This January I’ll be co-leading a Bible study on Ezekiel. I decided to read it ahead of time to familiarize myself with it since I’ve not read the entire book before. Chapter 3, verses 16-21 particularly stood out to me:

And at the end of seven days, the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.”

Harsh words. Convicting, even.

Which made me think of the quote often attributed to Edmund Burke:

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.”

I then wondered, if a man does nothing while evil flourishes, can he truly call himself good?

Or a more pointed question: Would Jesus call him “good?”

As far as what God told Ezekiel, the answer is an unqualified no.

One could argue at this point that God was speaking directly to Ezekiel, not necessarily to the rest of us.

But is that true?

Will Jesus hold us to account for not warning others of their upcoming destruction? I first considered what he told the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:15-16: I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

The church in question was apparently rich, wanting for nothing. As such, they became complacent, thinking their prosperity would get them through every challenge. While not specifically stated, one could infer they weren’t reaching out to the lost as much as they should have.

I can’t help but draw parallels with the warning to Ezekiel, the Laodicea church, and far too many churches today in the western world.

James 3:1 speaks more directly to teachers of scripture: Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

The Bible is also full of warnings for false teachers, not only for the listener, but the teacher such as Deuteronomy 18:20, Ezekiel 13:9, Acts 20:28-30, and Titus 1:9-11, 16, to name but a few.

So yes, we will be held to account for not only what we do, but what we fail to do.

While it can be a bit terrifying to know God will judge me for the things I don’t do, it’s also motivating. It encourages me to ask another question: What can I do—or more accurately—what would God have me do today to help others draw nearer to him?