The Songs Tell the Story: A Family Advent DevotionalSample

The Song that You Could Have Sung Only in Latin

This favorite Christmas carol is sung every Christmas. It was probably written by more than one person, and the lyrics have changed over the years. The words were first written and sung in Latin. Some people wanted to translate the stanzas into English, but others told them not to do that.

It seems strange to us today, but, during that period of history, there were Christians who didn’t believe a hymn should ever be sung in English. They thought Latin was the only language for hymns.

“O Come, All Ye Faithful” is one of the hymns that was “smuggled off ” to England and translated there. Over time, some of the words and ideas were changed during translation. Additional stanzas were added, and others were removed from the original version. Now, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” is a selection of stanzas from more than one of those translated versions.

But the message of this great Christmas carol is still the same today. The people who wrote this hymn wanted us to think about the people who came to see the newborn King. The authors wanted us to worship and adore Jesus as they did. This hymn is for the faithful and reminds us that we are supposed to worship Christ as our Lord.

People come to church for lots of reasons at Christmastime, and churches are glad to welcome them. All of us will sing this hymn, but we need to think about the words as we are singing them. Jesus would want us to experience the same joy that the shepherds, Mary, Joseph, and the magi felt as they beheld the infant King in the manger.

You can look around the church on Sunday and watch people sing. Some sing the words but don’t look very thoughtful about what they are singing. Others sing with their hearts, thinking of the words and singing them to God. Some don’t look like they are singing at all, but they might be praising God with their hearts.

Jesus would want us to adore him, just like Mary and the wise men adored the infant Jesus. Will you come to worship and be faithful? You can be faithful to pray, faithful to sing, and faithful to listen to God’s word preached.

As you sing “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” will you be joyful? Are you triumphant, knowing that Christ is your King?

There might have been several authors of this Christmas carol, but they all hoped for the same thing as they wrote. They wanted to call all of the faithful to remember the manger scene in Bethlehem and joyfully worship Christ the Lord.

Will you sing this Christmas carol, faithfully?

Jesus would love that!