Uniqueness Spelled Out

[HKHaugan]

We have been dwelling on the subject of uniqueness.  What are the implications of uniqueness for each of us?  Let’s let the Scripture guide us here.  Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (Jn.13:34 NIV).”  The operative word here is ‘one.’  ‘One’ another has the connotation of uniqueness.  The love is the unique love of the ‘One’ God in Christ being extended through our uniqueness to the uniqueness of another ‘one. ‘  The significant concept here is that when we come in the love of God in Jesus then not only the person we encounter is blessed but we grow and mature as well.  There is as much growth taking place in us as the other ‘one.’ 

 

Let’s unpack this Scripture. 

 

First, this is a new command which means it is a unique command given by the Unique Jesus, God the Son---‘I’ give you.’

 

Second, the call is not to love one’s self first but to love ‘one another.’  It has the same ring as His command, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself (Lk.10:27 NIV).’ ”  The uniqueness of God resounds in loving His images.

 

Third, ‘As I have loved you’ indicates the love of God is unique.  It is not like any human concept of affection or attraction.  It is separate and can only come through faith in Him.  When He calls us to love as He loved He means for us to yield completely to Him at every moment we are in contact with ‘one another.’

 

Fourth, every next moment is unique.  Time is the temporary experience enabling us to begin our journey into the timelessness of eternity.  Like all the qualities of God His love cannot be contained or measured by a clock or a scale.  It is the nature of God that lasts not in time but in an always-present Presence.  He is eternity.  A relationship with Him has no time in it.  He is timeless and the life He gives has only His presence as the central experience.  So the primary command of God to love is God’s way of telling us to prepare for the timelessness of His presence in the context of the ‘time’ we have on earth.  The moments of faith, the moments of His love, the moments we share in the relational context of His Holy Spirit is our taste of timeless eternity.  This is why Jesus at the end of the Gospel of Matthew tells His disciples to teach future believers, “…to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen (Mt.28:20 KJV).”

 

Fifth, we are called to share this timeless love in the now.  We have a unique conscious awareness of God. For each person that awareness is not the same as anyone else’s.  Each of us is uniquely personal to God.  So we start by asking, how and in what way has God been personal to us?  That is our personal testimony and no two are the same. 

 

Sixth, because each testimony is unique it is not to be compared with others.  That is falling into the trap of interpersonal comparison.  That’s a dynamic from our former life, the one the world set for us.  We can’t let ourselves be intimidated by dramatic testimonies that seem to dwarf ours.

 

Seventh, our personal way of experiencing and responding to God is going to be based on the mix of thought, emotion and physical makeup that for each of us is uniquely combined.  While all of us may be generically human by description with the ability to communicate, remember, share, work and relate, how we do those things will be unique according to the way each of us are made.  Even twins are completely different.  Physically we already know that DNA, fingerprints and eye patterns reveal individual identity.  Therefore emotionally and spiritually the same unique reality pervades.

 

Eighth, uniqueness is not only a fact of individuality it has to be seen in others.  Because of that individual uniqueness made in the image and likeness of God every person we encounter deserves the recognition of their God-given uniqueness.  They deserve to be seen and heard not in terms of their ethnic, physical or social makeup but rather as unique likenesses of God regardless of their self-presentation.

 

Jesus came to restore our uniqueness, to return us to the freedom that allows us to exercise our uniqueness.  So the choice is ours.  The time we have to exercise God’s gift of uniqueness is always in the now.  Our prayers for others, our prayers for every interpersonal encounter and the maintenance of the concept of uniqueness are spiritual objectives carrying us into the timelessness that is eternity.  Jesus gives us that hope for our future where there is only the unique relational consciousness of Jesus and one another.  For each of us is special to God, unique to Him as He is unique to us.  This is what Jesus is all about.  Here is what He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am (Jn.14:1-3 NIV).”