When asked about the most important commandment, Jesus said "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22:37-39). Paul taught that without Christlike, unselfish love (described in the King James Bible as "charity"), the rest of the gospel would be meaningless (1 Corinthians 13). Pure love is the defining attribute of the gospel: God's love for us, and our love for Him and others.

Our unselfish love for God and others can manifest itself in many different ways. Paul described some of the attributes of a person with Christlike love: "charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Corinthians 13: 4-7). Those who have charity follow the example of Jesus Christ, who "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38) for other people.