Are you like Jesus? If you are to become like Jesus you must know what He is like. This is one reason that we should study the life of Jesus every day. In a letter to her son and daughter-in-law, Edson and Emma White, in 1874, Ellen White gave a detailed description of Jesus’ character. She said:
- He was patient, meek and had lowliness of mind.
- He was at variance and at war with the whole ungodly world, yet He did not give way to passion and violence manifested in words and actions, although receiving shameful abuse in return for good works.
- He was rejected and despitefully treated, yet He retaliated not.
- He possessed self-control, dignity, and majesty.
- He suffered with calmness and when abused returned only compassion, pity, and love.
- Christ never murmured, never uttered discontent, displeasure, or resentment.
- He was never disheartened, discouraged, ruffled, or fretted.
- He was patient, calm, and self-possessed under the most exciting and trying circumstances.
- All His works were performed with a quiet dignity and ease, whatever commotion was around Him.
- Applause did not elate Him. He feared not the threats of His enemies.
- He moved amid the world of excitement, of violence and crime, as the sun moves above the clouds.
- Human passions and commotions and trials were beneath Him. He sailed like the sun above them all.
- Yet He was not indifferent to the woes of men. His heart was ever touched with the sufferings and necessities of His brethren, as though He Himself was the one afflicted.
- He had a calm inward joy, a peace which was serene. His will was ever swallowed up in the will of His Father.