Individual Responsibility by G. B. T.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 20, 1916

Individual Responsibility

By G. B. T.

Daniel Webster, when Secretary of State, during President Fillmore’s administration, was invited to dine on a certain occasion with a select company of eminent statesmen. He seemed weary and said but little. After several unsuccessful attempts to draw him into conversation, one of the party asked him this question: “Mr. Webster, will you kindly tell me what was the most important question that ever occupied your mind?” Slowly passing his hand over his forehead, in a soft and subdued tone he said, “The most important thought that ever occupied my mind was my individual responsibility to God.”

Such a thought may well be given sober and serious reflection. The apostle says, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Rom. 14: 12. No one can answer for another. For the things we have done or have left undone, we ourselves must give account to God. We are frequently greatly absorbed in attending to what others are doing, and sometimes subject them to severe and oftentimes undeserved criticism, while at the same time there are serious weaknesses in our own character, controlling our lives. Instead of getting on the throne of judgment and criticising others, we should remember that they are accountable to God and not to us, and that we ourselves must meet the acts of our own lives at the tribunal of the universal Judge.

Peter, on one occasion, asked Jesus concerning John, “What shall this man do?” The reply of Jesus was, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” This is excellent advice. While we must always have an interest in the eternal welfare of others, the great question which should absorb our minds is not how some one else is regarded at the bar of God, but how God looks at this or that act of ours — how we stand before God. God weighs motives. This we cannot do. The vital and absorbing question which we should consider is, How do I stand? Am I discharging my individual responsibility as I should? Are my own motives clean? Am I sufficiently free from sin to be able to throw stones at others? Am I leaving undone any duty which I should perform? Shall I stand acquitted through the blood of Christ in the day when I am measured by the law of God?

Those who give the most careful consideration to these great questions of individual responsibility, will, generally speaking, have but little time to judge others and determine how they stand in the sight of God. They will not feel that the imperfect lives of others are the hindering cause in the outpouring of the Spirit, but rather that the imperfections seen in their own lives are the greatest hindrances within their knowledge. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Cor. 13: 5. G. B. T.