The Moral Excellencies of Christ - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2025

His disciples came to Him and said "Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat."
Mark 6:35-36

The Moral Excellencies of Christ
None of us think of John, or of Peter, or of the rest of the disciples, as hardhearted or unkind. Quite otherwise. We feel that we could have entrusted them with our griefs or our necessities. But this little narrative in Mark 6, shows us that they are all at fault, when the hunger of the multitude became evident to them, threatening to break up their ease; but, on the contrary that was the very moment, the very occasion, when Jesus drew near.

All this tells us of Him. "I know no one," says another, "so kind, so condescending, who is come down to poor sinners, as He. I trust His love more than I do Mary's, or any saint's; not merely His power as God, but the tenderness of His heart as man. No one ever showed such, or had such, or proved it so well; none has inspired one with such confidence. Let others go to saints or angels, if they will; I trust Jesus' kindness more."

This occasion in Mark 6, betraying the narrow-heartedness of the best of us, such as Peter and John, but manifesting the full, unwearied, saving grace of Jesus, verifies it. But further, there are in Him combinations of characters, as well as of virtues or graces. His relationship to the world, when He was there, exhibits this. He was at once a Conqueror, a Sufferer, and a Benefactor. What moral glories shine in such an assemblage! He overcame the world, refusing all its attractions and offers; He suffered from it, witnessing for God against its whole course and spirit; He blessed it, dispensing His love and power continually, returning good for evil. Its temptations only made Him a conqueror; its pollutions and enmities only a sufferer; its miseries only a benefactor. What a combination! What moral glories shine in each other's company there.

J. G. Bellett