How do YOU understand YOURSELF? 

Good point

What does it mean to you to love your neighbor as yourself? Does it mean if you go buy a brand new SUV and then see your neighbors car has been wrecked, you will then go buy them an SUV too? Or maybe just hand them the keys to the one you just bought? As if that vehicle somehow equates to "love" to either you or them? Is that gift the thing that contains and is an expression of "love"? What about giving a meal to someone who is homeless? Does that food that they will eat, and will only nourish them for a short time equate to "love"? This is the problem with society today. We equate everything to the physical. The things we can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear. As if this body is the only reality of our existence. As if these physical things are the only thing that matter or impact our life and the lives of others. Yet we ignore the true matters of love. The matters of the heart that actually direct our thoughts and actions towards ourselves and others. If you wake up on the wrong side of the bed one day... Just in a terrible mood for no apparent reason... And so you have to struggle through the entire day just to not take that bad mood out on anyone else... How do you wish that others would treat you when you are in such an emotional state? That they would be rude and unforgiving towards you simply because you are in a bad mood and not at all cheerful as you normally are? Would that help your situation or make it more difficult for you for people to react that way? Would it not anger you more, potentially causing you to lash out in anger because they are not treating you nicely, even though you yourself are not being exceptionally nice either? Would you feel "loved" if someone attacked you verbally while you are already feeling down or upset about something? We pay very close attention to how things make US feel, without considering how what we are feeling effects others. What if the situation was reversed and it was someone you were close to who woke on the wrong side of the bed, and did take it out on you because of the proximity of your relationship with each other? When you are in a bad mood, you wish that people would extend you grace and mercy, correct? So will you do what you expect from others when someone else needs the same thing you wish for when in that position? Love your neighbor as yourself has nothing to do with the physical things of this world. We cannot truly love ourself without first understanding the Love of God for us. If we do not understand or believe that Love, we are not equipped to even Love ourselves properly, let alone our neighbor. However, when we know and believe God's Love for us... The Grace and Mercy He has extended to us... Then and only then, do we have to ability to Love our neighbor as ourself.