Deuteronomy 15:9 warns if the needy man cries out to the Lord, it will be counted against you as a sin.

God has commanded that we love Him first and foremost and that we love our neighbor as our self.

The practical application of loving God has been the practical demonstration of love to our neighbor. Loving God and serving God are to be done by loving people and serving them.

There are many instances in the Scriptures where judgment by God is tied to our love for people.

What if on that day of accountability God were to line up all those whom we offended and were unkind to for them to share their complaint against us? What if our final judgment were determined by the number and the degree of accusations against us by our fellow man whether acts of commission or acts of omission?

Who of us could stand before God not guilty in such a circumstance?

While God lived with us in Jesus He asked His audience who could identify one sin He had committed against them? No one could except perhaps the religious leaders who believed Him, God, a violator of God’s laws. I don’t think any of us will be so lucky.

This is why God commands us to pursue peace with all men and if while we are at church worshiping remember there someone who has an issue with us we leave immediately and first go make things right with them then return to worship God.

God commands we forgive to the degree we seek His forgiveness.

Tough standards indeed but if we would live forever with God in His Kingdom among all of His children we must become a people who love God by loving others.

We must seek to live such lives that the line of those who would condemn us before God is exceedingly short.