Thank you for sharing some of your experience with the PRC.

The circumstance to speak about God's love first and foremost is with Christians as we are to love and stir one another up to good works. We do this knowing that Christ obeyed perfectly the same command that He expects us to keep. Viewing God in Christ loving His enemies has helped me tremendously when it comes to how I relate to others, both believers and unbelievers. I think it's easier to emulate Christ in loving my enemies believing that He did too.

Concerning common grace: Although I personally have no problem with the wording, especially when considering passages like Is. 26:10, I am by no means married to the term. It's the doctrine that I stand by. Yes, the words have been abused by some, but I'm not ready to throw them out unless it is too big a distraction.

One other thing that makes me uncomfortable with saying that God has no kind of love for the reprobate is it tends to force an interpretation on some verses, particularly Jn. 3:14-18. I strongly believe that if such doctrine didn't restrain, many more reformed people would interpret this passage more naturally in its context as both Calvin and Luther did.

Is it possible I've over-reacted because of my background? I'm sure it's possible, although I believe I've given sufficient evidence of my position and it has ample support among reformed writers.

Concerning semantics, I think we are mostly in agreement with differences in terms. I think the biggest difference is how it affects our interpretation of certain scriptures. I also find it difficult to understand how you can logically say that Christ was our perfect example when His requirements for fulfilling the second table of the law were different than ours. I don't think, however, that your thinking on the matter will have any substantial negative effect on your overall theology.