Jesus was from Nazareth.
He said, "Love God and love each other" and many other things that he said were all variations of that.
Though he didn't lie, cheat, steal or harm anyone the authorities beat him senseless, whipped him, and held him down and drove sharp metal spikes through his hands and feet (or ankles and wrists, but having that whole debate sort of isn't what matters). Then, they watched and waited for him to die. He did.
Apparently that's what happens when you tell people many variations of a simple idea.
Jesus was the Son of God.
Jesus was just a man.
Jesus didn't exist.
Everyone who's heard of Jesus thinks one of those three things.
Paul had heard of Jesus. But Paul was then Saul and Saul hated people who worshipped Jesus. He wanted them dead because they tried to live by Jesus' idea.
Saul became Paul because he said God told him Jesus was His Son. And so Paul worshipped Jesus and tried to live by his idea. He wrote and wrote and wrote and preached and preached and preached, doing his best to explain "Love God and love each other" in an astonishing number of ways without just sticking with "Love God and love each other" and repeating it ad nauseam.
Apparently, people won't listen to a simple idea if it's presented as a simple idea. It needs to be made more opaque and confusing so they can feel smart if they get it and so their minds can take hold of it. Simple ideas don't leave much for a mind to hold on to. Paul wasn't doing anything wrong, by the way. Jesus made his variations of "Love God and love each other" very opaque and confusing too sometimes, even though he had given people the key of "Love God and love each other", and they debated what Jesus really meant even though he'd told them. People really are quite silly sometimes.
Back to Paul. Paul existed, or at least there's not the argument that Paul existed like there is over whether Jesus existed. That argument sort of isn't what matters either. Jesus' idea was alive. Paul had sharp metal spikes driven through his hands and feet and was hung out to die too because he tried to live by that idea and wanted others to as well.
People who tried to follow Jesus' idea and believed he was the Son of God are called Christians. For a long time, Christians were hated, beaten and killed because they tried to "Love God and love each other."
Then, they became the majority in their world and everyone lived happily ever after.
Except that the Christians felt that people who didn't believe that Jesus was the son of God needed to be hated, beaten and/or killed (mostly killed). Though that somehow really didn't seem to be a part of "Love God and love each other."
Still, sometimes people gotta die.
Christians, who believe Jesus is the son of God and a host of things that all go back to "Love God and love each other", also hated, beat, and killed other Christians, who believed that Jesus is the son of God and a host of things that all go back to "Love God and love each other", but in a way that is slightly different. That latter group of Christians hated, beat, and killed the former group of Christians right back. This hating and beating and killing over slightly different Jesus has been going on for millennia.
None of the disagreements among the Christians are over if they should "Love God and love each other."
None of the Christians can know if their version of Jesus is right until they die.
All the while, there have always been people who decidedly do not believe that Jesus was the son of God or that he existed. These other people believed in other things or nothing at all even. Some of them hated the idea of Jesus being the son of God so much that they thought people who follow his idea are bumbling idiots (actually worse) and so they hated, beat, and/or killed because of "Love God and love each other." Something about this seems amiss.
Somehow, a good many Christians forget to live by Jesus' idea, which he died for telling people. These Christians make the Christians who try to live by "Love God and love each other" look very bad. So bad, in fact, that non-Christians lump them all together and say that Jesus' idea was an awful one since the Christians who don't follow it don't follow it and hate, beat and kill. This is known as "throwing the baby out with the bath water."
Jesus didn't tell his followers to hate, beat or kill anyone and that wasn't a part of his idea, but, because a good number of his followers don't get that, a good number of people, critics, think anyone who tries to live by "Love God and love each other" are simpletons and that the world would have been better off if Jesus hadn't told people "Love God and love each other." The critics consider themselves enlightened.
Jesus' idea is "Love God and love each other."
That's pretty much that.
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