Matthew 5:25–26

Suppose someone, he says, brings charges against you before one set in authority, then points you out to those who lead to court and has you hauled off. While you are still with him on the road — that is, before you reach the judge — give diligence: do not hesitate to use every effort to be freed from him.

If that does not happen, he will hand you to the judge. When you are found liable for the debts, you will be handed to the exactor — the collectors — and after shutting you up they will demand even “the last lepton.”

So all of us on earth are liable for faults. Each person’s adversary and accuser is Satan, for he is enemy and avenger. While we are still on the road — that is, before we reach the end of this life — let us be freed from him, loose the charges against ourselves, and seize the grace through Christ that frees us from every debt and sets us outside judgment, punishment, and fear.

Otherwise, still carrying the stain unwashed, we may be carried to the judge and handed to “the exactors,” the punishers, whose harshness no one escapes. Then penalties will be demanded for every fault, small and great. Far from this will be those who prove the time of Christ’s coming and have not ignored the mystery in him.