When asked what they know about Jesus, many will rightly state his popularly known virtues of compassion (Matthew 9:36), forgiveness (Luke 23:34), generosity (Mark 10:45), love (John 13:34), and mercy (Ephesians 5:2). These, of course, are wonderful characteristics of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, the big problem comes when people emphasize these virtues at the expense of Jesus’s zeal for the truth (John 2:16-17), his being Lord of all (John 13:13, Philippians 2:8-11), his hatred for sin (John 9:39, John 5:22-23), and the reality of hell (2 Timothy 4:1, Acts 10:42, Revelation 20:15). Emphasizing one’s preferred characteristics of Jesus and disregarding the less popular ones is detrimental since it gives a wrong image of who Christ really is.
