By Dr. Thurman R. Hayes Jr.

Of all the Christian holidays, Christmas is the one that our culture most wants to be in on. Easter, without which there would be no Christianity, barely gets a nod. Christmas, however, saturates our culture for weeks.

I am not complaining. The fact that a holiday grounded in the good news about Jesus gets this much publicity is a good thing, as far as I am concerned. It provides Christians with a wonderful opportunity to explain to friends what it is really all about.

And some explaining is needed, because the culture wants to maximize the principles of Christmas and minimize the Person of Christmas. Let me explain.

At our church, during the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, we light four candles, which symbolize hope, peace, joy and love. On Christmas Eve we light a beautiful, large candle in the middle of those four. This is the Christ candle.

The world wants to say Christmas is about hope and peace and joy and love. But Christ? Not so much.

Is there any good news in the advice to live our lives by the principles of hope and peace and joy? We all know we should live that way, but do we always measure up to those ideals?

Most of us have high principles about how we think our lives should be lived, but if we are honest, we have to admit that often we fail to live by our principles.

And this brings us to the good news at the heart of Christmas, and Christianity itself.

God says, “You can’t live by the principles. But instead of condemning you for that, I am going to become a human being and live them in your place. And then I am going to die in your place, and rise from the dead, so that one day you can rise, too.”

Now that’s good news! You see, Christianity is not good advice about what you should do. Christianity (and Christmas) is good news about what God has done for you.

So what should we do with this news? Believe it!

Perhaps you were alive at the end of World War II. You can recall the delirious joy of VJ Day. If you were not alive, perhaps you have seen photos from that day.

A famous photo that captured the moment was taken in Times Square. It shows a sailor leaning over and holding a young woman in his arms, and planting a passionate kiss on her lips. What is really remarkable is that these two young people had been strangers just a moment before! The photo also shows people standing around watching this scene, and all of them are smiling and laughing.

What had made these people so joyous? It was the news. Good news can do that for people. Good advice can’t.

Suppose the newspaper boys had been in Times Square that day, hawking papers and crying out, “Here is good advice about how you should live!” Would that have made people delirious with joy? Would it have made perfect strangers embrace and kiss? No, good advice can’t do that, but good news can.

Christmas is not good advice about principles. It is good news about a Person. Believe and rejoice!

Thurman Hayes is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Suffolk. Follow him on Twitter at @ThurmanHayesJr.