Our Responsibility

When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself (Ezekiel 3:18-19) 

       A year ago as I was listening to the Bible in my car, I heard these verses. God says this to Ezekiel again in the next two verses, and twice again in chapter 33. We have a similar idea today. If an emergency responder sees an emergency and does not respond within the scope of their training, they are legally liable. This is one of the reasons I speak out about things that I believe are wrong. I'll grant I'm far from perfect about it, and I may not have the delicate hand people want me to have, but if I say nothing because I can't say it "right" then I abrogate my responsibility. Put another way, if I don't say something when something is wrong, I can't claim to care about that person. I'm not loving them.

           There are several things that need to be said here. Several years ago, a friend told me that someone she had never seen before had just come up to her and tried to witness to her in a very heavy-handed way. She was a Christian already. I don't recall what she said to him, but his response was along the lines of, "Well, I tried, that means your blood isn't on my hands, it's on your own," and he stormed off. There was no love or concern or compassion in what he did. He was simply crossing another person off his list - abrogating responsibility in a different way.

            In addition to using this warning as an invitation to hatefully rid oneself of responsibility, one can also use it as an invitation to anxiety and codependency. We can take the attitude that it is my responsibility to reach these people, and if they haven't responded "appropriately" then we've failed them and condemned them to eternal fire. "It's all my fault" we might say as we wring our hands. "I told them and they didn't listen. Their blood is on my hands." God doesn't hold us responsible for the decisions of others. 

          I won't claim that my style is the right approach either. I tend to be too blunt and too stubborn/patient. I've not good at the gentle, sweetness and light approach that some advocate. I don't throw people away if they don't do what I want, but I confront. I keep asking God to change that about me. But neither is "loving" on them in hopes that someday they'll miraculously recognize their error and change their ways. 

          "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (Ephesians 415-16)