here is my take- if one loves Jesus and wishes to learn more about Him and His life, one will look to the Gospels.
for Christians, the four Gospels of the New Testament describe the ministry, travels, words, miracles, commandments, and walk of Jesus, whose name among Arab-speaking Christians has never been Isa, but rather Yasoa.
for a Muslim, the Christian deification of Jesus is shirk. and disrespectful to Jesus. therefor, many Muslims would automatically assume that Christians, in deifying Jesus, have no real understanding or respect for Him, and the the Quran says truer and more honorable things about Jesus, anyway.
yet what one must understand, is that the teachings and lived example of Jesus are very different from the teachings of the Quran, and the lived example of Muhammad.
within Islam, the messenger and the message are separate. or rather, the text of the message and the texts concerning the messenger are two distinct bodies of writing. we have the Quran, which is held to be the words of God revealed to Muhammad over 23 years by an angel, and we have the hadith which describe Muhammad's life, manners, undertakings, and sayings. nearly all Muslims would say that one needs the hadith to fully understand the Quran, even though the Quran itself claims that it is complete, and stands by itself. many hadith add things as recommended or necessary to Islamic life and practice which the Quran does not mention. for example, the practice of a Muslim woman's covering her face is not Quranic, but derived from hadith.
in Islam, Muhammad is revered as a messenger or prophet, and his life, described through the hadith, is held as the standard to which all Muslims should aspire; the Quran is God's final revelation to humanity, in the same tradition as the Gospels, a message given by the same God. if Islam is a continuation of that tradition, it would reason that within Islam, as within Christianity through the life and example of Christ, both the messenger and the message reflect the same truths and standards.
yet this is not the case. within many of the hadith concerning Muhammad, Muhammad does not reflect the message of the Quran in many aspects of his life, throughout his life. for example, in many places the Quran in its general message tells Muslims to fight back justly against attack, but says that mercy is better. yet in his own life, Muhammad does not follow this rule. after Muhammad had conquered Medina, when given the 700 captured BanuQaynuqa men from that city, Jewish men who had been his enemies, his first command was to put all 700 captives to death immediately- he wanted to kill them all, not show them mercy. how is he, then, reflecting the Quran? another example is this- the Quran limits the number of wives a man may take to four- no more than that. yet Muhammad had as many as 13 wives over the course of his life, being married to as many as 10 women at the same time. one must wonder, that if the knowledge contained in the Quran is eternally binding, and if Muhammad was truly in such an intimate relationship with God, why would he be unaware of God's standards? or choose to transgress them? can a person truly be a servant of God if he ignores God's mandates, or places himself above them? within Islam, the example of the messenger and the text of the message are very much distinct, and many times do not match up.
historically, Muhammad was both a political and religious leader- to the Muslims, both a prophet and a general. He lead armies of His followers against His enemies, and gained many worldly things in these campaigns- items from caravan raids, spoils from war, wives, and land. many of the women he married were widowed precisely because these battles- because of Muhammad, they lost their husbands, and were then approached by Muhammad for marriage. by the time of Muhammad's death, the land that he had gained in the name of Islam encompassed the entire Arabian Peninsula.
Christians do not have the equivalent separation between Quran and hadith, as in Islam. there are quite a few Muslims who believe that Jesus Himself wrote the Gospels, or wrote the entire Bible. Jesus did not come with a text, or surahs, or a set of words on parchment, neither did He command anyone to write anything down for Him. He taught the words of God not with a book, but with His life. in this way, Jesus is both Quran, and hadith- the Word of God given to all peoples as a man, sanctifying God in all that He did, consistently and without contradiction between His message and His living example. when Christians read the New Testament, they read about Jesus, and they read His words and teachings, too. Jesus said to those who came to Him that their light should shine forth before men, so that others might see their good words and glorify God. Jesus, being God's Son, and being of God, also did this- His life glorified and testified to God's love, truth, forgiveness, and power. through Jesus, Christians are shown the way to God, as Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and the life.
Jesus, unlike Muhammad, was clear that His kingdom was not of this world. Jesus owned very little, and never sought worldly power or land gains, neither did He seek to rise up against His enemies by force. He insisted that the world and the spirit of God were not compatible- one can not be rich in the things of the world, and also truly rich in God. He directed the wealthy to sell all that they had to the poor- to give up the world and seek God first. He taught that one should store up treasures in heaven, not treasures on earth, whether money or goods or land. all these things can be taken away, but a heart in love with God and with one's brothers and sisters for His sake can never be taken away, for it does not belong to this world, but to God's kingdom.
Jesus spoke with His life, and allowed Himself to be used fully as an instrument of God's grace, words, and will. all that He did, He did for God and for His brothers and sisters- for us. He loved these more than Himself, even to the point of giving up His dignity and His life for us on the cross. Christians are commanded to love the One True God with all our hearts, and all our souls, and all our might, and love our neighbor as ourselves. we are commanded to love even those we perceive as our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us. if Muslims truly believe that Jesus was a messenger of God to be respected, they should be aware that Jesus Himself has taught that these two commandments- to love God and to love one's fellow men- are the greatest commandments of God.
Muslims must ask themselves, does the life of Muhammad reflect these commandments? does the life of Muhammad reflect the instructions and standards of the Quran, let alone the life and message of Jesus? the message and the messenger must not be saying and doing different things. and if Muhammad has truly come in the name of the same God that sent Jesus with the Good News, Muhammad's message and life must not contradict that of Jesus, or revert to a lesser standard. that would be hypocrisy, and chaotic. is God a god of hypocrisy and chaos? or a God or truth, and order?
one who loves another will keep their commandments- that is how i see it, and how, with God's help, i live it. if a Muslim loves and respects Jesus, it would make sense for him or her to read about Jesus from the scriptures belonging to the People of the Book- in this case, the Gospels. and then, to follow Jesus' commands and example- whether or not one find immediate fault with many Christian teachings, such as the trinity. one should go to the messenger to hear His message. as a Christian, i have decided to follow Jesus. He has called me, and chosen me. He is for me the Living Word, as He is both God's messenger, and God's message, who through Himself shows the way to God, and bids us follow Him. in following Him, we must be Christ-like ~ prayerful, poor, forgiving, and humble, generous, and truthful, giving our lives over to God and to our brothers and sisters, as Christ did.