Don't Generically Obey The Two Great Commandments, Uniquely Obey

Jesus taught that two great commandments sum up God's design for humans:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him,“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” -Matthew 22:36-40

This is the good life, to foremost love the One who is worthy of your first love and eternally committed to you, and to love other people with the thoughtfulness and care you desire to be treated with.But, many people make a big mistake in approaching and obeying the two great commandments. I made this same mistake for years. The mistake is obeying these commandments generically, thinking that your carrying out of these commands must look a particular way. The mistake is thinking God wants sameness--a bunch of people doing the same thing in the same way, a big blob of great commandment keepers who uniformly love God and love their neighbor, a vast and orderly formation of people in the same uniform marching in precise duty-driven steps to keep these commands.Nope. God doesn't want that. God is all about uniqueness, not sameness. God is all about diversity, not uniformity. Each person on the planet is created uniquely in the image and likeness of God, designed to uniquely image the character and life of God. God doesn't create on an assembly line, he fashions human beings by hand. Each creation is special.This means that you are one of a kind. This means that you are a unique image bearer of God and that your mission to embody the two great commandments is going to look different from how other people carry out this mission. Your personality, your story, your design and desires, your skin color, etc. are meant to fully show up and shape how you love God with all your heart and soul, and how you love people.The two great commandments are invitations to the good life, freedom, and becoming more fully you. What makes the local church so exciting to me is seeing how unique parts of the body of Christ uniquely carry out these commandments. It's beautiful. If there's any place in this world that champions uniqueness and discourages sameness, it ought to be the church. Church is a wild party with different and interesting guests, not a country club of same-olds.Today's an opportunity to love and glorify God and to be a life-giving force to other people by you being you, by figuring out what it means for you to obey this summons from God.Here's an exercise I recommend: Write out the two great commandments in your own words. Shape these sentences with your personality, story, strengths, desires, and culture. For example, if you are particularly passionate about and gifted at serving others, "serving" ought to show up in your sentences (everybody ought to serve as part of their loving, but you have a special gift here to put on display). Or, if you are a minority who has experienced prejudice, that part of your story ought to shape how you can uniquely image the heart and justice of God to this world. These two commandments are two coat hangers meant to be hung with your unique style and fashion, your image-bearing way of loving God and loving people.Be you. Love as you.Photo: Two of my sons (who are very different people), playing in the sand.