The context of loving your neighbor as yourself is always proceeded by "and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:30. To properly love our neighbor, we need to first love God, which implies knowing Him and knowing what He says. This flies in the face of an expressive emotive love one may or may not have for God or their neighbor.
An additional context harkens back to Leviticus 19:17-18 NIV
“‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite [brother] in your heart. Instead, rebuke [reproof] your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt. “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." My ESV bible renders rebuke as reason frankly with your brother, which is both a candid and tactful reproof of the wrongdoer.
This reproof is a prerequisite for loving your neighbor. It accomplishes two things: not only does it call the person in the wrong to repent, but it prevents the one that ought to be rebuking from storing up destructive hatred against that neighbor and so causing oneself to sin as well.
• "Better is open rebuke than hidden love." Pro 27:5;
• "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother..." Matt 18:15-18 (note: I've heard it argued that rebuke should be given once, and then we ought to move on, but this passage in Matthew indicates the opposite); and,
• "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." Gal 6:1. Spiritual here in Galatians indicates those in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25) and how we ought to be reaching out to the believer who has been ensnared by sin while being careful not to fall into a general sin or the same sin as they have.
It is here the responsibility of those who have received Christ to restore a fallen brother and sister in Love while keeping the full context in mind: 1) don't hate your brother in your heart, 2) don't take vengeance, 3) don't bear a grudge, and 4) give strong reproof to your neighbor (Rom 13:9-10)- with everyone, but especially to those who are called brothers and sisters in Christ.
