1 John 4:16 "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

God is love. It doesn't say here that God loves... it says the God IS love. When we seek God we seek love, when we feel God, we feel love, when God is present in our day, our moment.. we act lovingly. Yes, that big huge, unconditional love that is God.

(disclaimer: I'm assuming we are all understanding that the love that is God is not the human, needy, ego-driven love we hear about in songs or that is sold to us through our selfish, ego-driven culture)

Love is what comes into us by Grace, through God. And it is what comes out of us, through Grace, by God. 
Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
Noting that first is love. 

'So? 'I know this' you may say.... knowing and experiencing, I suggest... are different... knowing and applying.. perhaps more vastly different...'

'Love your neighbor as yourself'

Most of the interpretations of this quote focus on the word 'neighbor'. What and who a neighbor is, how God calls us to flow out of the love God has blessed our own lives with, outward, towards others. Jesus certainly bears witness to welcoming all, the taxpayer, the leper, the sinners, the sick, the poor, the needy, etc. But I sense a deeper core issue here.. and it stems from...

'As yourself'

I haven't always loved myself, truth be told here.. I've actually done some pretty awful things to myself, self-destructive and self-sabatoging things.. I've thought harmful, hate-filled thoughts, I still can allow a train of self-talk in my mind that.. is quite ugly and seemingly endless. And.. I'm sure that has been projected outwards at random people going about their own lives... and.. that those in my life that I love and care about have been particularly targeted..  most (not all, sadly) has been unintentional... born out of my own pains, struggles, failures, bad experiences, and unmet (or ridiculously high) expectations of myself.
I still find it difficult to allow God's forgiveness to take the place of my own inability to forgive myself.
What I'm saying here.. is that for quite a period in my life, loving someone as myself.. would have been truly disastrous. And as it was.. wasn't always pretty.

When we see ourselves being unloving, being judgmental, being quick to react, being angry, (fill in your own thing here) it has to do with us... not the other person. It has it's roots deep in our own experience of not loving ourselves. This isn't about the self-absorbed 'all-about-me' culture .. this has to do with God and being in 'right' relationship with our Father.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. "

It is difficult at best sometimes  to understand how God can save, or even love us. We may instead chose to run from God out of fear. This is one way the enemy veils the good news of the gospel from men and women. For this reason, it is important for all to realize that the ground of our salvation is God’s unconditional love for us, and not our goodness.

All that thinking..... I'm not good enough, I've done horrible things, I am worthless, I'm a failure, I'm never going to.... all tricks and illusions. But how swift we are to take it inside of us and allow those thoughts to play in endless loops. Because in truth, none of that matters to God. In truth that is NOT who we are.. we are Children of God.

But there is a B-side to this as well... it's the equal tricks and illusions of... I'm not a sinner, I'm good, I'm special, I'm not like that person, I'm better than that person, that person has greater sin.. oh that person is surely going to hell, at least I'm not that bad.... in truth we are NOT God.

Ephesians 2:1-6 (The Message) " It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah."

"Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
~ Matthew 22:37-40