The Ultimate Act of Love

We’ve traveled through the Advent season, lighting the candles of Hope, Peace, and Joy. Now, in this final week, we reach the crescendo of the season: Love. As we light the fourth candle, typically purple or violet, which represents the final stage of preparation and devotion, we focus on the essential and ultimate demonstration of God’s Love. This is often called the Angel’s Candle, symbolizing the message of God’s Love delivered by the angel Gabriel to Mary and the angels to the shepherds.

God’s Love: The Ultimate Act of Giving

To truly understand this week, we must grasp the nature of God’s love. The Bible tells us simply:

So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

(1 John 4:16)

This divine love is called agape in Greek, it is an unconditional, self-sacrificing Love for humanity.

The birth of Jesus, the Incarnation, is the ultimate act of Love. It wasn’t just a kind feeling God had for us; it was a divine commitment where He stepped into our human story. His love was “made manifest” or “made clear and obvious” through the ultimate gift of His Son.

The entire message of Christmas can be summed up by John:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

(John 3:16)

This act fulfilled the promise of “Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us”.

Love in Action: More Than an Emotion

If God’s love is shown through action, then our love must be, too. Love unexpressed is love incomplete. This is why the Advent focus narrows to the key figures surrounding the Nativity: Mary’s acceptance and Joseph’s faith are powerful, selfless demonstrations of Godly Love.

Just as God acted by sending Jesus, we are called to show the truth by our actions. The lights and decorations we put up outside are a way of showing what we feel inside. Our outward expression of love should display the change that has happened in our hearts.

A Call to Reciprocal and Sacrificial Love

Because we have received this profound Love: “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9), we are now obligated to share it. We are called to embody the Love we celebrate by following Jesus’ great commandment:

He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”’

(Matthew 22:37-39)

This means engaging in the spiritual discipline of almsgiving and compassion. We are challenged to embody Love through tangible acts of kindness, generosity, and service toward our community and those in need.

Two essential actions this week are: 

  1. Receiving God’s Love: Before we can authentically share God’s Love, we must fully open our hearts to receive it. Take quiet time to reflect on the profound and undeserved gift of the Incarnation.
  2. Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Love requires sacrificial giving, which includes the difficult work of forgiveness. Encourage yourself to lay aside grievances and seek reconciliation before the Christmas celebration.

The Love Challenge

Lighting this final candle completes the Advent circle, symbolizing the completion of the preparation. We’ve prepared the way through Hope, Peace, Joy, and now Love, and our hearts are ready for the immediate arrival of the Light of the World, represented by the Christ Candle lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

This week, commit to performing one tangible act of kindness or service for a neighbour, coworker, or service worker without seeking credit or being noticed. This is an exercise in practicing agape—selfless, giving Love—for its own sake. As followers of Jesus, we fight against selfish tendencies and fight for the giving of love, because love given away is a love that changes everything.

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