This passage is definitely applied to our Lord in Matthew 12:17–21. It helped me greatly when I was a young man. Personally, I was so under the power of legality that I felt guilty if I rode in a streetcar without immediately rising to give my testimony. As soon as we left the corner, I would get to my feet and say, “Friends, I want to give my testimony for Jesus Christ, and I want to tell you how God saved me.” The conductor would come and say, “Sit down. We didn’t ask you to come in here to conduct a church service.” Then I was rather rude to him. I said, “Well, I’ll sit down if you say so, but you’ll have to answer at the judgment bar of God for preventing these people from hearing the gospel.” I would do the same thing in a railroad train. As soon as we got away from the station, I faced the passengers and began to give my testimony. I felt I had to do it or be responsible for their souls. I did not realize that this was rude.

What does it say of the Lord? “He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.” He went through His service here for God in such a restful, quiet way. When people came to Him and wanted to know how to get eternal life, how to be saved, He was always ready to meet them, and He sought out the lost, like the woman at Sychar’s well; but you never find Him doing anything boisterous or uncouth. He was truly “God’s Gentleman.”

When I first saw that expression applied to Him I was rather startled. What is a gentleman? A gentle man, a gracious man. Jesus was all that—always gentle and gracious. Even when rebuking sin sternly, He never did anything that was boisterous or made Him seem uncouth.