What if you had to distill everything you know that is wise, good, and useful into a single paragraph. It had to apply to your career and business. Let’s call this your greatest revelation–your gift to all. That’s what The Greatest Commandment is! Better yet, clarifying your 2-word purpose enriches it from being generalized into a personally and professionally specifically applicable statement of precious value and extreme usefulness.
“’The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
In part 4 of this February On Loving series, let’s focus on two sentences: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one,” and “There is no commandment greater than these.” Like brackets in the setting of a ring they’re uplifting the diamond. Thanks to them the precious gem gains context, visibility, and use.
This prime position for God is in stark contrast with the Ancient Greek gods. Mythology recounts their battles, competitions, envy, and otherwise dysfunctional interactions. In the wake of such capriciousness we humans were akin to insects subjected to their collateral damage.
A singular God eliminates factions and provides us with a focal point, direction, continuity, and a sole source for our spiritual wellbeing. Here is “our God” who is inviting us to be in a loving relationship.
I remember the days in my life when God was an abstract and distant concept with little bearing in my thinking, beliefs, and decisions. Absent God, I lived in a contorted worship of many gods. Foremost of these gods was me as a self-referenced person. Therefore, I chased an unsteady kaleidoscope of false gods — especially money, recognition, and approval. Life was increasingly anxious and deteriorating.
The first chapter of The On-Purpose Person (free download here), while not autobiographical, was written from my experience of indiscriminate loving of whatever and whoever captured me in the moment. Absent an anchor, it is no wonder my life experience felt lonely, restless, and out of control. I had no love of a grander God because I had no God except myself. Despite my outer achievements and extensive positive self-help efforts, my inner life remained a storm of swinging emotions. I was a lousy god.
“The Lord our God, the Lord is one” is needed grounding for the unsettled soul. This recognition is a start but incomplete. Following this comes, the “gemstone” of Loving God, Self, and Others, in that order.
The second bracket of this elegant and profoundly personal profitable paragraph of peace known as “The Greatest Commandment is “There is no commandment greater than these.” For all the complexity and complications of life, it just doesn’t get any simpler. Distilled into this collection of sentences is an economy of words forming the greatest revelation to the highly desired and sought-after good, true, and peaceful life. Applying this, our lives can be ordered in meaningful reverence from being loved and returning love “with gladness and singleness of heart.”
Even better, your 2-word purpose clarifies and connects you to The Greatest Commandment in a uniquely personal and actionable manner. You’re becoming a person of integrity. When God’s oneness and your oneness are no longer distinctly apart, the two of you are lovingly and intentionally in the co-creative process of becoming one in mind, body, and spirit. Peace, shalom, oneness with God — that’s the highest expression of being on-purpose. Now you know the root principle.
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
Part 1 of this series, All Your Heart, revealed the inner order of living life from one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Part 2 of this series, The God, Self, Others Relationship, introduced the order and flow of this three-party relationship.
Part 3 of this series, Loving and Legalism, revealed that the Great Commandment is meant to free, not constrain us for our wellbeing. It’s the ultimate life hack.
