Christianity is founded on the perfect life, sinless death, and bodily resurrection of Christ. These are irreducible in that upon these basic assertions all of Christianity stands. It is therefore paramount that they be considered and protected both for their merit and for their truth. But acknowledging doctrines with an intellectual ascent akin to accepting the weatherman's forecast is wholly different from letting the weight and matter of the truths sink into the depths of our beings.
In essence, knowing about Jesus is insufficient to affect transformation and guarantee salvation. A mere knowledge about Him is completely different from a sincere knowledge of Him. This second step, to know Him in a transformationally intimate way, requires that we address the content of His teaching. Luckily, the New Testament is a literary environment solely focused on the factual and historical Christ Jesus, His life, death, resurrection, and continuing work in the Church by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. Because God has provided us such a valuable resource as is the New Testament, it would be unwise for us to ignore it. A good introductory step in the pursuit of Jesus would be to engage His teaching, to be summarized in a single word: love.
Needless to say, Jesus' teaching encompasses vastly more than love; however, it is His presentation of the worth and merit of love, true love, that seems to run as a theme like a river throughout the New Testament. Although it could be said that all of the New Testament serves as evidence for Jesus' high esteem for the value of love, a few passages succinctly reveal Jesus' feelings about love (Matt. 5-7; 22:37-39; John 3:13-17, 14:21-23; James 2:8; 1 John 4:7-21--this is not exhaustive, just a cursory list to whet the whistle).
Love is important and it should be our very lifestyle. Think of it theologically: God is love, having performed the greatest act of love in all of history by taking on the sins of mankind and condemning His Son (John 3:16; Rom. 5:7-9; 1 John 4:7-8). And, because believers are sanctified by putting themselves to death as to be raised with Christ, Christians should be lighthouses and salt shakers that while they receive the love of God they reflect it to others. Therefore, as we love God we will love others. Loving others is the natural expression of loving God, for in loving God in our pursuit of Him, we will inevitably take to loving those whom He loves, i.e. everyone.
The picture becomes un-blurred as we begin to lift the veil and see Christ as He is and see His teaching properly. Essentially, we are to love God and, coming out of that first love, we will love others. The "others" refers to neighbors, friends, family members, enemies, anyone. It is important not to put the cart before the proverbial horse, as in, if we are not truly pursuing and loving the Lord than not only will we be unable to really love others but, more importantly, the love we do show others is nothing more than vanity. There is a definite hierarchy to love, first God then others. The latter arises out of the former for if severed from the former the latter is worthless. Let us then love God and in doing so with all our hearts, minds, spirits, and strengths, to love others as we would ourselves!
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