“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Luke 2:14

I wonder if some of us get our Christmas theology more from greeting cards than from the Bible. Of course many (most?) Christmas (holiday?) greeting cards have had all things Christmas sponged away, but even the so-called “religious cards” tend to upend things a bit. Many religious Christmas cards declare, “Peace on earth, good will toward men.” That’s from the Bible, but is it possible that it is commonly misunderstood as something other than what it means in the Bible?

Conventional wisdom says the phrase means that because of Christmas we should all get along. That is a nice idea. I wish it were true. To get at the real meaning, we need to read the rest of what the angels said that first Christmas. “Glory to God in the highest” must precede the “peace on earth” part. Why? Because it is only as we acknowledge the glory of God that we can experience the peace on earth part.

But that’s not all, the “peace on earth” part is not primarily about peace between ourselves. Jesus Christ came to make peace between all of us and God. Though few are willing to acknowledge it, every time any of us disobeys God in even the smallest way, our disobedience is a declaration of war against God. Jesus came to put an eternal end to that greatest of all hostilities. He came as a Baby so He could die as a Man, so that we may be forgiven of our sins, so that there may be peace on earth between sinful men and our holy God.

I hope you have experienced the “peace on earth” part which is available only to those who have declared “glory to God in the highest.” Merry Christmas!