God’s commandments are a means of learning about and living like him

The astonishing human ability to accurately model character

Your character is what you do, why you do it, and how you feel about it. A model of someone’s character is an estimate of the qualities that predict what they will think, feel, and do in a given situation.

Human beings are astonishingly adept at modeling other people. Artificial intelligence models are used to apply past observations to future decisions and actions, just as we model the character of other people to be able to predict or replicate what they do. AI model creation and usage requires many complex calculations and extremely advanced equipment. Amazingly, humans seem to have the ability to model the character of other humans with far less.

If you know an average person at least marginally, you will be able to predict their actions and desires to an astonishing degree of accuracy even if your knowledge of their lives is limited. For example, you could probably predict whether someone you knew even slightly would enjoy a particular movie or book.

Without ever thinking about it, you have probably managed to build a predictive model of the character of every person you know, and you use these models every single day to inform how you interact with others in order to obtain what you want.

On the one hand, your ability to model others is a skill so deeply ingrained that you can use it without even thinking about it. On the other, because the majority of supposedly Christian churches teach that the gospel exists in order to excuse us from being more like Jesus instead of enabling us to be more like him, you’ve probably never used these abilities to build or apply a model of Christ.

God’s commandments help us build a model of his character

God’s commandments are not a static and synthetic list of rules that take the place of actual holiness. They aren’t what we do to avoid being punished for being unlike God. God’s commandments are successive descriptions of his character that show us how and why to live more like he is.

God’s commandments are a way to learn more about and become more like Jesus, not a substitute for doing neither. God’s Commandments are not some alternative means to receive more of his blessings without becoming more like him. God’s commandments are not a way to curry arbitrary favor with God, but a pathway to become more like him. The defining characteristic of heathen religions is their belief that divine favor can be curried through arbitrary sacrifices meant to bribe the fickle favor of selfish deities. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does not benefit from our sacrifices,¹ but we do. God’s commandments are not designed for what he gets out of them, but for what we become through them. His benefit from us is limited to how much we become like him.

God’s commandments are instructions that help you better understand how God would live in your place and why.² To keep God’s commandments is to follow his example as far as you understand it. God’s commandments are given to teach us more about him, prepare to learn more about him, and increase in the desire we have to do so.

God’s commandments can come in different forms

Various words are used in the scriptures in connection with God’s commandments, including but not limited to his laws, precepts, statutes, and judgments. While some benefit may come from attempting to impose specific definitions upon these obviously ambiguous terms, it is much more useful and correct to see all of these as overlapping variations on the same general theme.

Commandments can come in the form of precept, example, argument, or experience, all of which provide information to the end of helping you to better perceive or to persuade you to more fully follow how God would live in your place.

Precepts are prescriptive declarations of what you should or should not do, how you should or should not do it, or why you should or should not do it. An example of a preceptive commandment is: “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Examples are demonstrations of better behavior. Jesus demonstrated an example when he was baptized by John.³

Arguments are reasons shared with the intent of persuading a person to change how they think, feel, or act. The New Testament is replete with arguments from Jesus. For example, when he was attempting to persuade the Jews that he had authority from the Father to forgive sins, he healed a man, saying: “[is it easier] to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?” (Matthew 9:5)

Experiences show what is better or worse than thought by further unfolding the consequences of choice. Jesus provided countless miracles of healing to demonstrate the value of his teachings, while pronouncing judgment upon Jerusalem, foretelling its destruction to help illustrate the mistake the Jews had made in rejecting him.⁴

When the Lord gives us commandments, it is with the intent that we better understand and more fully acquire the aspect of his character that generates the commandment. You should do what you can to use every precept, example, argument, and experience you encounter to increase the breadth, depth, and accuracy of your understanding of how Jesus would live in your place. Try to formulate and verbalize the aspect of God’s character that would result in the commandments you observe. Enumerate hypotheses and test them. Ask questions, and seek their answers.

Applying the Lord’s example to every facet of your life

A person’s character is a queryable store of information about the thoughts, feelings, and actions of another person. The better you know someone’s character, the more situations in which you can accurately predict what they would do, why they would do it, and how they would feel before, during, and after. If you truly knew the Lord, you would have a confident idea of what he would do in every situation of your life.

