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The Neglected Essentials of Christian Life


Even though I have been a very active Christian for many years, I did not realize the importance of the essentials that Jesus taught and lived. It was only when I faced the failure of my marriage and my Christianity, that I sought God from the depths of my soul and experienced his love and an active relationship with him like never before. In the following years, I deeply studied Jesus’ life and teachings and realized that I had neglected the essentials. It is apparent to me that many Christians have been distracted or led astray from the essentials. We have 200 denominations in the U.S. and many thousands of beliefs that emphasize other scriptures or things which may be important, but not as much as growing in the essentials, which are so often neglected. Some other things are even interpreted in a contrary way to them, or are traditions that are not even part of Jesus’ teachings. If we all truly emphasized the key things we would be far more unified and less bothered by the less-key differences. Jesus made very clear the essentials in his commandments, teachings, and life. These themes are talked about repeatedly in scripture. 1. Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. (Jesus in Matthew 22:37). I read or heard this many times, but didn’t realize the profound implications. To do this, God has to be the very center of your life, not a ‘part’ of it. Jesus also says that "the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments [loving God and loving others].” 2. Love others as yourself. (Matthew 22:39). Jesus also makes clear the equal importance of the 2nd commandment to love others. Why is it 'equal'? 1 John 4:20-21 says “But if we say we love God and don't love each other, we are liars.” We can do lip service towards this but practically speaking, how many of us show loving others – as ourselves - as a practical priority in our life? In the good Samaritan story (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus makes it clear that it’s not just for your friends and fellow believers, it also includes those whom you or your group see as ‘enemies.’ 3. Be so deeply connected to Jesus that you are always growing and producing fruit. (John 15:1-11). In his teaching on the requirement to be connected to his ‘vine,’ Jesus emphasizes the need for a deep and growing personal connection with him that yields more and more fruit. He makes it clear that if, after a period of time, this doesn’t happen, we may be cut off from the vine and ‘put in the fire.’ 4. Don't be inauthentic or distracted like the Pharisees. One of the most repeated themes of Jesus' life is his many confrontations with the Pharisees and religious leaders. While sticklers about most of the Jewish rules, they were also hypocritical, arrogant, superficial, and lacked loving God and others, which is why they couldn’t recognize Jesus as the long-prophesied messiah. I realized some years ago that this isn’t just those bad guys in Jesus’ day, but we all, myself included, tend to look down on others (especially those we judge as sinners) in a superior way like the Pharisee who thanked God that he wasn’t like the sinner praying (who had a truly humble and repentant heart). This superiority or legalism is what can happen when we get distracted from the core things that Jesus taught. Don’t take my (or anyone’s) word for your beliefs. Study the scripture (especially the gospels) deeply to the point where you begin to see ‘the big picture.’

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