The Character of Christ (12): Patience

Since we began to study the personality of Christ, one thing that is very striking is that it is really easy to miss some important details about His personality unless we pay very close attention. As we look even more closely and meticulously at His life on the earth we’ll see another aspect of His character that is not very glaring – His patience.

Jesus lived thirty years in obscurity as a man in the poorest region in Israel. He, being God manifested in human form, had the power to come out of His situation as a poor carpenter and begin to preach the Kingdom at a very early age. However, He decided to wait for the Father’s timing, He chose to wait for God’s appointed time for His manifestation. 

At the age of twelve, while He was in the midst of the teachers and scholars in the temple at Jerusalem, the bible records that, all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers (Luke 2:47). So, basically, we get a hint that He already had superior understanding even at that tender age. Yet, in His immense patience, He waited another eighteen years before He began His ministry. He did not rush to start traveling from town to town to teach the people as the latest Rabbi in town. He did not hurry to start performing miracles. Instead we read that, He went down to Nazareth with them (His parents) and was obedient to them (Luke 2:51). Woah! He chose to wait and exercise patience for the Holy Spirit to endue Him with power and to call Him out from His obscurity into His ministry. 

Yet, not only did He wait for the Father to announce Him, but as we look deeper into the situation, we are once again blown away. Even when the audible voice of God had announced Him as He was stepping out of the river Jordan after been baptized (Matt. 3:17), He didn’t start ministry right away. Instead, Jesus yielded Himself to be led by the Spirit into the wilderness for yet another time of waiting. This time, an extra forty days – but He is embracing fasting this time as well. He then launched into ministry and began to preach after that period (Matt. 4:17). It is clearly evident that He is full of patience. Not that He is partly patient, but He is fully patient. The entirety of His being is patient.

An understanding of this aspect of our Lord’s character really helps us to see even more clearly His patience regarding His second coming. According to Apostle Peter, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). This makes us to understand that the Lord is not in haste to return to judge the world before the time that is appointed by the Father, rather He’s waiting patiently, allowing more time for us, whom He has chosen before the foundation of the world, to repent and turn to Him for He is not willing for us to perish. 

Friends, let us examine ourselves. Are you always in haste? Are you patient to wait for God’s promises to you to be fulfilled according to His timing or do you go about trying to make it happen by your own orchestration? Do you ignore God’s voice telling you to wait? Do you exercise patience towards others or are you harsh at them?

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:15-16).

Oh Lord, transform us into your likeness, help us to be patient like you! Amen.

The Character of Christ (11): Courage/Boldness

Jesus, in His days as a man on the earth, was bold as a lion. He wasn’t timid, fearful, faint-hearted or cowardly. He walked with boldness. He spoke with boldness. He was full of courage because He knew that His Father was with Him. He was not too timid to speak the truth. He did not keep quiet when He saw things been done wrongly. He did not allow cowardice to stop Him from doing the right thing or silence Him from speaking out against the errors and injustices of His day.

When He got to the temple at Jerusalem and saw the people buying and selling, He didn't ignore it out of fear of what the merchants would do to Him, instead He moved with boldness and the bible records, “And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, ‘Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!’” (John 2:14-16). And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves’ ” (Matt 21:13). He stood up courageously and zealously for righteousness and cleansed the temple.

In addition, He never shied away from telling the Pharisees and scribes the truth to their face. The bible records, “Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem. Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?” He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men —the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”(Mark 7:1-8). 

You see, boldness is required to do the work of the Lord because the world system will always be at loggerheads with the ways of God. That's why the apostles prayed for boldness after they were released from prison and threatened for preaching about Jesus as Luke records in the book of Acts of the Apostles. “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:29-31). In the same vein, in the Old Testament we see God instructing Joshua to be courageous in taking the territories that God had promised to the nation of Israel. “Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh 1:9). It is absolutely impossible to do exploits for God without courage and boldness.

Again, friends, let us examine ourselves. Are you too timid to do the things that God is laying on your heart to do? Are you so cowardly that you can't speak out against the error and injustice around you? Are you so faint-hearted that you can’t take a stand for God and lift up the banner of righteousness in your school, workplace or community?

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear but of power…. (2 Timothy 1:7a).

Oh Lord, transform us into your likeness, help us to be bold like you! Amen