On Wednesday we addressed Santa Claus. On the table today, gift giving. Here's the email. Hi Pastor John, my name is Kaitlin. My family and I love listening to all of your sermons and appreciate the way you proclaim Christ's name. Thank you. My question is this. We seek to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and to not make it so much about the gifts.

I have two questions for you. Number one, is gift giving biblical? And number two, is there a better way to do it? The short answer is yes. Gift giving is biblical and yes, there is probably a better way to do it. Since nothing we do is perfect, then there's always a better way to do it.

It's good. It's good to ask what aspects of our giving and getting, our giving patterns, are merely cultural and what are shaped by Christ to magnify Christ. So what I thought might be helpful is to just develop a short theology of gift giving at Christmas by weaving together some of the biblical passages.

Three steps from God's giving to us, to our giving to Christ, to our giving to each other, and to those in need. So I think it will be helpful just to step back and get the biblical perspective on these three things. Then we'll be able to articulate why are we doing this?

Why are we sharing gifts from a pretty deep biblical vision? So step number one, here's the way Christmas is described in the most famous verse, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16.

Paul puts it like this in 2 Corinthians 8-9, "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake," this is referring now to Christmas, "for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." In other words, a huge gift comes to you by his poverty.

The meaning of Christ's stooping to become man was to raise up, raise up to glory his family. Amazing. Then the simple, short, spectacular exaltation of 2 Corinthians 9-15, "Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift." So the very essence of Christmas includes divine overflow of generosity, kindness, grace, giving, doing for us, giving to us what we could never do for ourselves or get on our own.

And the ultimate gift is God. God gives God. Like it says in 1 Peter 3-18, "Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, so that we might have God as our supreme, all-satisfying gift or treasure." So at the heart of Christmas is God giving God for the enjoyment of his people whom he saves by giving his Son to suffer.

That's breathtaking. That is the heart of Christmas. Now here's step two. Our responding by giving to Christ. Now I know this is dangerous. I feel this more keenly than everything, because I've written whole chapters on why you shouldn't give to God, he's the giver. But it's biblical. It's dangerous in one sense to speak of giving to Christ, because our giving to Christ dare not be seen as a paying him back, as if the transaction were done because he needs to get our services.

Mark 10:45 is such a warning. "For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give." He didn't come to get our service. He came to give his life as a ransom for many. He did not come to find a labor force to supply his need.

He came as the servant and the giver. Nevertheless, the Bible pictures people giving to Christ. So here's the picture in Luke 7. Remember the story where Jesus comes to visit Simon, and a woman comes in and starts washing his feet with her tears, and Simon gets bent out of shape, and Jesus says, "Simon, do you see this woman?

I entered your house. You gave me, gave me no water for my feet. She has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil.

You didn't give me any anointing, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. She loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little." This is a giving that is not a purchasing anything. It's not trading for anything.

It was overflow of affection and thankfulness for her forgiveness. Same thing in John 12 where Mary took a pound of expensive ointment, it says, made of pure nard, and just poured it out on the feet of Jesus, wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume, John 12 3.

And Judas was ticked about this because he was a thief, but Jesus defended her and said it was like an affectionate anointing in advance for his burial. And of course, this giving to Jesus is connected with Christmas by the wise men. Going into the house, these wise men who came from the east saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.

Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts—gold, frankincense, myrrh, Matthew 2 11. So part of worship is finding ways to show how much we admire and reverence and trust and value Jesus, and part of that is making sacrifices—that is, going without things, valuable things, not because he needs them, but because he owns them, and we can be happy without them if we have him.

Now here's the third and final step in our little mini-theology of gift-giving at Christmas. So number one, the giving of God to us. Number two, our joyful readiness to show affection in giving to him. Those two things overflow in number three, giving to others. And one of my favorite expressions of this dynamic, the way this works in the Christian heart, is 2 Corinthians 8 verse 2.

"In a severe test of affliction," so imagine yourself at Christmas time in some kind of trouble and distress, and a lot of people are, "in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed." So what overflowed? Abundance of joy in extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity—that's giving—on their part.

And Hebrews 13 16 says, "Don't neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices," that's worship, "are pleasing to God." So even our giving to others is viewed as a sacrifice, a worship to God. So here's the sum of the matter that I think all of our gift-giving should be seen in the light of.

Seek to form a mindset about giving at Christmas that helps the children and helps the adults, number one, to rejoice in God as the great and first giver of the greatest gift; number two, the mindset that offers back to Christ the gift of trust and hope and admiration and joy and affection; and then finally, the mindset that overflows with joy in giving to others.

Not primarily the mindset of getting, but the mindset of joyful overflow of giving. - Amen. Those are important mindsets for this season, as we, from overflowing joy, give, and in giving, double our joy as we share our joy with others. Thank you, Pastor John. So good. Caitlin, thank you for the question.

I'm looking forward to the next question. I love this. On Monday, we return with a question about Colossians 1.20. That's my favorite chapter of the Bible, but it's not one without conundrums. In fact, how can Paul say that Christ reconciles all things to himself in chapter 1, verse 20?

Does that apply to angels and human souls that are not redeemed? How is it that Christ reconciled all of his creation to himself? It's a great question and one that has perplexed theologians for a long, long time. Well, thanks for listening to the podcast. We have entered a really important milestone in our budget cycle.

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To give, visit DesiringGod.org/give. That's DesiringGod.org/give. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Monday. Have a great weekend. you you you you you you you