Love God and do what you want. Or variations thereof. It’s a quote attributed to Augustine. (We don’t need links to the original. I only want to discuss the phrase.)
True? False?
Let the discussion commence.
True! That's the gospel properly understood. That's how God fulfills the New Covenant. Implicit in Augustine's thought is the understanding that this love is the "righteousness of God", a righteousness He's planned man to have from the beginning, which comes by Him placing His Law in our minds and writing it on our hearts. (Jer 31:33)
Agape, God's love, the "love that fulfills the law'. (Rom 13)
This is what faith is intended to lead to,
this is what man's justice consists of, this is how God
justifies IOW. And this is why Paul could say, "...if I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love, I am nothing." And this is why the Greatest Commandments are what they are and why the Church can correctly teach, "At the evening of life we shall be judged on our love", quoting a 16th century believer.
Man has always had the obligation to be righteous and this doesn't change with the New Covenant. Love is how that obligation is finally fulfilled, the right way. This is what God has been steering man towards ever since He created us. Faith is
not a license to escape from that obligation; rather it's the means to fulfill it.