Ask Jesus:
He says that what matters is loving God and loving your neighbor, and doing the will of the Father.
That's the Gospel. Your theology will not save you. Doing what Jesus says will save you.
I like the way you put it. Jesus says we are to believe Him, follow Him, love Him, obey Him, let the Holy Spirit cleanse us and purify us.
Intellectual belief and agreement is not action, it is putting facts outside ourselves and then keeping our hearts separate and working out a theory.
In Christ this is impossible. We are not neutral. When we let the Lord in and He changes us, we cannot speak and do as we did before or even see things in that way. It is like seeing a child of another family, they are cute but they are not embedded in ones heart. Seeing ones own child who came from the relationship with your wife, and knowing the birth and all the struggles is different. One responds because that is who one is, embedded in the relationship.
If one can talk about works, like something one does, rather than a response to a need, something is wrong. Works are not done to prove something, they are because our hearts see a need and want to answer. So Peter saw Jesus was the Christ and said it, but he had not yet saw the price or the commitment this meant, but saw the victorious overcoming of the romans that was just about to happen. What Peter did not expect was death and resurrection, defeat through submission, but victory through sacrifice. An eternal kingdom founded on an eternal principle of love above all else, even against false accusations and people embedded in power and dominion.
Jesus was not avoiding the pharisees, he was waiting for the time when His disciples knew who and what He was. Only then could love demonstrate its sacrifice and victory. These forums are no different, some come to dominate and correct others because they define truth and put the heretics in their place. Jesus comes to demonstrate His nature and submit to the needs displayed and die as a sacrifice to those who wish to dominate to appease their insecurities. God bless you