Jesus Loves MeSample

What Are The Essentials?

The essentials are the basic teachings of Christ. Remove one of them, and the house of Christianity falls down. The essentials matter because if you lose one of these essentials, you lose the power of Christ to transform you. If a church loses one of these essentials, it will lose God’s saving power to transform its people and community. 

The Word of God defines these essentials—Scripture is the backbone for these beliefs. Our motivation is to know Christianity’s basic beliefs because the war waged on our souls is real. This war between good and evil is fought in the realm of ideas—clarity about your beliefs equips you to discern ideas that are good from ones that distort or deceive. Because we gain access to Christ’s power and life through our faith, our beliefs must be accurate.

The opening line of the beloved song, “Jesus Loves Me,” captures the essentials of Christianity:

Jesus / Loves / Me / This I know / For the Bible tells me so.

Christianity is that simple at its core if we know what those words mean. Think of it this way:

JESUS—What I believe about Jesus

Jesus is fully God and fully human, the Messiah.

LOVES—What I believe about God’s love, proven on the cross

Jesus came into our world on a rescue mission. He died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead.

ME—What I believe about myself

Every human is both glorious—and ruined. We are made in the image of God but contaminated by sin. Where evil has corrupted us, Jesus can restore us into a “new creation.”

THIS I KNOW—What I believe to be sure of my salvation

We cannot earn salvation, but we must use our will to admit our need (repent), acknowledge Jesus as God, and believe in His work on the cross. 

FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO—What I believe about God’s standard for my life

We choose the Bible as the unchanging standard for all we do and believe because Jesus is our example. We must read and obey the Word of God to realize our identity in Christ.

By working through the five phrases of these lyrics, we gain a powerful memory tool to carry the Christian essentials wherever we go.

Prayer: Open my eyes and my heart on this journey. Help me absorb these truths from Your Word. I want my thinking to be transformed. Help me believe what You want me to believe. Amen.