I think you get off the track when you go from the point that none of us can be perfectly loving to assume therefor none of us can be loving.
Rather learn what the saints and Jesus say about it in scripture, instead opf relying on your acquired tradition of men... then you would see from the saints why the pagan Greek philosophers who invented 'free-will' were wrong... then you might believe the saints when they say only saints can love God and obey Jesus in doing love at all times... it is no-one's fault that they cannot love, it is down to God's choice even before He created the DETERMINATE world .. hoping that our sin is really love simply helps us not at all ... conning oneself that one loves because one wants to is just exactly what Jesus calls hypocrisy , Paul put it succinctly, NOT conning himself :-
Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how
to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but
the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Thus the WILL is NOT free , it cannot make a man do good until LED by being GIVEN the whole truth BY GOD!
Saying taht one is loving is no good, it is DOING love all the time which leads to the spirit [translation] since man must be TRIALLED in unjust suffering as the sainst and Jesus received in this life [and all will receive in the new earth AFTER being given all truth by God at last]
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
not after Christ.
We can be loving. We can be good neighbors to each other even though we cannot do it perfectly. We can be good fathers even as we cannot be perfect fathers.
Again you are conning yourself, the saints and Jesus say otherwise :-
James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet
offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
A little single sin goes a long way with God ! God simply requires perfected love before translation to spirit, and one cannot even worship God until one worships in spirit, not as the masses do in churches of mens tales by now-NECESSARILY-corrupted traditions of religion [Rev 13:3-7 -Jesus shows that ALL the world will have a false religion!]...
God does not control who we are loving to and who we are not loving to
Yes He does... just as you control the character who is you in your dreams... but are separate [as God is separate ,holy] from the seeming reality of your dreams
and that is why Jesus encouraged us to be loving
A mistaken idea, Jesus commanded ONLY his disciples to be loving since he knew that only they could be loving... he never commanded you or I ,and we could not obey him if he did, so he is not our lord because we cannot obey him... your lord = person you OBEY:-
Luke 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
and John encouraged us to be loving
be more careful in what you say, John only encouraged the saints to be loving in their trial to perfect their love, not you or I
and Paul encouraged us to be loving
It just ain't so, Paul never asked anyonne who isn't a saint to be loving either...
and why Jesus gave us the parable of the good Samaitan to show us it is something we can do.
but we obviously cannot do it, we do not do it ... open your eyes to your daily sin that you cannot rid yourself of by any means let alone by your will... thus your will is NOT free at all... you are slave to sin just like almost all human beings... and because god will not tell us all the truth yet [but will do so in the new earth]
If God did control our being loving or unloving it would not be us that is loving or unloving but God.
God is not a human being, He is 'spirit', the stuff that MOVES human beings ... and it moves most men to do evil as well as some to do good ,do you disagree with God's own prophets ??? e.g. :-
Lamentations 3:38 Out of the mouth of the
most High proceedeth not evil and good?
Judges 9:23 Then
God sent an
evil spirit...
1 Samuel 18:10 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the
evil spirit from God...
The spirit moves men to evil and they cannot stop it doing so even if they will to be loving... the will is not free to love until God GIVES faith by ALL His truth by His OWN holy spirit from Him, not from us ... then man is CONFORMED to be a saint in the evry image of sinless Jesus ... and after TRIAL of that given faith amn is transalted to spirit with perfected love... there is no sense whatever in pretending that there is another way than the way Jesus showed s, baptism of the spirit into all truth [John 16:13] and tiral of faith GIVEN by God to perfect love ... pretending one can love without God is just conning oneself :-
1 Thessalonians 4:9 But as touching brotherly love ye [saints!] need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are
taught of God to love one another.
John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be
all taught of God
Hebrews 8:11 And they shall
not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for
all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Try telling that to theaverage 'preacher' or self-styled 'evangelist' , that God alone will do the teaching !!!
Paul said faith without love is meaningless
That's exactly MY point, you do NOT have faith as a sinner, because faith is in ALL truth of God, NOT in men's philosophies of free-will or in modern apostate corrupted religion... the saints annd Jesus and teh prophets spell it out, so why no listen to THEM instead of listening to commonplace Greek philosophy about free-will and the religion of sinners handed down by traditions of men, not from Jesus as the scriptures...
and John said we cannot be a child of God if we do not love.
Again that is MY point, you CANNOT be a child of God if you sin... ANY unlovingness to anyone in the whole world is sin, and these terrble sins are already INSTITUTIONAL in religion and in our society, we already most have the mark of the beast inside our heads and in our daily actions... you canno escape by will because God simply will not show you HOW even if you know that you MUST follow Jesus and perfect your love EVENTUALLY ...