We as humans are made to serve our Maker by obediently carrying out whatever task He has entrusted us with. Serving implies responsibility, so that’s where our responsibility to God comes heavily into play. The core foundation of how God operates is laid upon responsibility with respect to His creation who have the ability to do His will. It plainly means that each side has to ensure that they assume their own responsibility.
When it comes straight down to God, He’s undoubtedly a highly responsible God. All throughout history, He has always been the very One who makes the first move when getting things done. However, He’s expecting us to make the next one obediently and earnestly in response to His initial move.
Evidently, God has been assigning humanity with various types of responsibilities since its inception from Genesis in the Garden of Eden to Revelation. By the way, God has made us to be responsible individual and to live responsibly. Among these are responsibility toward God, toward ourselves, toward our family members, and toward our fellow humans.
Out of these responsibilities mentioned above, the one that’s more important is what we have toward God. The thing is that if we’re willing to carry it out wholeheartedly that will automatically empower us to carry out the other ones. Since there is quite a number of them, we’ll just cover a handful of these responsibilities.
We’re Responsible to Obey God in Everything.
If we take a careful look at (Genesis 2:16-17), we can clearly see the first responsibility men had with respect to God’s commandments was to obey. Moreover, obedience is the first law of heaven. All throughout the Word of God obedience is also something that always plays a foremost role in people’s lives that are serving God sincerely.
Therefore, obedience is an indispensable necessity as far as serving and seeking God are concerned. Obedience is the foundation of our responsibility to God; in other words, our obedience to God is the very thing that maintains and sustains our responsibilities as His children. We’re commanded to respond to God’s call and purpose for our lives obediently and diligently. Besides, all blessings are predicated upon obedience.
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11:28)
God speaks to us through the means of His written Word. That’s pretty much where God lays out how we’re supposed to live, walk, and how we can inherit His blessings. Despite of how powerful God is along with His constant willingness to act on behalf of us, if we don’t take our own responsibility by submitting ourselves fully to the authority of His Word, nothing meaningful will ever come about into our lives.
Keep in mind, the responsibility that we have toward Him is a very sacrificial one that requires us to stop and turn completely away from whatever we’ve been doing, or whatever we may have had in mind contrary to what God is asking us to do. Responsibility is all about what we’re commanded to do not what we want to do.
The undeniable truth is that God will never do something for us that’s supposed to be our own responsibility. As Christ says in the verse above the one who will receive the blessings found in the Word of God are only those who choose to obey it. Obeying God is tantamount to honoring Him along with His Word; in other words, obeying is equivalent to receiving and accepting His Word as the sole means by which we’re willing to live. Through the Word, God speaks life, guidance, deliverance, protection, blessing, healing, salvation, restoration, and so forth.
The power to bring these things to pass are readily available through the person of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, we have a very important decision we have to make by following the protocol that God has given us in order to get access to these things. Our obedience to God through faith is the very thing that will allow us to break through that power in order to acquire any of these things mentioned above. It’s important to realize that faith is the staring point of our obedience to God. Obedience is so critical to the extent that there are serious consequences that ensue when an individual has failed to obey.
Responsibilities to Ourselves
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).
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 (John 3:16).
Well, the most important responsibility that we have to ourselves can be summed up to these two verses above. The good news is that salvation has already been made available by God through His Son Christ Jesus. After that, it’s quite evident that getting saved is based entirely on our willingness to take our own personal responsibility through the means of acknowledging that we’re sinner in the sight of a holy and righteous God, our sins have alienated and separated us from Him, and we’re on our way to eternal destruction as a result.
Then we’re responsible to turn away from them by coming to Christ for forgiveness on the ground of what was accomplished by Him on the cross. Sadly, it’s an area that so many people have failed so miserably. People have allowed just whatever reason to hold them back from doing something that’s so important, and one which has huge eternal implication. Many people get really angry when confronted with the message of the gospel as a result of their bold unwillingness to deal with their sinfulness.
Salvation implies looking and moving forward, that’s the reason that we were left with no choice but to walk away from the very things that used to hold us back before we were saved. Along with the very sinful things that we used to enjoy greatly. Then we’re to seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness above all else (Matthew 6:33).
