LOVE vs. love

In a post over at the Banned by HWA blog titled The Epistemological Conditions for Salvation by Scout, BP8 made a very interesting comment partially in response to a comment I had made previously. He wrote: 

God IS love and He imparts His love to us by His Spirit (Romans 5:5)). But, Scripture mentions several types of love, some of which do not meet God's standard and approval, because it is selfish, biased, and worldly (see Matt.5:46-47, John 12:25, 15:19, 1 John 2:15, 4:20). The love of God is well defined. Romans 13:8-10 tells us, 'Owe no one anything but to love one another. Love is the fulfilling of the law.'"

He is, of course, absolutely right in terms of the Scriptural perspective on God's love compared to the twisted and perverted version of love we see around us. Indeed, the New Testament is quite explicit in drawing this distinction:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17, ESV

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? Matthew 5:44-46

Unfortunately, the "love" which we observe around us is all too often superficial, self-serving, elicits a host of negative feelings (e.g. envy, jealousy, impatience, anger, violence, anxiety, and depression). This is the opposite of Paul's definition of love in his letter to the saints at Corinth (I Corinthians 13:4-8). Moreover, in that passage from his letter to the Romans quoted by BP8 in the comment cited above, we read:

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:8-10

Armstrongists often quote this Scripture as proof that Christians should be obeying Torah Law (especially the Ten Commandments). However, when we take a closer look at what Paul is actually talking about, we can see just how misguided the Armstrongist view really is - that they effectively miss the entire point he was making to the saints at Rome! Paul was clearly talking about the critical/essential importance of loving each other as fulfilling the requirements of God's Law. Indeed, he specifically cited some of the Ten Commandments which actually dealt with demonstrating love for each other! In other words, a person who truly loves another will not be unfaithful to, murder, steal from, or covet anything belonging to that person. Hence, it should be clear to all of us as Christians that true love is NOT demonstrated by observing a list of dos and don'ts. Instead, it is found in loving God and each other in the way that Christ, John, and Paul wrote about.