Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"
“Peace on Earth and Good will towards men” are the words the angels proclaimed to the shepherds describing the result of Jesus coming. Sometimes, however, this seems to be a far off ideal, especially at Christmas time. Weather your competing for that last, must have, toy in the shop, or dealing with uninvited family members Christmas can be a time that brings out the worst in us.
Times like this, times of stress and excitement seem to magnify the thoughts and feelings we have inside. We often have a tenancy to find fault in others, especially others who are most different from ourselves. This is a protection measure. “We know that we have issues, things we need to change, but at least were not like that guy, right?” This is how we deflect criticism and negativity from ourselves, we send it off towards others. I once knew someone who was always talking about being positive, but this person would then spend all their time talking about how other people were negative and calling the out for this negativity, thus being negative. See, often the things we know are issues for us are the things we deflect towards others.
We do this on a larger scale as well. This is the “Peace on earth” part. As nations and nationalities we like to point out how other nationalities and cultures are wrong. I'm not talking foreign policy I'm talking about the conversations we have around the dinner table or work about immigrants or people of other nationalities. However, if you look at the acceptance of the murder of babies/ abortion, prostitution, objectification of women, domestic violence in our own country, we will find we have little room to talk.
So where does this fit into the declaration of the Angels to the shepherds? Peace on earth and good will towards men begins with Jesus. It begins with grace and the teachings found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christ said we have to repent of our own sins and then boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations. We have to remember as Ephesians 2 tells us that we too were once enemies of God, but that someone had the grace to speak the name of Jesus into our lives. If we want “Peace on Earth and good will towards men” then we make our desires inline with his “that all men be saved”. We make it our goal, from the most irritating family member, to the cruellest boss, to the most unassimilated immigrant, to the foreigner living thousands of miles away, to make Christ and his grace known to them.
It's through Christ we will have “peace on earth and goodwill towards men”.
“Peace on Earth and Good will towards men” are the words the angels proclaimed to the shepherds describing the result of Jesus coming. Sometimes, however, this seems to be a far off ideal, especially at Christmas time. Weather your competing for that last, must have, toy in the shop, or dealing with uninvited family members Christmas can be a time that brings out the worst in us.
Times like this, times of stress and excitement seem to magnify the thoughts and feelings we have inside. We often have a tenancy to find fault in others, especially others who are most different from ourselves. This is a protection measure. “We know that we have issues, things we need to change, but at least were not like that guy, right?” This is how we deflect criticism and negativity from ourselves, we send it off towards others. I once knew someone who was always talking about being positive, but this person would then spend all their time talking about how other people were negative and calling the out for this negativity, thus being negative. See, often the things we know are issues for us are the things we deflect towards others.
We do this on a larger scale as well. This is the “Peace on earth” part. As nations and nationalities we like to point out how other nationalities and cultures are wrong. I'm not talking foreign policy I'm talking about the conversations we have around the dinner table or work about immigrants or people of other nationalities. However, if you look at the acceptance of the murder of babies/ abortion, prostitution, objectification of women, domestic violence in our own country, we will find we have little room to talk.
So where does this fit into the declaration of the Angels to the shepherds? Peace on earth and good will towards men begins with Jesus. It begins with grace and the teachings found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christ said we have to repent of our own sins and then boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations. We have to remember as Ephesians 2 tells us that we too were once enemies of God, but that someone had the grace to speak the name of Jesus into our lives. If we want “Peace on Earth and good will towards men” then we make our desires inline with his “that all men be saved”. We make it our goal, from the most irritating family member, to the cruellest boss, to the most unassimilated immigrant, to the foreigner living thousands of miles away, to make Christ and his grace known to them.
It's through Christ we will have “peace on earth and goodwill towards men”.