Loving your neighbor does not save you. If you were to come before God's throne on Judgment Day and point out all the instances where you have loved your neighbor as a reason as to why you ought to be accepted into the Heavenly Kingdom, the Divine Judge will certainly point out countless more instances where you have sorely failed to love your neighbor.
You quoted Christ's command: "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." Can you, myself, or anyone reading these comments truly claim to have kept this commandment in full? Insofar as we have done so, has such success been of ourselves or has it been of the grace of God working within us, enabling us to fulfill the commandment? And if it is of God, can any of us truly take credit for it, or should we, instead, give all glory to God and recognize that when we act of ourselves we are unprofitable servants?
Loving your neighbor does not save you. Martyrdom in itself does not save you. Any good deed that any of us could hope to bring forth to God at our Final Judgment as reason for why we should be saved will be met in one of two manners: God will explain how our deeds have fallen short of balancing out our sins and how whatever true good we have done, we have done by way of His grace alone.
How, then, are we saved? When we come before God's judgment, what shall we offer? We shall offer that God has adopted us as sons and daughters through faith in Jesus Christ. We are foolish if we attempt to offer our own works in addition to this work of Christ -- that which we have done that is considered golden in God's sight has been purely by God's Hand alone (and thereby all glory for such acts belongs to Him), while whatever we have added by way of our own works is simply straw and pyrite.
Martyrdom, like all good works, is a finger pointing at the moon. If one thinks that martyrdom is what will save that person, one is merely looking at the finger. The moon is that Faith in Christ which inspired the martyr to point hist or her finger in the first place.
Good works are necessary if we are to claim that we truly have the faith Christ demands of us, and we are all commanded to be martyrs if need may be. We are gravely mistaken, however, if we see fit to trust in those works to save us or if we try to add them to the accomplished work of Christ. For, as Ephesians 2: 8 - 10 says:
"For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; Not of works, that no man may glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them."
“Loving your neighbor does not save you. If you were to come before God’s throne on Judgment Day and point out all the instances where you have loved your neighbor as a reason as to why you ought to be accepted into the Heavenly Kingdom, the Divine Judge will certainly point out countless more instances where you have sorely failed to love your neighbor.”
The martyr has no such concerns. :)
You draw a distinction where none exists, between loving God and loving my neighbour. As Christ himself said, “and the second is like it.”
None of what you write actually comes from Jesus. It comes from you. Jesus is very clear.