It's conforming to God out of love. The obedience is internal not external. We don't want to offend God! If we love God, we will not do that which would not please him the way you would never do something to hurt those you love. It's different from obeying the speed limit "because it's the law and everyone is subject to law."
You wrote: It's conforming to God out of love. The obedience is internal not external. We don't want to offend God! If we love God, we will not do that which would not please him the way you would never do something to hurt those you love. It's different from obeying the speed limit "because it's the law and everyone is subject to law."
Without clear external norms we end up with "LUV" not love; we end up with "nice people", not holy people. After all, the Episcopalians are all about "LUV" nowadays--although they spell it "love", it's not what Jesus had in mind; it just sounds the same :-) . They claim to love God and not to want to offend him. They are saying from the Bishops to the layman that Christians should stop trying to make homosexuals straight and telling them to obey "because it's the law and everyone is subject to the law".
I know that this is not what you are saying. But that's the danger I see in not explicitly acknowledging the 10 commandments, the natural law that all men are subject to.
Jesus established a new covenant (Luke 22:20; I Corinthians 11:25; Hebrews 8:6) and did away with the 613 mizvot. In establishing the new covenant, he perfects the law and does away with the Jewish law and this perfecting of the law, this law of love of God and neighbor explicitly includes precepts which in many instances go beyond the mizvot, such as anger, looking lustfully at a woman, divorce and remarriage, swearing unnecessary oaths based on sacred things, seeking just revenge (Jesus says to turn the other cheek), hating ones enemies (Matthew 5)--things which the mizvot does not demand.
St. Paul, as noted earlier, several times lists explicit transgressions that will bar Christians from entering Heaven. He too says that love is the fulfillment of the law, but does not hesitate to list sins and reprimand the various Christian communities for their vices.
I agree with you 100% that the Gospel, the new covenant of Christ, is about "conforming to God out of love" and not because its "the law--buckle up or you'll get it buddy" :-). However, not to describe what, in practice, conforming to God means can result in LUVing God and people and animals and trees and, in the end, just being nice people. And nowhere does the Bible say, "Blessed are the nice". ;-)