By Amy Wachter
As part of our ongoing Navigate series highlighting the Navigators’ Core Values, we begin with the first and foundational value: the passion to know, love and become like Jesus Christ. This value is central to our lives and identity as believers. When we hear this value, it is easy to focus on the emotion associated with the word “passion,” or to think about the effort and activity required to know, love, and become like Jesus. Yet the foundation for this pursuit is not our initiative — it is God’s.
We can only know God because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, which reconciles us to Him. “For Christ also suffered once for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…” (1 Peter 3:18). His love was demonstrated first toward us: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And it is God who transforms us as we “are being transformed into his image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
We are blessed to be known, loved and transformed by Him through His grace. Our pursuit of knowing, loving, and becoming like Jesus is a response to His love. As Paul writes, “For Christ’s love compels us” (2 Corinthians 5:14). That love motivated him to pursue Christ deeply, even at great cost. In the same way, our obedience flows from God’s love for us.
To know Jesus goes far beyond knowing about Him. It means walking in a personal relationship with Him. In John 17:3, Jesus prayed that eternal life is knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. To know Christ is of surpassing worth. Spending time in His Word, in prayer and in fellowship with others are practical ways we grow in knowing Him.
Loving Jesus is the natural and reasonable response to His great love for us. The Lord our God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind (Luke 10:27). Yet we cannot do this in our own strength. Jesus reminds us that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). As we give Him the time and attention He is worthy of, our love for Him deepens.
Becoming like Jesus is the fruit of abiding with Him. As we spend time in His Word and prayer, live in authentic fellowship with other believers, and seek to obey Him, He shapes us into His likeness. This reshaping is a lifelong process that can feel slow and discouraging when it seems we have gone backwards. Self-reflection can help us take an honest inventory of our lives and invite the Holy Spirit’s transforming work. Questions such as these can guide us on this journey: Do I know Jesus better now than I did a year ago? Is my love for God motivated by gratitude, or by fear and obligation? What spiritual disciplines have helped draw me closer to Him?
The passion to know, love and become like Jesus is a foundational value rooted in Scripture that undergirds all we do as Navigators. It is both an undeserved gift and a lifelong pursuit — initiated and sustained by His grace — shaping our identity and purpose. Our confidence comes from knowing “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)