Jesus later expounds on what it means to love God, and neighbor as oneself:
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another,
as I have loved you, that you also love one another."
The bolded part is critical. Because we believe Jesus, being the eternal Word of God himself, humbled himself to become human for us. A human being who had to die the most dishonorable and alienating death possible for the tribe he was born into. A death of complete and total destitution.
This act of humble love is the ultimate expression of God's love on earth; on the Cross, Jesus says "it is completed", meaning the mighty works of God culminated in this act. So if we want to love one another as Jesus loved us, that is what it will look like.
Why bring all this up? Because there are certain sects, though they identify themselves as Christian, which believe things that undermine Christ's humble act of love. They don't believe he *really* did it. They deny Christ really humbled himself to become human, by claiming one of the following:
- Christ only appeared to be human; it was merely a vision.
- Christ was human, but he was really a lesser god of some sort.
- Christ was 'human', but he didn't have a human soul.
- God merely united himself to a human named Jesus, he didn't really become human.
- Christ was 'human', but he wasn't human exactly the same as we are.
- Christ was 'human', but the properties of his humanity were suppressed.
- Christ was 'human', but he didn't have a human will.
- Christ was 'human', but he wasn't human enough to be able to take a photo or paint a picture of him.
- Or, something else entirely.
Why do they do this? Some if it seems like really small details. Why take the time? Why would they complicate the simple truth of Christ?
Because God becoming human for us is too scandalous and too destructive of people's pre-conceived beliefs. For the past 1900+ years, people have tried to explain it away: Emperors, false prophets, philosophers, demagogues, warlords... legions of people have found this belief too traumatic to their own worldview to be able to accept it. And so, they tried to destroy it.
A denomination that does this is changing what it means to love as Jesus loved, because they are changing how we understand the degree to which Jesus loved us. Their Jesus wasn't humble; he was just play-acting as a human, he didn't really become one.
So, you see, what a denomination believes is actually rather important.