![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/01\/fault-finding-300x200.jpg\")
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to see the faults of someone else? Most of us know how to point the finger at the person who has messed up. Taking responsibility and accepting the blame is not what most of us think about when something goes wrong!<\/p>\n
In the church, every Christian is called to be responsible for himself. The apostle John wrote, “Look to yourselves, that you do not lose those things you worked for, but that you may receive a full reward<\/em>” (II John 8). The point is clear — Christians are to take responsibility for their own lives. The apostle Paul expressed it this way, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you are disqualified<\/em>” (II Corinthians 13:5).<\/p>\n Each one of us is in control of his life and the decisions he makes. We know that Jesus is in us and that He leads us by His Word (John 8:31-32; I John 5:20). The apostle John offers us some guidance in this matter of looking to ourselves. He points out that we can know there are deceivers in the world. We can know what these deceivers teach. We can choose not to have fellowship with these teachers of error (II John 7-11).<\/p>\n It is interesting that John warns us that we can lose the things we have worked for and that we can not receive the full reward. Paul said that we could be disqualified. These two factors place eternal importance on each of us looking to ourselves and not to others to discern where we stand before God.<\/p>\n I can be deceived and I can be the deceiver. I can gain the reward, or I can lose the reward from God. I can be qualified, or I can be disqualified before God. So, I am responsible for my actions, thoughts, and choices as a follower of Christ.<\/p>\n John says that a transgressor and one who does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. On the other hand, if we abide in the teaching of Christ we have both the Father and the Son. Also, we are not to have fellowship with someone who does not teach the doctrine of Christ (II John 9-11). Based on this responsibility we can surely see the importance of looking to ourselves in matters of personal faith and fellowship!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Ron Drumm Have you ever noticed how easy it is to see the faults of someone else? Most of us know how to point the finger at the person who has messed up. Taking responsibility and accepting the blame is not what most of us think about when something goes wrong! In the church,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[713,354],"class_list":["post-57949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-judging-others","tag-responsibility"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":90953,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/test-yourself\/","url_meta":{"origin":57949,"position":0},"title":"Test Yourself","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong \"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?-unless indeed you fail to meet the test!\" (II Corinthians 13:5 ESV). We see in the two letters to the Corinthians that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46861,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/from-what-i-could-see-you-present-yourselves-very-well-biblically\/","url_meta":{"origin":57949,"position":1},"title":"From what I could see, you present yourselves very well biblically","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just discovered your website while researching questions about whether Paul the Apostle had either been a member of the Sanhedrin or married. I just wanted to say, from what I could see so far, I really like the way you present yourselves very well biblically. Too bad you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89132,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-an-instrument-in-romans-613\/","url_meta":{"origin":57949,"position":2},"title":"What is an “instrument” in Romans 6:13?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is an instrument in Romans 6:13? The Thayer's Greek lexicon and Strong's dictionary didn't help me understand this word. Answer: \"Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38908,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-take-responsibility-for-another-mans-child\/","url_meta":{"origin":57949,"position":3},"title":"Should I take responsibility for another man’s child?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been going out with this girl for about five years now. Just recently she got pregnant with another guy. She confessed to me that she doesn't love that guy and does not believe she can be happy with him. I later told her if the other guy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27311,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-like-how-you-differentiated-yourselves\/","url_meta":{"origin":57949,"position":4},"title":"I like how you differentiated yourselves","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I came across your website while doing some study. I am a member of the brotherhood. I was very impressed with your opening remarks and how you differentiated yourselves from the rest of the world of religious bodies. So refreshing to see that. I am simply writing this e-mail\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94085,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/whose-keeper\/","url_meta":{"origin":57949,"position":5},"title":"Whose Keeper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kenneth Frazier via\u00a0Sentry 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}