Why We Celebrate Christmas Debt-Free

The Christmas season is such a beautiful time of year. For starters, it’s the celebration of our Savior’s birth. Not a single Christian we know doesn’t become teary-eyed at the thought of Jesus entering the world so humbly even though He would be the Savior of mankind. For many the Christmas season is also filled with fun celebrations with family, friends, and co-workers. And as you know, over time, Christmas has become so commercialized that for many, it has lost it’s meaning. In addition to the focus of Christmas being shifted by the clever minds of modern marketing – there is more and more consumer debt surrounding the holiday. And this, friends, was never God’s intention.

Yes, we are aware that God didn’t create the Christmas holiday, we are familiar with it’s origins. However, God does love it when His people honor Him and going into debt to give a “gift” does not please him. Especially since the only gift that matters is the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus.

The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower is servant to the lender.
Proverbs 22:7 (NKJV)

The Bible teaches us that the bondage debt brings about in our lives parallels being a slave to the debtor. And this friends is in direct contradiction to the truth that:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1 (NIV)

Did you see that? Freedom! Jesus set us free from the law of sin and death and debt is among one of the by-products that sin can bring into our lives. Don’t get us wrong, we understand that sometimes life brings about circumstances that we cannot control (poverty, unexpected death, loss of a job, etc) that can bring on financial burdens where money needed to be borrowed. And God’s grace will cover you through that hardship. However, what we are saying, is that we believe that all of this (debt, credit cards, etc) came about due to sin in the earth. We do not believe that God ever intended, nor invented debt or credit because His word speaks against it.

And so, friends, we made up our mind more than 16 Christmas’ ago that we would never go into debt to celebrate the Christmas holiday. No matter what pressures we felt from the worldly view of the Christmas season or the pressure we felt at times from family and friends, we simply decided not to give in. And only by God’s grace, we have not. We have been able to celebrate 15 debt-free Christmas seasons together and are so thankful to God for it! Believe us, it wasn’t easy. Many seasons went by where not a (tangible) gift was given. But this gave us the ability to give of ourselves, Christ working through us, to share His love during the time we celebrate His birth.

We write this article not to condemn or discourage anyone, but rather to encourage you to hold fast to the promise of God’s provision. He is faithful and will show you a way to become debt-free if you are willing to be obedient and work really hard at it. We won’t go into our full testimony today, but we can tell you this: He who promised is faithful!

We are praying for all of you this Christmas that your days be filled with the freedom and peace that only Christ can give — and that you cherish the free gift of salvation rather than the gifts that men give.

Many blessings!

Michael & Carlie Kercheval @ Fulfilling Your Vows