Claim. Christianity is structurally “a religion of love” whose main purpose was to restore horizontal give-and-take relationships among people through love and sacrifice — because only on that horizontal foundation can the vertical give-and-take relationship with God be reopened.
Elaboration. Per 2.2. Give and Take Action: “Christianity is a religion of love. It strives through love and sacrifice to open the path to restore the horizontal relationships of give and take between people in the love of Christ. On this horizontal foundation of love, the way is opened to restore our vertical relationship of give and take with God. In truth, this was the main purpose of all the teachings and deeds of Jesus.”
DP cites the Sermon on the Mount as evidence: “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matt 7:1-2); “whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matt 7:12); “everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father” (Matt 10:32); cup-of-cold-water principle (Matt 10:42). All are read as instructions for horizontal give-and-take that re-grounds vertical access.
jesus’s role is specifically to be the perfectly-unified intermediary: “Jesus was the only begotten Son of God; he attained oneness with God through perfect give and take action. When we unite with Jesus in a perfect reciprocal relationship, we can recover our original God-given nature” (ibid). The horizontal-then-vertical structure also licenses DP’s emphasis on family and community as theologically prior to private devotion.