Warning

 

Let me pose a hypothetical situation:  I am sitting in my backyard relaxing when I look through the chain link fence to see an unattended toddler walking towards a swimming pool.  To my horror, the child walks up to the pool edge and tumbles in.  What would I do?  What SHOULD I do?  I would jump over that fence, no matter how high it was.  I would jump into the pool after that little child without thinking of my wallet, cell phone, or shoes.  I would risk everything to save that little life.  So, what about my neighbor who is lost and unrepentant to his Lord?  Is he not in similar eternal danger?  What should I do?  Should I get involved?  Should I plead with him?  Should I do everything within my power to show this man the error of his ways and the danger that awaits him?  Ezekiel said it best in Ezekiel 33:8,9 “When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”  I am responsible to warn the wicked man.  They are responsible to God for what they do with the warning.