The Christian life is about realignment. We are realigning our way of "being" from a focus on ourselves to a focus on God and others. This realignment can occur because we are already treated as if the realignment is complete; because of Jesus, we are seen as having achieved what will take us a lifetime (and more) to actually work itself out into our external reality. Often times, however, we trade the reason for our realignment with the results of our realignment, and end up in a mess.
The common approach towards realignment in the modern church is to focus on people's behavior and what they do. If we can get them to live the way that God calls us to live, then it is relatively unimportant what they actually think about it. The world will be a better place simply because we are all living according to God's ideals. In some cases this consists of teaching people to live according to the moral standards of God: don't use bad language, treat other people kindly, read your Bible, pray, serve in the church, and things like that. In other cases, it's teaching people to live according to the social standards of God: do not tolerate oppression, care for the poor, fight against injustice. Getting people to do is more important than getting them to understand. And this lack of understanding has led to, well, a lack of understanding of what it actually means to be a Christian.
When I was in grade school, we were taught how to do math by teaching us facts about math. Two + Two = Four. As long as you memorized these facts, you could get yourself to the correct answer. The math curriculum my children are going through thirty years later has introduced some significant changes in how math is taught. Rather than simply teaching the facts of math, they are trying to teach the theory behind it. Why does Two + Two = Four? In other words, the reason that Two + Two = Four is just as important as the end result. It's the modern equivalent of "showing your work". How you got to the answer is just as important as the fact that you got to the answer at all.
Modern Christianity has traded the reason for the result and so most people assume that as long as they are acting like Christians (living out something similar to the values listed above) they are Christians. Jesus teaching, however, stands in start contrast. He makes clear that it's entirely possible to be doing all the right things, but miss the main point. Our "realignment" is only possible because Jesus has made it possible. If we attempt realignment without Jesus, it doesn't actually work in the long run.
What we need to do is remember that the only reason that we can realign our deepest desires, our deepest affections, and our deepest loves, is because Jesus has already done it perfectly in his life, death, and resurrection. As a result, we can actually begin to live a life that is truly in alignment with the way that Jesus calls us to live: loving God, and loving others.