December-25
Short answer: Galatians 4:4-5 says, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law," and that sentence settles the theology of the incarnation without naming a single calendar date. Scripture never tells us when Jesus was born, and it never commands his people to observe a birthday feast. December 25 is a tradition of the church, not an apostolic instruction. That means the day itself is a matter of liberty. Romans 14:5-6 says, "One man esteems one day as more important. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind." So a Christian may joyfully set the day apart to remember the birth of Christ, or refrain from doing so, provided the motive in both cases is to honor the Lord rather than to earn standing before him.
The text does not date the birth, it times the sending
Read Galatians 4:4 slowly and notice what kind of timing Paul is describing. He does not write that God sent his Son on a particular day of a particular month. He writes that God sent him when the fullness of the time came. The phrase has to do with the completion of a long preparation, not with a square on a Roman calendar. Paul's concern is that the sending happened at the appointed moment, not that his readers should know the date.
The verses that follow explain why the timing mattered. The Son was born of a woman and born under the law so that he might redeem those under the law. Israel had been given promises, the law, the covenants, and the prophets, and the sending came when that preparation reached its goal. Paul is doing theology, not chronology. If we press the passage for a date, we are asking it to answer a question it was never written to address.
This is worth saying plainly because December 25 is often defended from this verse as though Paul had stamped the calendar. He did not. Galatians 4:4 establishes that the incarnation was planned, purposeful, and perfectly timed by the Father. It does not establish that the timing was the twenty-fifth of December, nor does it ask anyone to commemorate the day. Everything the verse does establish is far weightier than a date.
Why Scripture never names the day
Anyone who reads the birth narratives carefully will notice something striking: no date is given. Luke tells us about a census, a manger, and shepherds in the fields, but he gives no month. The shepherds keeping watch by night over their flock, as Luke 2:8-11 describes them, tell us about the season of the year only in a general way, and scholars have debated what that implies for centuries without reaching certainty. The text simply is not interested in the question.
The apostolic writers show the same restraint. When the New Testament tells us what to remember, it points to the Lord's death until he comes, not to his birth. The birth is narrated, treasured, and preached as the arrival of the Savior, but no annual observance is attached to it. That silence is not an accident of lost records. It appears to be deliberate.
So how did December 25 become the date? The honest answer is that the evidence is complex and contested. Some point to an existing midwinter festival that the church reoriented toward Christ. Others point to an old line of reasoning about the date of the crucifixion and a symmetrical estimate of nine months. No one has produced a document proving the apostolic church observed the day. Faithful historians differ, and we should not pretend certainty where the record is thin.
Roman liberty and the conscience of each believer
Romans 14 addresses exactly the kind of dispute that surrounds Christmas. One believer esteems one day as more important while another esteems every day alike, and Paul does not scold either one. His instruction is that each person be fully assured in his own mind, and his greater concern is that the two groups stop despising and judging each other. Both the observer and the non-observer act to honor the Lord.
That principle cuts in two directions. A Christian who keeps December 25 as a joyful memorial of the incarnation should not look down on a brother who does not. And a Christian who declines to observe the day should not treat the one who celebrates as superstitious or half-converted. Paul's logic in Romans 14:6 is that the one who observes does so to the Lord, and the one who abstains also does so to the Lord, giving thanks to God either way.
This means the December 25 question is not, at bottom, a test of orthodoxy. Two believers can hold opposite practices on this point and both be faithful. What neither may do is turn a matter of liberty into a mark of genuine faith, because that is precisely the strong-arm Paul forbids. Conviction is required; contempt is not.
Colossians 2 and the danger of adding requirements
Colossians 2:16-17 says, "Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day," and whatever else that verse means, it clearly forbids making ceremonial calendars binding on the conscience. Paul calls such things a shadow of the things to come. A shadow is real, but it is not the substance, and it must not be imposed as though it were.
Apply that to Christmas with care. If a church demands that members celebrate December 25 as an obligatory holy day, it has added a requirement Scripture does not impose and has begun to rebuild the very structure Paul dismantles in Galatians. If a church demands that members abstain from any observance of the day, it has done the same thing from the opposite direction. Both are forms of judging in the sense Paul forbids.
What Colossians does not say is that days may never be used for good. Paul's point is about judgment and obligation, not about whether a congregation may gather on a chosen day to sing about the incarnation. A free act of worship is not the same thing as a binding ordinance. The distinction between the two is where the whole discussion lives.
A useful note on John 10:22-23
John 10:22-23 says, "It was the Feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem." Jesus walked in the temple during that festival, which commemorates events recorded in the books of Maccabees and is not commanded anywhere in the Law of Moses. The New Testament never condemns his presence there. Whatever we conclude about the day, we have an example of the Lord himself participating in a commemorative observance that Scripture had not instituted.
This passage is often raised in the Christmas discussion, and it deserves an honest reading. It does not prove that Jesus celebrated Hanukkah as an act of worship, and it certainly does not authorize the church to invent holy days at will. It does show that a man could be present at an extrabiblical festival without sin. The text reports his presence; it does not issue a command.