Thereby, living only for God has to become the very thing that must dominate every aspect of our lives. Another key point with respect to salvation is that the responsibility that we have toward ourselves is very significant because it’s the very one that will create the right environment in our lives for us to be able to do whatever task that God has entrusted with.
Responsibilities to Others
As God’s people we’ve been entrusted with certain responsibilities that we have to exercise toward others, especially those in need. The most important responsibility that we have toward others is to share the gospel compassionately and lovingly with them. This is known as the great commission assigned to us by Christ before ascending to heaven (Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:19). Although, it’s been greatly neglected by a huge segment of the body of Christ, but we’re responsible to go out there by faith, so that we can reach out those who are lost with the truth.
When spending time thinking about people’s eternities that are hanging in the balance this should have become the driving force that should excite us to go out there with a sense of urgency in order to point them to Christ. The thing is that God is fully committed to help us to carry out that specific task. Truthfully, nobody will ever be able to fully understand the cost that Christ paid for a soul.
That’s the key reason it’s so critical that we take that commission very seriously. It’s crystal clear an individual’s soul is far more important than the fear, shame, anxiety, and rejection we may experience when witnessing for Christ. Sadly, that’s the major factor that holds so many people back from sharing the gospel with others.
In all honesty, there’s no guarantee that unsaved people will accept the truth. Instead, they might even react in a violent manner in response to the message of the gospel. However, whenever we have a chance to witness to someone, we can always consider that as a victory whether that person accepts Christ or not.
Why? The reason is if that person is saved, we play a role in their salvation. On the other hand, if that person has chosen not to believe, we can confidently say to ourselves we did our job or at least we try. We can feel that a burden has lifted off our conscience.
Keep in mind, we’re dealing with absolute and eternal truth, so the message that we convey to others will impact their lives forever whether they accept it or not. The reason is that God is going to hold people accountable on the basis of what they’d learned or heard of. The truth they hear from us through the Word of God is what will either save or condemn them.
The problem is when we don’t do anything at all by staying in our comfort zone by completely ignoring the terrible condemnation that’s hanging over the heads of unbelievers as a result of their unbelief. Our inaction truly highlights our indifferences and lack of concerns toward those who are on their way to hell.
In order for us to be able to share the good news with others, we have to make sure that we take our own personal responsibilities first by conditioning our lives according to the truth we’re sharing. The question is are we willing to say to ourselves we’ll bring at least one people to Christ before we’re forced out of this planet. That would be a complete shame for anybody to spend their entire lives and not bringing not even one person to Christ. Let’s allowing that to become one of our foremost objectives to God.
We’re responsible to help those who are in need either spiritually or financially (Romans 15:1, Acts 20:35-38, Philippians 2:4). It’s not always easy to do what the Word of God has commanded us to do, but with respect to helping others we have to be willing to make sacrifices on behalf of them in order to extend the love of Christ to them. There is a famous principle found in (Luke 12:48), which states “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
The same thing applies to our responsibilities to others. Therefore, the more we have financially, the more we should help needy people. Besides, the more truth we know or the more mature we’ve become in God, the more we should help those who are still immature in the faith. With respect to accountability, the more truth we know, the more accountable we will be to God. Lastly, the more condemned we should feel on the inside if we’re not applying the truth.
Lastly, Responsibilities to Our Family Members
Family is an institution created by God Almighty that operates primarily on responsibility. Therefore, each side has a very unique responsibility they must assume toward each other. Husband as the head of the family has responsibilities toward his wife, so is his wife (Ephesians 5:22-33). Moreover, children have responsibilities toward their parents, so are their parents (Ephesians 6:1-4).
That’s the ideal way a family can function the way God intended it to function. Keep in mind, family is an integral part of society; in other words, family is the pillar of humankind and society. This means that the way that family operates can have a direct impact on society. Although, we’re living in such a horrifying age where family is under lot of attacks from Satan, but as long as the Word of God stands family will always remain as a unique institution.
Conclusion
Responsibility is something that’s given to be taken very seriously, not to be ducked by making up excuses. Truthfully, excuses should never become a substitute to responsibility. Since we’re human, we may be struggling in some areas in our lives with respect to assuming certain responsibilities. We have to invite God to take care of that situation, so that we can do what God has commanded us to do. Our failure to do so or our excuses will not make God change His mind about what He wants us to do.