Daily Verse | Philemon 6
I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.

Tuesday’s Reading: Hebrews 1-2

It’s Tuesday and sorry for the miss yesterday. We had a dear friend who was close to death on Sunday and we spent several hours late into the night with him. He died Monday. Fortunately, he knew the Lord and understood “every good thing we have in Christ.”

Many Christians participate in the Advent season, which are the four Sundays preceding Christmas. This year they started on November 28 and will continue through December 24. The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming,” which is a translation of the Greek word parousia which, in modern theology, invariably means the Second Coming of Christ.

Of course, the way Advent is practiced today doesn’t anticipate the Second Coming of Christ as much as it reminds us to anticipate and celebrate His first coming as a baby. Traditionally there are four themes (or virtues) correlating with the four Sundays: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.

Our church ordered them this year as Joy, Hope, Peace and Love. As I reflected on those four virtues in that order, I was struck by the relationship between them.

Joy is the perpetual gladness of the heart that comes from knowing Jesus. Yes, it is an emotion that expresses delight in something, but it is also a deep-seated contentment that is unshaken by its circumstances, whatever they might be.

The shepherds heard about joy from the angel that said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10). We’re even told that when the Magi “saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Matthew 2:10).

Finding out that a Savior had been born was sure to lead them and, eventually us, to Hope.

Our church says that “Hope is the confident expectation of a better tomorrow based on the character and promises of God.” If you know that a Savior has come, you are suddenly filled with hope that you can be saved, based on the fulfilled promises of a coming Savior and King who would defeat death and the consequences of sin and lead us into an everlasting relationship with God Himself.

And once you have that hope, you’re filled with Peace. No longer are you anxious about whether or not you’re “saved” or if you even can be “saved.” No longer do you hang your head in shame because you’re not as good as the religious professionals who seem to have it all together. No, you live in peace, resting in the knowledge that you are “in Christ” and that he will “lose none of all those [God] has given me, but raise them up at the last day” (John 6:39).

If we are at peace, then, we are free to Love others. If we are anxious and unsettled and worried about our own life, we are preoccupied with what is wrong and soothing our anxieties. We become selfish and self-centered, making sure we are taken care of first.

Instead, being at peace allows us to focus on the well-being of others around us. We can seek their good without worrying about whether our good will be sought. We can treat them well because we realize that we have been treated well.

We are able to love because we are at peace.

We are at peace because we have hope in God’s promises and character.

We have hope because of the joy we’ve found in the Savior who has come and promises to save us from the consequences of our sin.

And we have joy because we’ve been told that it’s true.

It is Jesus who is our Savior — the entire line of dominoes falls with this first one.

Jesus has come, which leads to Joy, which leads to Hope, which leads to Peace, which leads to Love.

May those virtues be found in abundance in your life and in the life of your church this holiday season.