This passage is the summary...
Illustration
This passage is the summary of the few verses that come before it in the chapter; the moral of the story, so to speak. It makes better sense when we put the passage in the context of what has come before.
The verbs teach, train and encourage tell the story, and the content of the story they tell is to adopt (change to) a different, more proper behavior and lifestyle. Now in this passage we have the zinger. The glorious presence of Christ has appeared, to redeem us from wickedness and purify us to do good. How can we miss it! The time to clean up our act has come and be ready to accept the righteousness which God brings to us this night.
It's human nature, isn't it, to put off until a future time those things which we know full well are not good for us, those things we ought to be giving up, those things God expects us to be doing. Like a student who knows the exam is coming, but somehow manages to maintain the same style of pursuing personal pleasures and procrastination, we too may be inclined to presume upon the grace of God to give us an extension since we're not ready for the big event.
As we sit in worship on this sacred night, with candles flickering and the gentle sound of angel wings wafting in the balcony, it's not hard to presume that the Christmas story is taking place in a distant land, at a different time. But can that be? For Christmas is something that happens in us, in our hearts and our minds. Christmas should not lull us into a peaceful slumber of self-centeredness, but instead calls us to reexamine our lives as worshipers of the Christ-child and make whatever changes we need to make so Christ really can "be born in us today."
The verbs teach, train and encourage tell the story, and the content of the story they tell is to adopt (change to) a different, more proper behavior and lifestyle. Now in this passage we have the zinger. The glorious presence of Christ has appeared, to redeem us from wickedness and purify us to do good. How can we miss it! The time to clean up our act has come and be ready to accept the righteousness which God brings to us this night.
It's human nature, isn't it, to put off until a future time those things which we know full well are not good for us, those things we ought to be giving up, those things God expects us to be doing. Like a student who knows the exam is coming, but somehow manages to maintain the same style of pursuing personal pleasures and procrastination, we too may be inclined to presume upon the grace of God to give us an extension since we're not ready for the big event.
As we sit in worship on this sacred night, with candles flickering and the gentle sound of angel wings wafting in the balcony, it's not hard to presume that the Christmas story is taking place in a distant land, at a different time. But can that be? For Christmas is something that happens in us, in our hearts and our minds. Christmas should not lull us into a peaceful slumber of self-centeredness, but instead calls us to reexamine our lives as worshipers of the Christ-child and make whatever changes we need to make so Christ really can "be born in us today."
