Our Brother’s Keeper: The Sin Of Causing Others To Stumble

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

-Romans 15:1-4, ESV

We have all heard people say “it’s wasn’t my day to watch him”, usually following some negative outcome for that individual.  This is just a modern expression of “I’m not my brother’s keeper”, used as a way to deny responsibility for someone else.  While this is true in some sense, in the Body of Christ, we ARE our Christian brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.  This is particularly relevant when we differ in matters of conscience, so this post will examine our responsibility in keeping other saints from stumbling to discern when exercising our Christian liberty becomes sinful.

Shared Responsibility

To say we are not someone else’s keeper goes all the way back to Genesis: “Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”” (Genesis 4:9).  This comes after Cain murdered Abel, which parallels the original sin of the Fall.  God spoke to both Adam and Cain beforehand, both men succumbed to temptation, and both tried to evade responsibility when God questioned them.  Cain was essentially blaming Abel for his own murder.  Abel was righteous and accepted by God, which angered Cain who was rejected by God (1 John 3:12-13).  Cain may have thought his smooth words would absolve him of responsibility, but God cannot be fooled.  As we saw when examining abortion, Cain would not have been justified in killing Abel unless Abel was actively trying to kill him.  Cain was responsible for his own motives, emotions, thoughts, words, and actions—as are we all.  As individualistic Americans, we understand individual responsibility, but as we saw when discussing the nature of responsibility, there is also shared responsibility.  Recall that individual responsibility always exists, establishes guilt, and can be retained or delegated but not shared.  If multiple people are responsible for something individually, each is responsible for the particular aspects he or she had authority over.  On the other hand, shared responsibility is not about guilt but fixing problems.  In shared responsibility, we recognize that our words and deeds impact other people and therefore acknowledge our contribution to their thoughts, emotions, motives, words, and deeds even while we do not accept individual responsibility for them.  Therefore, we are prone to two errors in misunderstanding the nature of responsibility.  The error of critical theory is to treat shared responsibility as individual responsibility and punish accordingly, which is unjust and therefore abhorrent to God (Deuteronomy 24:16).  But we must also avoid neglecting shared responsibility by assuming that someone else’s individual responsibility absolves us of any responsibility of our own.  Scripture is clear that we Christians are responsible for one another.

Members of One Another

In the Body of Christ, we have responsibility for one another because we are members of Christ and therefore members of one another (Romans 12:5, 1 Corinthians 12:27).  We are not independent but highly interdependent just like all of the parts of our bodies.  What we do affects the rest of the Body, and what others in the Body do affects us—whether we know it or not.  You need only to stub you toe to be reminded this fact.  This interconnectedness leads to interdependency that is seldom acknowledged in many churches of the individualistic West.  Scripture does not describe the Church as a group of collocated strangers, social club, or political party but as a body, family, and building.  Though we are many and diverse, we are one, reflecting our Triune God: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).  God has determined the place for every individual and gifted him or her accordingly.  That means that everyone in every church needs everyone else in that church—not in spite of our differences but because of them.  So we cannot say that because we do not have a particular role or possess certain gifts we are not part of the Body (1 Corinthians 12:12-20).  Nor can we say that anyone else does not belong to the Body because he or she does not have a particular role or gifts (1 Corinthians 12:21):

On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

-1 Corinthians 12:22-26, ESV

Notice how the members of the Body care for one another for the good of the entire Body.  When one part suffers, the other parts feel it and compensate so that the suffering part can heal and the whole body can continue functioning.  For the rest of the body to ignore the suffering part and continue on normally is to aggravate the injury, which ultimately increases the pain to the entire body.  So since we are responsible to use our gifts to build up the Body, we are responsible for other members of the Body.  This includes calling one another to repentance and restoring them when they do: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Galatians 6:1 cf. Matthew 18:17-19).  Since this is a command—and God gives us the authority to obey Him—we have the authority to call one another to repentance and do what is necessary to restore each other much as a leader has authority over subordinates.  And since authority cannot exist apart from responsibility, we have shared responsibility for each other.  Therefore, we are each responsible for ourselves and yet also responsible for each other: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load” (Galatians 6:2-5).  This leads to an obvious question: which burdens of others are we to bear and which are they to bear themselves?  Paul answers this question in two separate passages that deal with the interaction between Christian liberty and conscience.

Liberty and Stumbling Blocks

Because Christ fulfilled the ceremonial law in His once-for-all sacrifice and since His coming signaled the beginning of the end of Israel as a nation governed by the civil laws, many of the restrictions of the past were lifted from the Church.  The transition to this new-found liberty was more difficult for some than others, which was especially true of dietary restriction.  For Jews, dietary purity was so central to worship that Peter had to receive a special vision from God to break him of it (Acts 10:9-18).  We saw when discussing feasting that since the Fall there has been a sacrificial element to eating meat, so unsurprisingly the transition was difficult for Greeks as well. Most meat they would buy had been involved in sacrificial rituals to pagan gods.  Upon abandoning those false gods for Christ, those strong in faith and understanding realized that those gods were not real, so there was nothing special about meat that had been involved in those rituals.  Others weaker in faith and understanding still associated that meat with the idolatry they had left, so to eat that meat was to return to that idolatry.  As they interacted, “the strong” exercising their Christian liberty by eating that meat were disturbing “the weak” who still associated it with idolatry.  This was a serious issue, so it is the main theme of Romans 14:1-15:4 and 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1.  

