Love of Christ

This is a topic that I have been thinking about for a while now and have trying to put into a coherent thought. How does a follower of Christ love like him? What would it look like in our lives? I know that in this life time we will never be able to love as Christ did, surely that shouldn't stop us. So how do we as Christians go about this? I was reminded of the story of Zacchaeus by a pastor that I listened to. Imagine being there and Christ who is God and a holy person said to this filthy scum "Hey get down from that tree, I want to hang out with you" (my paraphrase). The reaction of the religious leaders of the time was probably how most of us would react at first. What the leaders expect and how we as Christians would like to react is to gather our power and strike Zacchaeus down from that tree with lightning and go "that's what happens to sinners." However that wouldn't be against what Jesus was about. So we are called to love those who we are sinners. When I start to get self righteous in this situation or ones like that I try to remind myself that I am just as if not more sinful than them and that Christ loves me. He is so passionately in love with me that he pursues me. So as a follower of Christ and trying to be like him I am to love everybody no matter how "untouchable they are." Now that is hard, Christ says "Follow me." Simple yet so hard. I hope we strive to be like him.