Whose Keeper?

by Kenneth Frazier
via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 3, September 1994

It is true that Cain asked God, "Am I my brother’s keeper?" (Genesis 4:9). It is true that the apostle John said, "Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous" (I John 3:12). Strongly implied in both passages is the truth that we are our brother’s keeper. We are bound by love to be interested in the welfare of others, both temporal and spiritual.

The hungry will not be fed unless someone is willing to provide for their needs. "For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat" (Matthew 25:35). Those who hunger for the spiritual food of God’s word need feeding. To whom are you indebted for the hearing of the gospel of Christ, the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16)? Somebody cared enough for you to be his brother’s keeper. I know for a fact that you did not conceive and write out the gospel. No man living today had a part in this "God-breathed" writing (II Timothy 3:16). But somebody did! God used somebody who cared enough to suffer physical and mental affliction to see that the word of God became the written word and that it be preserved for us today.

But there is another and equally important sense in which you are a keeper. Jesus taught that keeping must begin with you. "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye" (Matthew 7:5). Notice the order of priority. First, do what? Be your own keeper first. Sin in your own life will blind you to the needs of others.

Observe some "keeps."

• "Keep thy heart with all diligence" (Proverbs 4:23).
• "But I keep under my body" (I Corinthians 9:27).
• "Keep thyself pure" (I Timothy 5:22).
• "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27).
• "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (I John 5:21).
• "Keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 21).

Have you ever committed a sin? Even one? Since you became a Christian? When was the last time you sinned by word or deed? Have you wounded some soul today? Have you caused one foot to go astray? I suppose there are those who would answer "no" or never to all of these. The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day professed such righteousness. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness" (Matthew 23:27). To profess or even think that we are without sin is an affront to God. God knows better!

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (I John 1:8-10). Get down off that pedestal you have put yourself on! "And whosoever shalt exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted" (Matthew 23:12).

Let’s first be our own keeper. Take the word of God, the mirror for the soul, and humbly and sincerely compare our lives with truth. We have nothing to fear from truth. It is the best friend we can have. Truth will not lie to preserve a friendship. Truth will not hide the spots and blemishes. Truth will reveal to us what the Lord already knows. No one has invested as much in you as you. What a tragedy to fret and worry about others and neglect to "Keep yourself!"