Individual Responsibility
Text: John 15:1-8
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- State how responsibility is measured — by what two factors — and explain what this means for the Christian who has both ability and opportunity.
- Explain the sin of omission from James 4:17 and Gal. 6:10 — why failing to do good is a sin, not merely a missed opportunity.
- Identify the watchman illustration from Ezek. 33 and apply it to the person who knows Christ but has not shared that knowledge.
- Explain why being rewarded for "having a talent" misses the point — what the parable of the talents actually rewards.
- Distinguish between starting in the Christian life and running well in it, using at least two Scripture references.
Thesis
Responsibility is not assigned generically — it is measured by ability and opportunity. The Christian who has both is the most accountable person in the world: accountable for what they do, accountable for what they could have done and did not, and accountable for whether they run well, not merely whether they started.
Burden
Daniel Webster's answer — "human responsibility" is the greatest thing in life — frames the burden: the sermon unpacks why. The burden is not to produce guilt but to produce understanding: to help the hearer grasp that the Christian life is not a protected status but a productive calling, and that the failure to produce is itself a form of sin.
Introduction
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit" (John 15:1-2). The vine metaphor is a responsibility metaphor: the branch's function is fruit-bearing. The branch that does not bear fruit is not merely underperforming — it is taken away. The branch that bears fruit is pruned so that it bears more. There is no category of branch that is acceptable at zero.
What determines responsibility? Two factors: ability and opportunity. The person who has no ability to do a thing cannot be held responsible for not doing it. The person who has ability but no opportunity is limited by circumstance. But the person who has both ability and opportunity — and does not act — is fully responsible for the gap between what they did and what they could have done.
Man is responsible for his character and for his destiny. Both are shaped by choices, sustained by disciplines, and determined — ultimately — by what the person does with the ability and opportunity they have been given.
I. Church Members
The structure of responsibility within the church is clear in the New Testament.
Duties of elders: to rule (I Tim. 5:17 — "The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor") and to feed the flock (Acts 20:28 — "shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood"). The elder's responsibility is specific and weighty: the oversight and nourishment of the people in their care.
Duties of members: "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you" (Heb. 13:17). Both the elder and the member carry responsibility — the elder for the oversight, the member for their responsiveness to it. The accountability runs in both directions.
II. Adam's Responsibility
Adam's responsibility increased when Eve was created. Before Eve, Adam was responsible for himself before God. After Eve, he was responsible for her, for the relationship, for the household. The assignment of a companion was not merely a blessing — it was an expansion of the scope of accountability.
The principle generalizes: every addition to one's circle of relationship and influence is an addition to one's scope of responsibility. The parent is more responsible than the childless adult; the elder more than the member; the person with more gifts more than the person with fewer. Responsibility grows with relationship.
III. Duties and Obligations, Responsibilities
Duties and obligations never conflict. The person who claims that their duty to God conflicts with their obligation to family, or their obligation to the church conflicts with their duty to the community, has not understood either. True duties, properly understood, are coherent — because they arise from the same source and point toward the same end.
Too many doing nothing (John 15:1-6). The branch that does nothing is not in a neutral state — it is in the process of being taken away. "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away." The workers bear fruit (Matt. 5:13, 16 — "You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world... Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven"). The person in Christ who is doing nothing is not simply unproductive; they have abdicated the function for which they were placed in the vine.
Every time you shirk a duty you lose a blessing (James 1:25). "But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." The blessing is conditioned on the doing. The person who hears and does not do loses not only the blessing of the specific duty — they lose the formation that the doing produces.
We are not only responsible for the evil we do but for the good we might do. This is the sin of omission (James 4:17: "to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin"; Gal. 6:10: "so then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people"; Prov. 3:27: "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it"). The category of sin is larger than most people think. It includes not only the wrong done but the right withheld.
All who know Christ are responsible if they do not impart that knowledge to those who do not know him. The knowledge of Christ is not a private possession — it is a trust. The person who has received it and withheld it has committed the same sin as the servant who hid the talent: not theft, not destruction, but the failure to put to use what was given for use.
The watchman on the tower (Ezek. 33). "Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, 'If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head... But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand.'" The watchman who does not warn is responsible for the death of the one who was not warned. The Christian who knows Christ and does not share that knowledge stands in the watchman's position.
We are not rewarded for having a talent but for the proper use of it (Matt. 25:14-30). The servant who received one talent and buried it was not rewarded for the talent — he was condemned for the burial. "You wicked, lazy slave" — the condemnation is for what was not done, not for what was done wrong. The reward goes to those who put the talents to use and produced a return.
We are not rewarded so much for starting in the Christian life as for running well. Beginning is required; finishing determines the reward.
Ezekiel 18:24: "But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live? All his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his treachery which he has committed and his sin which he has committed; for them he will die."
II Peter 1:10: "Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble."
I Corinthians 9:27: "But I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified."
Philippians 3:12-14: "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus... Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
The Christian's reward (II Tim. 4:6-8): "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day." The reward goes to the one who finishes.