God’s commandments help you more accurately estimate how God would think, desire, and act, and delineate differences between how you are and how he is. Commandments reveal how you differ from God while giving you direction on how to close that gap. Your response to God’s commandments demonstrates who you really are⁵ by providing you with an opportunity to be better.⁶ God’s commandments reveal desires,⁷ flaws,⁸ and strengths that might otherwise remain hidden from you.

When sculpting a large work, artists sometimes first make scale models. Using a crane-mounted plumb line, measurements from the finished work can be scaled to the work in progress, indicating where material must be added or removed in order to yield a high fidelity replica of the scale model.

Do you reconcile your life in every way to what you believe God would do in your place? Before you do anything, ask if that is what Jesus would do in your place.⁹ If you aren’t sure what he would do, find out. If you don’t have time, think about what would produce the greatest long term outcomes for all without regard for self.¹⁰

What aspects of your thoughts, feelings, and actions are different from what they would be if you were God? It is impossible to list all possible modifications,¹¹ but here are a few to get you thinking. Would you be more reliable, humble, courageous, honest, hard-working, or reasonable? Would you be more intense? Would you be less selfish, or short-sighted? Would you be more grateful for the good things and people in your life? Would you be more resilient, less fearful, and more trusting in the midst of challenges? Would you be more amenable to opportunities to improve and those who precipitate them? Would you be more willing to adopt different ideas when given sufficient reasons to? Would you find better reasons for what you believe? Would you live your beliefs more consistently? Would you prioritize what you find to have the greatest worth? Would you minimize what you find to have little to no value? Would you be more patient with a person you currently dismiss? Would you swap out hobbies for something more productive? Would you sleep less, sleep more, go to sleep earlier, or wake up earlier? Would you eat better? Would you enjoy food more? Enjoy food less? Would you work harder? Would you speak up more often? Would you speak up less often?

God’s shaping radically removes what is less than him, but amply adds what is greater than us. Sometimes, large portions of how we feel, act, or think must be removed in order to make room for what God will add.¹² Those who refuse to submit to the full removal will have to settle for the best approximation God can make from what remains. Given the grand differences, what he can make from what we provide is paltry compared to what he could give us if we allowed him to make room to receive it.¹³

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Whether intentionally or not, too many Christians exercise gross hypocrisy by using a different definition for the word “follow” when it applies to following Jesus than they would in other aspects of their lives. For instance, no one would think they could follow another car to an intended destination by taking different turns than they do, yet many Christians pretend they can follow Jesus while picking and choosing when to live as he would in their place.¹⁴ How silly it is to think you will go to the same place he is by traveling a different path than he did!¹⁵

To follow Jesus is to walk on the way of life. The Lord said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) As you walk with God, you will abound in all the blessings he enjoys.¹⁶ To walk with God requires you to walk as God would, as far as you understand him to be.

To walk with God is to live in complete reconciliation to one’s understanding of the character of Jesus. Anyone who does anything else does not know or believe Jesus, and the truth is not in them.¹⁷

To follow Jesus means to live as you sincerely believe he would, at all times and in all places.¹⁸ It means to conform to whatever he reveals to you about himself,¹⁹ to follow every instruction he provides to guide you,²⁰ and to prioritize him²¹ and his purpose above all else.²² To follow Jesus means to learn and live his character. It is to do, think, and feel what he would in your place for the same reasons.

If you don’t follow Jesus, you don’t believe in Jesus

Christianity is not defined by a set of rules, a set of behaviors, or even a set of beliefs. Rather, it is defined as those who follow the example of Christ. While Christians may disagree with their ideas of how the Lord would live in their place, no Christian should dispute the optimality or necessity of doing so. True Christians are disciples of Christ—they conform their thoughts, words, and actions to their belief of how he would live in their place.²³

You cannot be saved without believing in Jesus Christ,²⁴ but what does it mean to believe in him? It is possible to profess belief in God without obeying him, but professing belief is not the same as actually believing.

You can’t believe in Jesus without following his example.²⁵ When you actually believe Jesus, you always follow his example.²⁶ What you really believe isn’t demonstrated by what you say you believe, but by how you actually think, feel, and act.²⁷

To believe in Jesus is to pursue the purpose of God as your own by following the example of Jesus. It is to adopt and maintain his character at all times and in all places. Anything that doesn’t fit the pattern of God does not belong in the life of a disciple.

