For that wondrous Birth in Bethlehem is no fanciful legend, no pious romance, but a down-to-earth event which, but for the goodness and love of God, would be too good to be true.  Your Maker and your Saviour lay there that night in the crib, and he lay there as much for your sake as for anyone else in the whole wide world.  Cold indeed would be the heart that did not love him in return, colder than that winter’s night.

And coldness of heart is the product of pride, which seeks to be independent of God; and of self-love which puts oneself as the centre of the circle in which one lives one’s life.  Those two attitudes together are the great obstacle in the way of loving God, and they can only be removed by being replaced with humility, by which we gladly accept our utter dependence upon God and make him the centre of our lives.

Self-love often goes unrecognised by the person concerned, but its bitter fruits, which provide irrefutable evidence of its existence, are plain to see – resentment, grudges, envy and spite, ill temper, conceit, an unforgiving spirit.  When one considers such unlovely manifestations it is evident that self-love and love of Christ cannot exist together.

For love of Christ is not a superficial emotion which leaves the will untouched: it is a personal devotion to him which finds practical expression in following his example and in growing in his likeness.