During the challenges imposed on humanity by the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve been thinking deeply about how Christ Jesus lived his life, and about what we can learn from him that can help us live in the healthiest and most purposeful way. 

The Bible speaks of leaders whose lives reflected the Word of God that they preached. Hebrews 13:7–8 concludes: “There should be a consistency that runs through us all. For Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself” (Eugene Peterson, The Message).

Consistency! What a refreshing slant on “sameness.” It exchanges a sense of sameness that threatens to prevent our progress for a vibrant spiritual sense that forwards it. Jesus consistently lived his spiritual, eternal self—his identity as Christ, the Son of God. In fact, Jesus lived to love. Every day he lived to love God supremely and to love every person in his or her God-created spiritual self as divine Love’s pure and perfect reflection. With God-directed devotion, Jesus consistently and compassionately took an unrelenting stand against sin and suffering as no part of anyone’s true self as God’s creation. The result? Receptive human hearts felt the love of God that Jesus reflected. Their thoughts and characters were purified and reformed. And their bodies were healed.