Chapter Two

The Way Jesus Taught

When Jesus was asked which commandment was the most important, his answer was direct: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

In these words, Jesus summarized the entire purpose of human life. He did not complicate things with long lists of rules. He did not create an impossible system to follow. He simply said: love. Love God completely. Love others as you love yourself. Everything else flows from there.

But Jesus did not only teach love with words — he lived it with every action. He touched the lepers no one wanted to touch. He spoke with the Samaritan woman whom society despised. He forgave the adulteress the crowd wanted to stone. He ate with the sinners the religious avoided. He washed his disciples' feet like a servant. And finally, he gave his life for those who rejected him.

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends," he said. And then he proved it on the cross. The love Jesus teaches is not a lukewarm feeling or a good intention. It is a love that costs, that gives itself, that does not seek its own. It is the love Paul describes: "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful."

This is the way Jesus laid out. Not a way of external rules but of inner transformation. Not a way of religious appearances but of genuine heart. The Pharisees worried about washing cups on the outside; Jesus cared about what was inside the human heart. He knew that from the inside out is how true change happens.

That is why he said: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." The way of Jesus is paradoxical: we find life by losing it, we receive by giving, we are exalted by humbling ourselves. It goes against everything the world teaches about success and power.

The world says: accumulate for yourself. Jesus says: give. The world says: defend yourself, don't let anyone walk over you. Jesus says: if someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. The world says: love those who love you. Jesus says: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you.

This is not weakness. It is the greatest strength that exists. It is the power that conquered death. It is the love that transformed fishermen into apostles, persecutors into missionaries, sinners into saints. It is the same love that can transform us — if we are willing to follow the way Jesus taught.