you? Read it through one last time, but when you get to the second paragraph, replace ‘love’ and ‘it’ with Jesus. This is the truth. Jesus Christ is perfect love. 

When we slow down to read these words and think about how they apply to us, we will be confronted by how far short we fall. But the Christmas story is meant to challenge us, and make us think about love in a new way.

Love Came Down at Christmas by Sinclair B. Ferguson (published by The Good Book Company) available to buy at Eden Christian Bookstore or Amazon.