St. John's saying that God is love has long been balanced in my mind against the remark of a modern author (M. Denis de Rougemont) that "love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a god"; which of course can be re-stated in the form "begins to be a demon the moment he begins to be a god." This balance seems to me an indispensable safeguard. If we ignore it, the truth that God is love may slyly come to mean for us the converse, that love is God.
The wisdom is simple and straightforward (as all great wisdom is) , but the "slyly come to mean" part was what really struck me.
We live in a world that has not only discarded Lewis's "indispensable safeguard", but has unceremoniously pissed all over it.
Our "loves" (if they can even be called "loves" anymore) truly have become our gods; and we have allowed these gods to eclipse the ultimate source of love - God.
Of course, there's nothing sly about any of what is happening now. It's all there, out in the open for those with eyes to see.
Love is not God, which is why the call for the creation of a kinder, gentler, more just world based on love, the call for an elusive "civilization of love" will do nothing more than enslave and possess us even more than we are currently enslaved and possessed.
Love is not God - at best it is a sly demon.
At this point, there's probably not much we can do for the world at large, but it's not too late to exorcise whatever personal "love-is-God" demons remain within us.