The crown of life is to the faithful until death (Rev. 2:10): "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." Not faithful at the beginning; faithful until the end.
Application
Webster's answer: "What is the greatest thing in life?" — "Human responsibility." Not human achievement; not human pleasure; not human longevity. Human responsibility — because in the way a person meets or fails to meet their responsibility is revealed everything about who they are and what they have made of what they were given.
Two applications press from this:
First: Audit the omissions. The sins of commission — the things done wrong — are visible and usually acknowledged. The sins of omission are invisible and usually not acknowledged. What good have you been in a position to do and have not done? What person have you known who did not know Christ and whom you have not told?
Second: Examine where you are in the race. Paul's language in I Corinthians 9:27 — "lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" — is the language of a man who has not stopped running simply because he started. The starting is not the qualification; the finishing is.
Conclusion
"Daniel Webster was once asked: 'What is the greatest thing in life?' He studied a moment, and said: 'human responsibility.'" The answer is not what most people would give, but it is the answer that corresponds to the way God governs the world and judges it. The person who takes their responsibility seriously — who bears fruit, who warns the unwarn'd, who puts their talent to use, who runs well and not merely starts — is the person whose account at the judgment will be the account of a good and faithful servant.
Invitation
The branch that abides in the vine bears fruit; the branch that does not abide is taken away (John 15:5-6). Abiding in the vine begins with entering it. The entry is through the new birth — the belief, repentance, confession, and baptism that unite the person with Christ (Acts 2:38). The responsibility that follows from that entry is substantial. But the one who enters receives what is needed to meet it: "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Responsibility | (No single Greek term — conceptual) | Measured by ability + opportunity: not a fixed amount per person but a calculated one. | Used as the governing concept throughout: the person with more ability or more opportunity has more responsibility. | This is the logic of Luke 12:48 ("from everyone who has been given much, much will be required") applied to the whole of Christian life. The Christian who has both ability and opportunity is the most accountable person in the world. | Luke 12:48; Heb. 13:17 |
| Sin of omission | hamartia | The standard Greek word for sin — used here in a context where the sin is failing to do something right, not doing something wrong. | Used in James 4:17: "to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin." | The grammar is deliberate: "to him it is sin" (hamartia autō estin). The category of sin is explicitly extended to the failure to do known good. Most people limit sin to commission; James explicitly extends it to omission. | James 4:17; Gal. 6:10 |
| Disqualified | adokimos | Rejected after testing — the word was used for metal that failed the assay. | Used in I Cor. 9:27 for what Paul fears: being disqualified after preaching to others through a failure of self-discipline. | The concern is not that Paul might sin once and be lost but that after a life of preaching, he might fail the ultimate test through a failure of discipline. The warning is to the person who thinks starting qualifies them for the ending. | I Cor. 9:27 |
| Crown | stephanos | The victor's wreath — not the royal crown (diadēma) but the wreath placed on the head of the contest winner. | Used in Rev. 2:10 for the crown of life promised to those faithful until death. | The condition is faithfulness until death, not faithfulness at the beginning. The wreath is for the finisher, not the starter. | Rev. 2:10; II Tim. 4:6-8 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| "Every branch that does not bear fruit is taken away" — doing nothing | Text | John 15:2, 6 |
| Duties of elders — rule and feed the flock | I | I Tim. 5:17; Acts 20:28 |
| Duties of members — submit to oversight | I | Heb. 13:17 |
| "Let your light shine" — workers bear fruit | III.2 | Matt. 5:13, 16 |
| "Effectual doer will be blessed" — shirking loses blessing | III.3 | James 1:25 |
| "To know the right and not do it — sin" | III.4 | James 4:17; Gal. 6:10; Prov. 3:27 |
| Watchman who does not warn — responsible for the loss | III.6 | Ezek. 33 |
| Parable of the talents — rewarded for use, not possession | III.7 | Matt. 25:14-30 |
| "Righteous man who turns away" — running well, not just starting | III.8 | Ezek. 18:24 |
| "Press on toward the goal" — Paul's ongoing race | III.8 | Phil. 3:12-14 |
| "Crown of righteousness for the finisher" | III.9 | II Tim. 4:6-8 |
| "Faithful until death — crown of life" | III.10 | Rev. 2:10 |
| Baptism for remission — entry into the vine | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 137. Primary text: John 15:1-8 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "INTRODUCTI ON" → "INTRODUCTION"; "Heb. I 3: I 7" → "Heb. 13:17"; "lll." → "III." Doctrinal audit: the sin of omission developed from James 4:17 and Gal. 6:10 — this is the most underpreached category of sin in most traditions; the watchman illustration (Ezek. 33) applied directly to the Christian's evangelistic responsibility; the distinction between starting and running well affirmed without Calvinist "once saved always saved" — Ezek. 18:24 and I Cor. 9:27 both presuppose that a person who has run well can fail if they stop running; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