First, we are not to divide over these differences in conscience or judge each other because of them: “Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him” (Romans 14:3).  Even though we may differ in matters of conscience, all who are called by Christ and regenerated by the Holy Spirit are saints and must be treated as such.  Second, saints come from various backgrounds and are sanctified by the Holy Spirit at differing rates regarding activities that are not necessarily sinful, which has a massive effect on each saint’s convictions.  In common grace, God has given everyone a conscience as a guide.  As long as that conscience is not warped or seared, we should default to following its convictions.  If we don’t we will be plagued by doubt and judge ourselves for what we approve (which is the opposite of faith): “The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:22-23).  It is important to note that keeping faith between ourselves and God is only for these matters of conscience and in no way suggests we should refrain from sharing the Gospel with others.  The main point here is that we are all accountable to God for the manner in which we respond to our consciences regarding these non-sinful activities—in faith or doubting.  So the same non-sinful action can be fine for one person yet sinful for another.  The sin is not in the act itself but whether it is done in faith or not.  In that way, that non-sinful behavior becomes sinful for anyone who thinks it is sinful (Romans 14:14).  It is very serous to compel or tempt people to violate their consciences:

For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil…Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.

-Romans 14:15-16,20, ESV

Paul’s language to the Corinthians is even stronger:

But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

-1 Corinthians 8:9-13, ESV

The point is clear: it is sinful to do non-sinful activities when you know they could cause other saints to stumble because they believe those activities are sinful.  To do so is to destroy a fellow saint for whom Christ died.  But how can me exercising my Christian liberty destroy a brother or sister in Christ?  First of all, it is important to note that since salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, there is nothing any person can do that will cause another person to lose salvation, so that is not the destruction Paul is referring to.  Instead, it is causing someone to stumble in the Christian walk.  The Holy Spirit gives us our fellow saints to help guide us.  The weak in faith naturally look up to the strong, so when they see the strong partaking in things they understand to be sinful, it can shake their faith and cause them to doubt.  This can stunt their growth and sanctification.  So when we are the strong, we have an obligation to lay aside our Christian liberty whenever we discern a significant risk that it could cause others to stumble (Romans 15:1).  Like Paul, we must always be prepared to put aside our rights for the good of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 9).  After all, they aren’t our rights anyway because we are not our own: “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:7-8).  We are slaves of Jesus Christ, and He has determined when it is appropriate for us to exercise our Christian liberty and when we must lay it aside for His glory and the good of His Church.

Today’s Issues of Conscience

In our day, few Christians struggle with eating meat, but we have our own matters of conscience.  When I lived in Utah, I without any Mormon affiliation could visit Salt Lake City’s Temple Square as merely a place of historical and cultural significance.  However, to my small group leader who had left Mormonism, Temple Square represented the idolatry he had fled, so he viewed it with disdain.  It would have been wrong for me to pressure him to return to Temple Square.  The same could be said not only of former idolatry but any persistent sin that God has saved people from and caused them to despise. The most obvious is alcohol, as the Church includes everyone from temperate Baptists to bourbon-loving Presbyterians.  Both must be careful to avoid judging or despising each other, for God has welcomed both.  More to Paul’s point would be recovering alcoholics, who could easily be led to stumble if they see stronger believers drinking.  In this case, it is important to note that our accommodation for the weak brother cannot cause us to disobey Scripture.  So while not wanting to tempt recovering alcoholics is a reason given by some churches for using grape juice in communion, that risk is miniscule, and we must obey the regulative principle in covenant renewal worship.  Scripture prescribes bread and wine, so the use of wine is a matter of obedience rather than conscience.  But outside of communion, those of us who enjoy alcohol responsibly must always be prepared to lay aside this liberty to keep others from stumbling. 

The pandemic brought other examples: some believed in wearing masks and “getting the jab” while others were firmly against it, and the same could be said for many other policies of that time.  While we saw here and here that some of those policies was sinful, most were not.  Sadly, many saints did not welcome each other but fiercely divided over these differences. Christians also have differing views on what is acceptable to do on Sundays, so that too is an area where we must be prepared to lay aside our Christian liberty.  Finally, an example that is prevalent but often overlooked is modest apparel.  It is no mystery that most men struggle with sexual temptation, so we are the weak brother in this area.  Much of what is considered normal female attire today either covers little or leaves little to the imagination, so it stands a very high chance of causing Christian brothers to stumble.  While the precise constitution of modest clothing is a topic for another time, we can say that when a Christian woman learns that her wardrobe is causing her Christian brothers to stumble, she has an obligation to adjust her attire accordingly.  And while we men are certainly responsible for our own thoughts and actions, modest attire helps us avoid temptation.  These are just a few of the ways differences in conscience should cause us to lay aside our Christian liberty at times.  This is an important way in which we love each other: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10).  So let us exercise our Christian liberty or refrain as fits the occasion for the good of our brothers and sisters in Christ rather than our own.  We will be held accountable to God for it, because we absolutely are our brothers’ (and sisters’) keepers.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

-Philippians 2:3-4, ESV