AVOIDING RESPONSIBILITY

 

Matthew 12:36

 But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.

                Most people would say that they would like to have more responsibility. What they mean by that is that they would like to have more control over themselves and others. But when it comes to taking responsibility for their words and actions, that is a different matter. Those who are in positions of responsibility often work very hard not to take responsibility for their actions when something goes wrong or they run afoul of public opinion. When the heat is on, they do their best to deflect it and place the responsibility elsewhere. They are not alone. We all do it.

                We live in a world that increasingly is devising ways to avoid personal responsibility. This is really not something new. It has been happening from the very beginning of time. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they automatically turned to the blame game to divert attention away from themselves. Adam blamed both Eve and God. “The woman you gave me gave me the fruit and I ate it.” Eve blamed the serpent. This tendency to avoid responsibility has been handed down from generation to generation. When Cain murdered Abel, and God confronted him, his response was “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Although he tried to avoid taking responsibility for his actions, God was not fooled.

                Throughout the ages, we humans have devised many ways to avoid taking responsibility for our actions. In some cultures, people hide behind fate or Karma. In other places we blame culture, society, our parents, even our genes for our misdeeds. In a more blatant attempt to excuse our behavior we fall back on “I’m not hurting anyone” or “It’s my life and I have the right to live it any way I like” or “What I do in private is no one else’s business.”

                When God created us in His image, He endowed us with an enormously significant gift, free will. He has allowed us to make choices in our lives. He could have created us like all the other creatures in the world that act according to their innate, instinctual nature. Animals don’t make moral choices. They just do what their species does. No one holds them accountable or blames them for their actions. But humans are different.

                I have been reading a challenging book by F. LaGard Smith titled Troubling Questions for Calvinists and the Rest of Us. I just finished reading three chapters dealing with the bedrock, Calvinist doctrine of predestination. Without going into the extensive arguments outlined in the book, there is an unintended outcome of this doctrine that should cause all who hold that view to pause and reflect. If every person’s life was set in stone before they were born (actually before the creation of the world) then how could they be held accountable for their actions? Back in the 60’s there was a popular phrase that was used to avoid responsibility; the Devil made me do it. If we take Calvinism’s doctrine of predestination to its logical conclusion, we would be forced to say, God made me do it. But that goes against everything that the Bible teaches us about God and about ourselves.

                The overwhelming teaching of the Bible is that we are free to make our own choices and that we will be accountable for those choices. Why would God constantly call us to make moral choices if we don’t have the free will to do so. Let’s look at just a few of the places in scripture that call for us to make choices for which we will be held accountable.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

    See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. [16] For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

    [17] But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, [18] I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

    [19] This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live [20] and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Joshua 24:14-15

    "Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. [15] But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

John 3:16-18

    "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Ephesians 4:1

    As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Ephesians 4:22-25

    You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; [23] to be made new in the attitude of your minds; [24] and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

    [25] Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

Philippians 4:8-9

    Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. [9] Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Romans 14:12

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

                No matter what smokescreens we put up, we cannot avoid taking responsibility for our lives. The weight of evidence in scripture is that we have been granted the right and the responsibility to make our own choices. We will be held accountable for the choices that we make. We cannot shift the blame on anyone else.

2 Corinthians 5:10

    For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.