Happy Birthday, Jesus?

For most of us, the holidays are for spending time with family and enjoying the blessings that we have in this life. But for many in the religious world, the Christmas holiday is also a time for them to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Some even believe that Jesus was born on December 25th. Therefore, they observe Christmas (December 25th) as a religious holy day. However, there are two problems with this:

1. We do not know the day that Jesus was born. While the Scriptures certainly record His birth (Luke 2:6-7; Matthew 2:1), there is no date of birth given in any of the inspired accounts. In fact, the biggest clue we have for the time of year in which Jesus was born is that there were shepherds out with their flocks in the fields (Luke 2:8). They would not have been out like this on December 25th. Instead, this indicates that the birth of Jesus was likely between March and October.
2. We are not told to celebrate His birth. If the Lord wanted His people to celebrate His birth, then the Bible would have included instructions about it. His apostles were to teach the disciples to “observe all that [Christ] commanded” (Matthew 28:20). Yet there is no instruction to celebrate Jesus’ birth as a religious holy day. The only commemoration Jesus gave was for us to take the Lord’s Supper on the first day of every week in order to remember His death on the cross (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). There is no authority for us to observe Jesus’ birth as a religious holy day; therefore, we must not do it (Colossians 3:17; Matthew 7:21-23).

In the end, the date on which Jesus was born is irrelevant. What matters is that He came to earth, lived a sinless life, offered Himself on the cross to atone for our sins, and was raised from the dead. After His resurrection, He gave His apostles the Great Commission:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20).

After we obey the gospel by being baptized into Christ, we are to observe the instructions found in His word. Celebrating His birth on December 25th – or any other day – is not included in those instructions. Rather than doing what we think is right, let us be busy doing what we know to be right from the Scriptures.