Who is responsible for what?

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.
Acts 20:26

In verse twenty-six Paul declares that he was innocent of the blood of all men.(1) Why? Because he faithfully told them the gospel. To understand this we need to know what Paul knew about a prophecy in Ezekiel 3:17-19. In that passage, God told Ezekiel that if he delivered God’s message and the people rejected it, their blood (due to God’s wrath) would be on their own heads, but if he did not deliver God’s message, the people’s blood (due to God’s wrath) would be at least in part on Ezekiel’s hands.

This passage in Ezekiel is a solemn warning to believers who are commissioned to warn the lost of God’s wrath, and the only escape from that wrath: faith in Christ and repentance. The idea is that if we issue the warning and people reject it, we have done what we can and bear no culpability for what happens to them. But if we do not issue the warning, we bear a measure of responsibility.

To be clear, people are not condemned because believers did, or did not, declare the gospel. If that were literally so, believers would be lost for not witnessing. Not sharing Christ and the gospel is sin, but believers’ sins are forgiven. That fact does not make the sin of not sharing Christ any less sinful, but our salvation is not undone because of it.

And be clear about this, lost people are condemned for their own sins—not for the sins of believers who do not tell them about Christ.

So what is the point? It is a sober reminder to believers that declaring Christ and the gospel—or not—is indeed a big deal. Paul was merely saying that because he faithfully declared God’s message, he had done his part. Now it was up to those who heard the message either to believe and repent, or not. Can you and I say the same regarding the non-believers in our spheres of influence?

(1) Footnote: the words “all men,” refer (a) to all people, not merely all males; and (b) refer to all the people in Ephesus (the people to whom Paul was speaking), not all the people in the world.