It isn’t difficult to find a professed Christian who views their belief in God as independent of whether they actually obey him or not. Paul spoke of these types of people:

They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Titus 1:16)

The so-called belief of those who do not obey God is different from the belief of the devils who oppose him only in that the devils actually fear him.²⁸

People who consider themselves Christians yet do not follow the example of Christ are deceiving themselves.²⁹ How can you claim to believe in God if you think you know better than what he commands? When you really believe Jesus, you actually do what he says.³⁰ Jesus taught that you do not become a Christian until and unless you reconcile to his example.³¹

Until you reconcile your life to God’s instructions, you can’t truthfully say you believe in him.³² Until you actually obey Jesus, claiming to believe in him simply adds to your condemnation before God.³³

Adopt the actions of the Lord Jesus Christ

Jesus intended for us to follow his example. He said:

Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am. (3 Nephi 27:27)

...Behold I am the light; I have set an example for you. (3 Nephi 18:16)

Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do... (3 Nephi 18:24)

...Be ye holy; for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:16)

We are meant to live in the same manner he did.

One challenge in doing so is knowing what he would do in our place. While scriptural accounts provide stories from his life, those stories don’t directly map to every situation in our own lives. Missionary work is different than daily life, and modern life is quite different than ancient life.

The missing key in beginning to better understand what Jesus would do in your place is transcending from specifics to general principles. The stories from the life of Jesus are directly applicable in the unlikely event you find yourself in the same exact situation, but the principles they demonstrate are applicable in every situation.

The need to extract principles from particular stories is an essential task. Jesus said that what he had taught and done provided enough examples from which the character of the Father could be fully derived. In fact, he said they were so ample that anyone who knew them had seen the Father!³⁴ It was the Father’s principles—not specific actions —that Jesus was referring to when he spoke of how the Father had shown him his character.³⁵

The most important principles the Lord learned from the Father are:

• Love God with all of your heart, might, mind, and strength.³⁶
• Love others as God loves you.³⁷

There are two challenges in living these principles. The first and most obvious is that they require a consummate dedication. The second and most practical is that they require a level of understanding that very few possess. What love means and how it is applied, how God is, what a totality of heart, might, mind, and strength requires, and how God loves you are all mysteries that require a great deal of faith to uncover. However, it is possible to describe the implementation of these principles in exceedingly plain language: Be the best person you can be and help others become the best people they can be. This is done by seeking, developing, obtaining, and giving what has the greatest longterm net benefit. This plain statement does not instantly confer a perfect understanding of how to live these principles, but it does instantly provide a perfectly successive path towards that perfect understanding, as well as instantly provide the next step in that direction, and it does so more than an entire lifetime of typical religious teaching would. A paradigm of improvement will vastly accelerate your efforts in learning what Jesus would do in your place.

Adopt the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ

One of the most important aspects of thinking like Jesus is just to think in the first place. Most people are extremely passive about their lives and do their best to avoid the thought necessary to be intentional.

Passive people may hide behind the excuse that they trust in God. Submission to God and passivity toward life are not the same. The Lord is both the most submissive and the least passive individual there is. He is absolutely submissive to the Father, as we must be if we are to follow his example. In his life, he was constantly confronted with changes he had to make to better live as the Father would in his place. He immediately implemented every improvement and rejoiced in the opportunity to do so.

How do you respond to correction? Unfortunately, human nature opposes learning. Once they learn something, most people think they know everything. Paul said, “Be not wise in your own conceits.” (Romans 12:16) God can’t teach you anything when you think you know everything.

Submissive people, like Jesus, are teachable. They are willing—and even eager—to learn how they can improve; they want to know what they are wrong about and what they are ignorant of.³⁸ They hunger and thirst after righteousness. Jesus said we ought to become like little children.³⁹ We, like children, should question everything, assume there is far more than what we know, and seek after frequent paradigm shifts. We should test all new ideas and hold to those that are better than whatever we had before.⁴⁰ How do you react when you are confronted with ideas that conflict with your preconceived notions? Are you as willing as he was to instantly leave behind what you thought you knew when presented with something better? As you do, like Jesus, you will “...increas[e] in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:52) No matter what you think you know, there may be more that God has for you to learn. We know from the account of his ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross that Jesus was still being confronted with ideas he did not expect until the final moments of his mortal life.⁴¹ Do you expect to figure it out faster?

