Imitate Jesus and His Ethics

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:4, 5, NKJV.

The ethics inculcated by the gospel acknowledge no standard but the perfection of God’s mind, God’s will. God requires from His creatures conformity to His will. Imperfection of character is sin, and sin is the transgression of the law. All righteous attributes of character dwell in God as a perfect, harmonious whole. All those who receive Christ as their personal Savior are privileged to possess these attributes. This is the science of holiness.

How glorious are the possibilities set before the fallen race! Through His Son, God has revealed the excellency to which human beings are capable of attaining. Through the merits of Christ, they are lifted from their depraved state, purified, and made more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir. It is possible for them to become companions of the angels in glory, and to reflect the image of Jesus Christ, shining even in the bright splendor of the eternal throne. It is their privilege to have faith that through the power of Christ they shall be made immortal. Yet how seldom they realize to what heights they could attain if they would allow God to direct their every step!

God permits every human being to exercise individuality. He desires no one to submerge his or her mind in the mind of a fellow mortal. Those who desire to be transformed in mind and character are not to look to others, but to the divine Example. .. .

As our Example we have One who is all and in all, the chiefest among ten thousand, One whose excellency is beyond comparison. He graciously adapted His life for universal imitation. United in Christ were wealth and poverty; majesty and abasement; unlimited power, and meekness and lowliness which in every soul who receives Him will be reflected. In Him, through the qualities and powers of the human mind, the wisdom of the greatest Teacher the world has ever known was revealed.—The Signs of the Times, September 3, 1902.