The most anyone should claim from this verse is modest. It removes the strongest form of the argument that any observance not commanded in Scripture is automatically sinful. It leaves the deeper questions open. Whether to keep December 25 remains where Romans 14 leaves it: a decision made before the Lord, with gratitude, and without judging the brother who decides differently.
What the incarnation actually asks of us
Come back to the weight of Galatians 4:4-5. The verse does not say that God sent his Son in a pleasant season. It says he sent him born of a woman and born under the law, which means the eternal Son took on a real human nature and placed himself under the very covenant that condemned us. That is the sentence worth a lifetime of meditation.
The purpose clause is the heart of it: so that he might redeem those under the law. Redemption required a substitute who could bear the curse and a representative who could fulfill the obedience we owe. The cradle is only good news because of the cross. A birth remembered without a cross understood is sentiment. A birth remembered alongside the cross is salvation.
So December 25 is a good day to read the nativity and a good day to read Galatians 4:4-5 together. If you set the day apart, let it drive you to the redemption Paul names. If you do not, let the same passage drive you there anyway. Neither calendar includes nor excludes anyone from the family of God. The one who sent his Son in the fullness of time is not honored or dishonored by the page of a calendar.
Freedom must not become a new law
There is a subtle trap on both sides of this discussion. Those who celebrate can drift into treating the season as a sacrament, as though the warmth of December were the presence of God and a dull Christmas were a spiritual failure. Those who abstain can drift into treating the season as contamination, as though refusing a calendar made them more discerning than their neighbors. Both are the flesh at work in different costumes.
The gospel gives us a way out of both. We are not justified by keeping a day, and we are not justified by skipping one. Justification is by faith in the One who was sent. Once that is settled, a great deal of energy currently spent policing calendars can be redirected into love of neighbor, which Paul says is the fulfilling of the law.
So let each one be fully assured in his own mind, and let none of us judge the servant of another. That is not indifference to truth. It is the recognition that God alone stands over the conscience on a matter he has left free. The incarnation is certain. The date is not. Our unity rests on the first, not the second.
Biblical fidelity check
What Galatians 4:4-5 establishes is the fact, the purpose, and the divine initiative of the incarnation. God sent his Son, he was born of a woman, he was born under the law, and the aim was redemption. What the passage does not establish is a calendar date, an annual festival, or an obligation to observe the birth of Christ on any particular day. It also does not forbid such an observance. It is a theological statement about the sending, not a liturgical instruction about the season.
A common misreading goes like this: since God sent his Son in the fullness of time, and since the church has long celebrated December 25, the date must be biblically grounded. That is a leap the text will not support. Paul never mentions a month, and the church's later calendar is not the same thing as apostolic command. The opposite misreading is equally wrong: that because the date is not in Scripture, celebrating is disobedience. Romans 14:5-6 and Colossians 2:16-17 forbid that conclusion, since they place such days in the realm of liberty and warn against judging.
Other passages that speak to Galatians 4:4
Galatians 4:4 stands at the center of a wider biblical witness, and the themes surrounding it appear throughout the New Testament. The prologue to the first epistle of John handles the incarnation with the same concern for the real, tangible sending, and it is worth reading alongside Paul's words. Since Paul moves quickly from the sending to the problem of sin and the need for cleansing, the studies on What Does 1 John 1:1 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application and What Does 1 John 1:8 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application trace how the apostolic writers join the incarnation to confession. From there, 1 John 1:9 Meaning: Confession, Forgiveness, and Cleansing shows where the redemption Paul names actually lands in the believer's life, and What Does 1 John 2:15 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application helps with the practical question of how a Christian handles a season so heavily shaped by the surrounding culture.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Bible say Jesus was born on December 25?
No. Neither Matthew nor Luke gives a date, a month, or even a season with any precision. Luke mentions shepherds staying in the field and keeping watch by night over their flock, which has led to endless speculation but no certainty. The tradition of December 25 arose later in church history, and the reasons behind it are still debated by historians. Scripture simply does not answer the question, and it does not treat the answer as important. What it tells us is that the Son was sent and born of a woman.
Is it a sin for a Christian to celebrate Christmas?
Scripture does not make it a sin, and it does not make it a duty. Romans 14:5-6 places the observance of days in the category of personal conviction, where each person should be fully assured in his own mind and neither group should judge the other. Colossians 2:16-17 likewise forbids letting anyone judge you with respect to a feast day. If you celebrate, do it to the Lord with gratitude. If you do not, do it to the Lord without contempt for those who do.
How should a Christian decide what to do about December 25?
Begin with the gospel rather than the calendar. You are not made right with God by keeping a day or by skipping one. Then ask whether your practice is driven by love for Christ and neighbor or by fear of other people's opinions. If you observe, let the day push you toward the incarnation and the cross, not merely toward sentiment. If you abstain, let your abstinence be quiet and charitable. In either case, do not bind another conscience where God has left it free.