While it is not possible to be more submissive to the Father or the truth than Jesus was, it is also not possible to be more courageous and tenacious to what he knew was better. Submission to the Father and the truth requires uncommon boldness in the face of challenges to either. You cannot serve God and anything else.⁴² Loving him above all else leaves no room for anything that conflicts with his character in your life.⁴³ How do you respond to ideas that contradict the truth in God? Do you call out bad ideas, even when offered by those with seemingly good intent, and even when they are friends or family?⁴⁴ Do you do your best to persuade others toward what is better?⁴⁵

If you want to think like Jesus, you’ll have to get better at perceiving and correctly assessing the long-term net benefit of potential actions for yourself and others. You cannot do what is best without considering your options. You can’t do what is best beyond the limits of the options you perceive or the accuracy of your estimate of the cost and benefit of each. To do what is best, you have to pay attention to how your plans are turning out and make changes as soon as you learn they are necessary.

Adopt the feelings of the Lord Jesus Christ

The gospel isn’t just a means of changing our actions to align with Jesus; it also enables us to align with the Lord in how we feel. It isn’t possible to follow the Lord’s example only in outward actions. While some outward changes always occur downstream of inward changes, it is from within, in our hearts and minds, that we grow in the measure to which we have obtained and instantiated the character of Christ. The Lord repeatedly taught that good and evil cannot be assessed solely by outward actions, because your understanding and desire are necessary determinants of whether what you do is good or evil.⁴⁶ It is primarily the corrupt default state of our mind and heart—our beliefs and feelings (including desires and motives)—that makes us natural enemies of God.⁴⁷

Jesus feels good about what is actually good, and he feels bad about what is actually bad. His desires focus on what has the greatest value, according to his perfect understanding of what everything is actually worth, and his emotional reactions are perfectly aligned with how things really were, are, and will be.⁴⁸ As you learn more about the Lord, you will find in him every reason to yield to his feelings, even when yours differ, and through doing so, increasingly understand and agree with why he feels that way.⁴⁹

An abundant life is not obtained or defined by pleasant feelings, but by what we are willing to do in spite of the lack thereof. Those willing to do the greatest good even when it feels the worst are the ones who end up feeling the best.

A surprising number of professed Christians will only submit to God when doing so feels good. Many people truly believe that submission to God always feels better than the alternative. Why would you believe that submission to the Father will feel dramatically different for you than it did for Jesus, whose relentless suffering was so intense that it would have killed any other person?⁵⁰ In just one episode of the Lord’s lifelong suffering, he asked the Father three times if there was any other way than what he had been told, as he sweat blood due to the intensity of the pain he felt (see Luke 22).

While the maximal suffering you face in life will be less than what Jesus faced, every true disciple of Christ will face suffering beyond what they expect would kill them—beyond anything they imagined possible. Will you prove faithful, as Jesus did, or will you turn away, as almost everyone will long before the pinnacle of suffering is reached? The answer is not determined by a burst of courage, but through your willingness to participate in the process that prepares you.

The Lord’s entire life was a series of trials of cascading intensity, as yours is meant to be. Life’s trials help you build strength, increase your trust in God, and, very importantly, adjust your understanding of worth. Each of these virtues increases incrementally as you recognize and overcome the trials presently before you. The more you actively compare your life to how you believe God would live it, and the more fully you make all necessary changes to align the two, the stronger your ability to continue doing so will become, even in the face of greater obstacles.⁵¹

Some feelings seem to just happen to us, but our understanding of reality and the choices we make play a significant role in how we feel, especially in the long-term. Living the gospel requires improvement in your beliefs. Your initial beliefs about reality tend to be adopted from your surrounding environment, but like the Lord, you have the ability and responsibility to test, reject, seek, and adopt beliefs that exceed the limits of those around you.⁵² The more honestly you live your beliefs, and the more diligently you search for better ones, the more accurately you will see the world, the better the choices you will make, and the better you will feel.