Just look at the examples in the Bible:
- Was Aaron loving his neighbor as God required when he accommodated the people and made the Golden Calf for them? He gave them what they wanted and the people thought it was loving, but it wasn't love by God's definition- it was lust, sinful compromise, and idolatry. Did God expect the Israelites to follow those rules He had laid out on the tablets of stone? Absolutely.
We're told in the New Testament:
1 Corinthians 10:7-12 " Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."
- What about Noah? He spent decades building an ark because of God's instruction to him? What if he had taken all that time and labor and used it to help the poor instead? He would have looked better in the eyes of men, but he would have been failed God. And he also would have been hating his neighbor in actuality because that ark was their only hope of salvation from God's judgment. Just because hardly anyone got on doesn't mean Noah didn't need to heed God and provide the opportunity. It is only because he did that the blood of his neighbors who perished is off of his hands. As has been said here, love starts with heeding God's instructions and we have obligations towards God that don't involve people directly. And Scripture proves that what man and God consider love are often at odds with each other. People will try to justify anything and everything as love just because someone appreciates it. That is a deadly mentality. No one can have a right heart towards God who doesn't seek to agree with and do everything He said. Those who see His Word as a burdensome rulebook must have contrary values and priorities. Tell Him on Judgment Day that His commands were a burdensome rulebook and that you had found a better way. It won't go well for you. God would never lead anyone by His Spirit to go contrary to His Word.
1 John 5:2-3: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."
It should also be noted that the righteous people in the Bible also understood that you cannot just receive His grace through blood atonement without submitting to the Law of God which was violated, the Law concerning which the violation of necessitated that the sinner die eternally. It was always set forth by God from the Fall that no one can partake of His grace and mercy who does not have a contrite heart and brokenness in mourning over their offense; and who does not choose to agree with His Law and whatever He has commanded in humble submission. The true God has a right to reign over our lives- and He will not relent on this right and justify anyone who does not yield to Him and live in recognition of that right. You cannot produce an example of salvation in the Bible that doesn't prove this.
