If all of us had the ability to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we would have already achieved purity of being. The reality is, however, that our inherent nature is to take for ourselves, not to share of ourselves.
So if our nature is to take, then why does God want us to give? Why are we being asked to love our neighbor, who may not even be someone who is close to us or whom we know anything about?
The answer is simple: When we transform our selfish nature by learning to love one another just as the Creator does, we transform darkness into Light.