Daily Journal: 11 December

Being Personally Responsible

There was a rich man who came to Jesus, asking what he had to do to enter God’s Kingdom – thinking he was good enough. He was a 'good person'. He hadn’t done anything really wrong. He had tried to live well. What more was there?

Mark 10:17-23 (NLT)

As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’” “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!”

Was it his possessions that were his issue, or the place they held in his heart?

If he was willing immediately to give it all away because he knew his real worth wasn’t his wealth, it wouldn’t have been an issue. But he placed his value in his wealth, not God’s Kingdom. He looked to his status for value, how good he seemed, how together he was. His security was there. His dependency and pleasure was there.

When we choose to follow Jesus first, we have a more Kingdom-aligned heart, and find those things in Him. Wealth, status, our appearance of 'goodness' or righteousness doesn’t rule over us. We have to know the value of Jesus and God’s Kingdom.

It's interesting that even Jesus didn’t take responsibility to dissuade the rich man. He just laid out the problem in front of him and left the problem with him to deal with.

How often do we allow other people’s problems to become our problems? We take responsibility for people’s dilemma’s because we want to help them, but this story shows us other people are not our problem to solve. We are responsible for ourselves (and our family in terms of physical care: 1 Timothy 5:8).

Romans 14:12-13 (NLT)

Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

Being personally responsible means we are responsible for ourselves. The level of responsibility we have for others is being responsible enough that we don’t cause others to stumble or fall – causing them to make wrong choices or be a wrong influence. Yes, we are called to help the poor, the orphans, the widows, the oppressed, the needy, stipulated in multiple verses throughout the bible. But we are not responsible for other people’s choices, and perhaps surprisingly, we’re not even responsible to help those who don’t help themselves.