Pope John Paul II: "...God in His deepest mystery is not a solitude, but a family, since He has in Himself fatherhood, sonship, and the essence of the family, which is love..."
Did you ever notice the Bible begins and ends with a marriage? What is a marriage but a covenantal bonding... a joining of persons? In the story of creation, God makes His First Covenant with His creation in the seven days. Man breaks this covenant bond and alters creation. God gives man the protoevangelium (first Gospel) as a sign of what is to come and for hope. He then makes a succession of covenants with man through Noah, Abraham, Jacob (Israel), Moses and David. In each one, He expands His Family from Noah's family, to Abraham's household, to Jacob's tribe, to Moses's nation and, finally, to David's kingdom. He then opens His Family back to the whole human race through the perfect sacrifice of His Son as the sacrificial offering of the New Covenant (the seventh, perfect covenant). This event is witnessed in the Revelation to John as the final marriage in Rev 21:2 And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The Bible is all about family. The Trinity is best explained in terms of the family... in that, three are present and are yet One. Man is created in the image and likeness of God and was therefore not complete until he was given one to whom to cleave so that from them (through their love) would come new life. We don't emulate God in our stasis, we emulate Him in our life and the love we share in the family bond.
From this understanding, all of Catholic doctrine flows... the Sacraments, Mary, the Saints, the Pope. It all comes from understanding that God created us to be part of His Holy Family in Heaven. Just as the neighbor kid can't make himself part of your family, so you couldn't rejoin yourself to God... God had to come and reforge the bond between Heaven and Earth in the perfect covenantal offering of His unblemished Son.
Ah, but we would be remiss to note that both Judaism and Christianity (and even Islam...) start with this telling of succession of the bloodlines through family.
Jesus Himself points out that “loving thy neighbor” is the most important of the Commandments. Which also gives a nod to your assertion.
But: Without Jesus having been Jesus (and fulfilling His roll as the Christ) these words would have been of secondary importance. His Teachings are worthy of meditation and living- but only because of the source of the wisdom, Christ Everlasting.
The Message of the Bible is of Love. The bringer of that Message is Christ. The imporatance of Christ’s roll in this is why we are “Christians”. This explains my assertion that “Christians need to know this basic truth (John 3:16) and the rest is details.”
Without Christ’s Sacrifice, the message would just be coming from another in a line of prophets.