Why can’t people love their neighbor as themselves?

t is one of the most consistent messages in the entire New Testament; from Jesus through Paul and the other New Testament writers, the message of “loving one another” is preached time after time. Why? Because “loving one another” is the most unnatural of all human acts. Why? Because sin, rebellion against God, is at its heart an act of selfishness—what’s right for me, what’s best for me. Sin created in us a perspective that traded consideration of what pleases God to a perspective that singularly only considers ourselves. Paul underscored this in Galatians as he recorded the “fruits” of a life lived outside the Spirit: The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God—Paul, Galatians 5:19-21. One of the great benefits of “all things new” in Christ is the ability of love. Jesus creates love where love was formerly impossible. After all, as John said so simply and yet so eloquently, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love—I John 4:7-8.