Your Responsibility Toward Those Around You
Your Responsibility Toward Those Around You
Question
Am I responsible for the salvation of those around me if they do not listen to my words? What should I do?
Answer
You are responsible for conveying the word of salvation to those around you. However, you are not responsible for whether they accept it or reject it.
The prophets also delivered God’s message to the people. Many rejected that message, as happened in the days of Jeremiah the prophet, and in the days of Elijah the prophet, who said to the Lord: “And they have killed Your prophets with the sword; I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:14). The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said concerning this: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matt. 23:37).
The Lord Jesus Christ also experienced this: some accepted His words, while others plotted against Him and crucified Him. The Apostle Paul preached to the people of Athens with wise words, but they mocked him, saying: “What does this babbler want to say?” (Acts 17:18). Many times the Apostle Paul preached, and some “received the word with all readiness,” while the Jews stirred up the crowds against him (Acts 17:11–13). Therefore, your responsibility is only to convey the word, not to force its acceptance.
A beautiful example of this is the Parable of the Sower (Matt. 13).
The sower scattered the seed: some was taken by the birds, some was choked by thorns, some sprang up briefly and then withered, and some bore fruit. Even this fruit was at different levels: thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold, although the sower was the same and the seed was the same.
Therefore, do not be possessed by a sense of guilt if you are unable to win them to the Lord.
For righteous Lot advised the people of Sodom, but they did not heed his words and perished. The Scripture says concerning him that he “seemed to be joking to his sons-in-law” (Gen. 19:14). You cannot say that Lot was responsible for the destruction of the people of Sodom.
The same principle appears twice in the Book of Ezekiel the Prophet. Even concerning the person whom the Lord appointed as a watchman over the people, the Lord says: “Yet if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul” (Ezek. 3:19; 33:9).
However, there are some general observations regarding your conveying the word of God to people.
1. Speak the word of God and be an example in carrying it out.
For it is possible to convey God’s commandment to them while your actions and behavior prevent them from benefiting from you. You may become a stumbling block to them, causing them not to accept what you say. In this case, you are responsible, because your stumbling life has weakened the power of the word or caused your word to lose its effectiveness.
2. When you convey the word of God to those around you, do so with humility and gentleness.
Advice given in pride is not accepted, nor will your listeners be ready to receive your words if they feel that you are speaking down to them, despising them, wounding their feelings, or speaking harshly. Remember how the Lord Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman. She accepted His words, even though her sins were revealed before Him (John 4).
3. In advising those around you, remember the Scripture: “He who wins souls is wise” (Prov. 11:30).
Part of wisdom is not demanding from people what is beyond their level, lest they feel that religion is too difficult and reject it. Wisdom is to lead them in a gradual and attainable way.
Remember the position of the holy apostles when they said: “We should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15:19), and when they wrote to them: “We lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things” (Acts 15:28).
Therefore, if you wish to fulfill your mission toward those around you:
Be wise and understanding of souls. Proceed gradually with them. Speak to them with wisdom and gentleness. As the Apostle said to his disciple Timothy the bishop:
“Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity” (1 Tim. 5:1–2).
And do not despair if you speak once or twice without seeing results. Some souls need time to free themselves from the errors in which they are living. Therefore, use longsuffering, strength, and prayer, so that the Lord may work with you, give you a word from Him, and grant them acceptance of your words and strength to carry them out.
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