This is a wonderful thing to ponder as we enter this first day of a new year. In essence, the questioner is asking: does the interest of others affect how I live my life? Do I have a responsibility to others’ well-being?
It is a very important question. I think of it often as I stand in the frigid cold on the sidewalks of the Southeast’s busiest abortion center.
Five hundred women that we know of chose life in 2017 at the busy abortion center where Cities4LIfe ministers to abortion minded women. 37 that I know of asked Jesus to be Lord of their lives. My prayer for 2018 is that double that amount or more will choose life, and Jesus, and that the abortion center will shut down once and for all. Several abortion workers left the abortion center as well in 2017, and are being helped by Abby Johnson’s ministry, And Then There Were None, along with our ministry and Lovelife Charlotte’s help.
Meanwhile, the ‘pro-choice’ crowd continues to oppose our efforts to help these moms and workers, and routinely tell us that what is happening in that abortion center is “none of our business.” Any talk of God or the healing power of Jesus in broken lives is ridiculed and maligned.
Am I my brother’s keeper?
God first posed a question to Cain after he killed his brother, Abel. Cain was trying to cover up the murder, and foolishly thought God would be none the wiser if Cain hedged God’s query. This is what God asked Cain: Where is your brother, Abel?
Now in case you are wondering, God knew the answer. God knew exactly what had happened to Abel. Why did He pose the question then?
He was giving Cain every opportunity to face head on what he had done, to repent, to be honest with God and understand how selfish pride and anger had driven him into grievous sin. The question also implies that Cain should know his brother's whereabouts. Cain had a responsibility to God and to his brother, Abel. God makes that clear in framing the question.
Am I my brother’s keeper?
What does Cain reveal about himself in his answer to God? He reveals character issues most of us can probably relate to. When caught in sin, we try to pretend we are not responsible. We respond in self-righteous anger and indignation. We pretend no one has the right to question us at all, not even God. We hide from what we did, and try to hide it from others. We evade a direct answer to avoid the consequence or the critical self-examination required of us.
How does God respond? ARE we our brother’s keeper or not?
Genesis 4:10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
God reveals that not only does He know what Cain has done, but the innocent blood of his brother cries out to God. God hates the shedding of innocent blood. Instantly, God punishes Cain and thus reveals His answer.
Yes, we are our brother’s keeper. We cannot stand idly by when made aware of the shedding of innocent human beings’ blood. We cannot pretend we do not hear the blood of the innocent crying out to us. As much as we are able, we are responsible to act on behalf of the innocent. All human beings are our brothers, our sisters, made in the image of a Holy Father.
In his wonderful sermon titled Am I My Brother’s Keeper, Charles Spurgeon makes the additional point that if we know the truth about trusting in Jesus as Lord and believing in His atoning sacrifice as payment for our sins and don’t do everything possible to share that truth, we share the guilt of our brother going to Hell.
I love what he says. The sermon is well worth reading in its entirety, but here is a snippet that makes a critical point:
And, you saved ones, you owe much to God, but do not think that you are saved for your own special benefit alone. It is a great benefit to you, but grace is bestowed on you like light, that you may give it to others who are in darkness; bestowed on you as the bread that was given by our Lord to his disciples, that they might share it among the multitude, that all might eat and be filled. Think of this—that the power to do good involves the responsibility to do it wherever that power exists; and so, as far as you have any ability, you are by that very fact constituted as your brother’s keeper.
So I stand on the sidewalk and when the ‘prochoice’ people tell me the death of millions of innocent babies by abortion is none of my business, or that I should not speak the Gospel in that dark place of despair and desperation, I know better.
I am my brother’s keeper.
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A new year, a new chance to be a part of a culture of life. Please join us. Click here to learn more about being a Cities4Life volunteer.
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“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:19
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