John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

OUR GIVING AN ACCOUNT TO GOD
ROMANS 14: 7-13

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11 For it is written “As I live, says the Lord Every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.
Vs. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. Paul is telling the Christians in Rome: none of us lives to himself. He is also addressing all Christians that are alive now or that will be in future generations. The apostle is not addressing the ‘us’ in this clause as if some were trying to be hermits and correcting them for their error; but he is demanding consideration for those individual Christians we know and come in contact with. It is a negative way of keeping the thought of these verses in mind, for in verse 6 three times he said to the Lord and this is what the Lord would have remember—therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Inasmuch as we had nothing to do with the time and place of our birth into this world, the Sovereign God decreed it. He also decrees that no one dies to himself. In other words, the Lord has taken care of the time, place and events of our death. Here is the way we are to face it: We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to present with the Lord. Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him (2 Corinthians 5:8-9).
Vs. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. What Paul implied in verse 7 and referred back to in the 6th verse where he wrote 3 times to the Lord, he now repeats himself twice living or dying for the Christian it is to the Lord. This close connection in these verses requires that the believer have a conscious service of the Lord in mind at all times. While the believer is living in this body, we live to the Lord, here we will consider that death is awaiting us, for we all die unless the Lord returns in our lifetime. But he realizes that if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. Having these thoughts, the believer finds it absolutely necessary to consider that in his/her living and dying, Christ is sustaining them because they are His property.
Here we find that in the life of the believer they will find changes in their thoughts about death. It is not because death has lost its nature as the wages of sin or that it has ceased to be the last enemy. Death does not become good; it is an evil, the occurrence that sin brought into the world. Paul realized this and wrote: For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life (2 Corinthians 5:4).
Vs. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Here the apostle is telling us the way in which Christ secured this Lordship, and the purpose He had in dying and rising again that He might achieve that Lordship. The Lordship of Christ was not His by right as the Son of God; it had to be secured. It is the Lordship of redemptive relationship and was not accomplished in virtue of Him being the Creator. It was achieved by His being Mediator and is the reward of His humiliation, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). It was to this end of securing and exercising this Lordship that Christ died and rose and lived again. Now our Lord has accomplished His purpose for He is Lord of both the dead and the living. He achieved this dominion because He entered the realm of death and rose triumphant as the Lord of life. He established His supremacy in both domains; therefore, in whatever realm believers have there abode, they are embraced in His Lordly possession as those for whom He died and rose again. It is proper to think of Christ’s dominion as embracing the unbelieving living and dead; but because of the context here in Romans 14:8 whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s only believers are addressed.
Vs. 10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Paul now returns to the thought we have in verse 3, that the strong are not to show contempt for the week brother who does not eat, and the week brother is not to judge the strong who does eat because we are all brothers. This might have been stated as who are you to judge your brother? Or who are you to show contempt to your brother? This comes from what just preceeded it, that Christ is Lord, and as a consequence we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The sin is the assumption in both cases that we ourselves have the prerogative that belongs only to the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that all believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ is a severe rebuke of our error in sitting in judgment upon others. It is telling Christ, we will take care of this matter for you, just step aside, making us greater than Christ—that is really sin!
Vs. 11 For it is written “As I live, says the Lord Every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” The apostle now gets us down to where the rubber meets the road, he rebukes any lack of reverence for God by quoting from Isaiah 45:23 The word has gone out of my mouth…and shall not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. This is not just for unbelievers, but it includes all believers too. The Greek pas means every, everyone (man), everything, so every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God. With such a warning from God, how stupid can we be as Christians to fail to remember this warning in our everyday life and worship. Conduct is to be judged!! Whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). It is because God is God, there is none else, He must bring the whole unbroken view of all history from Adam to the last individual before Him. He will judge everything and everyone without prejudice and in righteousness—no plea-bargains or lying
lawyers allowed! Evil and good will be brought into judgment, therefore, the believer should always be walking in faith, led by the Holy Spirit which dwells in them. God will be glorified!!!
Vs. 12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Paul completes the appeal regarding judgment in this verse. It is God that will do the judging, not men. You will find out as Adam and Eve did in the garden, you are responsible for yourself, not your neighbor. The thought here is that ‘now is the time’ to be thinking about our individual lives and not the lives of our brothers and sisters, each of us shall give account of himself to God, we are going to answer God when He asks why did you do so and so? The main point here is we are to judge ourselves instead of sitting in judgment on others. You may think this will take a longtime, well God has all eternity to finish the judgment.
Vs. 13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way. Paul winds this section up by telling us not to be guilty of censorious judgment; Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore. Be very careful here, our flesh can think well this is really for those that are weak in the faith. Thoughts of this nature are just a hinderance to what the apostle is trying to get across, resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way; if you entertain thoughts of justifying yourself before Almighty God, you did not get the message the apostle labored to get out. This shows the Apostle Paul’s great love for Christians, he knows what man is, rather than ignoring it or looking the other way he is trying to protect Roman Christians and all believers even up to our day and then on to future generations.
THE GREAT NEED OF THIS HOUR
We live in a day of religious pragmatism and innovation. Indeed, something new has come to pass in this generation. It has always been that professed men of God would look at the contemporary from the perspective of the inscripturated word of God. But now, we find, even among Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, that professed men of God are looking at the Word of God from the perspective of the contemporary and thus completely misunderstanding and misrepresenting both God and His truth. The words of E.M. Bounds, written well over a century ago, are to the point for our time:
“What the church needs today is not more machinery or better; not new organizations or more and more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come through machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.”

Catechism Question 42
Q: But what shall be done to the wicked at their death?
A: The souls of the wicked shall at their death be cast into the torments of hell, and their bodies lie in their graves till the resurrection and judgment of the great day.

1 Luke 16:22-24
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.