It appears that you think loving your neighbour means trying to generate an artificial emotion, as if the goal is to become so smitten you spend all day writing them poems and blowing kisses.
To see that this is ridiculous, try substituting other emotions in for love:
Happy thy neighbour, Angry thy neighbour, Sad thy neighbour.
In the phrase love is a solid verb. It is about taking the time to help the person out when they require external assistance.
Crawling out of bed at 3am to change the sheets after your kid pisses the bed -> Picking up an extra coffee at lunch for Bob at the office when he has had a ton of work dumped on him and can't get away from his desk.
Taking your spouse out to dinner to celebrate their new promotion -> Congratulating Sue from down the hall when her daughter makes the news for winning a spelling bee.
Picking up your brother from the airport -> Inviting the new guy over for a beer.
I would claim that all of these are loving actions but none of them require you to have exactly one special emotional state. Certainly, being dragged out of bed doesn't inspire much poetry at the time.
Further, none of these requires a specific justification beyond reducing human suffering/making the world a better place so you needn't exhaust yourself looking for reasons. And I certainly hope that welcoming the new guy without even knowing his qualities to judge him by doesn't devalue the act.
Just because you can ascribe a more sensible interpretation to a Bible verse doesn't change the nature of how it's usually taught. The verse says essentially you can never love enough, no matter how considerate you are towards others you can always do more, and the ultimate example would be Jesus who loved us enough to die horribly. Even if you try to follow this, you'll come up against people who simply do not deserve your care/assistance, but by this doctrine you must not only help them but strive to harbor positive loving emotions towards them whilst doing so (and no, that doesn't mean writing poems, but it does mean feeling love in your heart and limitless good will). A real blast.
To see that this is ridiculous, try substituting other emotions in for love: Happy thy neighbour, Angry thy neighbour, Sad thy neighbour.
In the phrase love is a solid verb. It is about taking the time to help the person out when they require external assistance.
Crawling out of bed at 3am to change the sheets after your kid pisses the bed -> Picking up an extra coffee at lunch for Bob at the office when he has had a ton of work dumped on him and can't get away from his desk.
Taking your spouse out to dinner to celebrate their new promotion -> Congratulating Sue from down the hall when her daughter makes the news for winning a spelling bee.
Picking up your brother from the airport -> Inviting the new guy over for a beer.
I would claim that all of these are loving actions but none of them require you to have exactly one special emotional state. Certainly, being dragged out of bed doesn't inspire much poetry at the time.
Further, none of these requires a specific justification beyond reducing human suffering/making the world a better place so you needn't exhaust yourself looking for reasons. And I certainly hope that welcoming the new guy without even knowing his qualities to judge him by doesn't devalue the act.