O come, all ye faithful, joyful, and triumphant;
come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
come and behold Him, born the King of angels:
Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation;
sing all ye bright hosts of heav’n above;
glory to God, all glory in the highest:
Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be all glory giv’n;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing:
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.
This is my favorite Christmas hymn without question. There are certainly others with more compelling melodies, but something about the lyrics to O Come, All Ye Faithful gets me every time.
The Dictionary of Bible Themes defines adore as an attitude of worship characterized by love and reverence towards God. In strict terminology, the Latin expression adoratio is a designated act of worship due to God alone.
I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word adore, I picture a group of adults huddled around a tiny baby, ooing and ahhhing. It’s easy to transfer that image to use oohing and ahhing over a baby in a manger, but that is so far from what our adoration, or worship, of the God-man should look like.
R.C. Sproul pens it perfectly, “Why should we adore him? Because that is our duty as human beings. We have been called to fill the earth with the glory of God. We are created in his image to reflect his glory; our major function is to magnify the Lord.”
How are you filling the earth with the glory of God? How are you filling your home with the glory of God? Your work place? Your community? How are you magnifying the Lord in the environments He has placed you?
Christmas is about many things—family, gift giving, decorations, parties—none of those bad or wrong, but the primary reason for Christmas is to remember and adore Christ the King who humbled himself by taking on human flesh, in the form of an infant, born in a stable and laid in a stone carved feeding trough.
So, amidst the hustle and bustle, shopping, partying, elf on the shelf, Santa clause craze, how are you adoring Him?
If we miss it, if we fail to adore Him, we are failing our reason for existence! We are missing out on our duty, our purpose. 1 Peter 2:9-10 says we were chosen and created for God’s own possession to proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Don’t miss out on praising your King! O Come, let us adore Him, Christ, The Lord.