My Brother's Keeper

“MY BROTHER’S KEEPER”

Genesis 4.9

From the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, the foundational book of the Bible, the book of beginnings in the Bible, through the book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible, the capstone book of the Bible, and the climactic book of the Bible, runs a scarlet thread of redemption. The thread is scarlet because redemption can only be purchased by blood. As we see illustrated throughout the Bible and are informed explicitly in Hebrews 9.22, “without shedding of blood is no remission [of sins].” The scarlet is a thread because the progress of God’s eternal purpose is sometimes difficult to discern amidst the many details of history and the interplay of personalities found in the Bible.

However, from beginning to end, the scarlet thread of redemption ties together God’s unfolding drama that has as its focal point the Lord Jesus Christ’s shed blood, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.[1] Alongside the scarlet thread of redemption, through that portion of the Bible, that deals with man on earth before the end of the age, is what I have chosen to label the revelation of mutual responsibility. It is the obvious principle of mutual interdependence. It is the recognition that the Bible shows mankind to be a race created by God to be dependent upon Him and the recognition that the Bible shows mankind to be a race created by God to be interdependent upon each other.

Allow me to provide some examples: When the serpent’s enticement deceived Eve, she did not fulfill her responsibility toward her husband, Adam. In short, she was not dependable and let him down. When Adam ate the forbidden fruit that was given to him by Eve, he not only sinned against God and precipitated the Fall that has led to mankind’s present misery, but he also betrayed Eve and generations yet unborn. Adam let Eve down by not being the leader God created him to be and ruined us all. When Abraham yielded to Sarah and sired Ishmael by Hagar, he failed in his duty toward both women, toward the son born from his sin, and toward later generations. He let us all down. How about David’s sin with Bathsheba? A terrible sin that led to another awful sin. Not only did he give “great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme,” but he let down so many in the nation he ruled.[2]

I could go on and on. The essence of the point that I seek to make, the principle that I desire to focus your attention on, is found in our text, Genesis 4.9:

“And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?”

To provide you with context, Adam and Eve have sinned against God and have been expelled from the Garden of Eden. Despite the great difficulties of living under the curse of sin, God blessed the first couple with many children, with our attention here directed to the first two, Cain and Abel. After a conflict between the brothers results in Cain’s murder of Abel (a potential that exists whenever two brothers become angry with each other and resort to violence), the Bible records God confronting Cain.

Pause for just a moment here to consider. There can be no doubt that God’s plan for people (in varying degrees of intensity) involves voluntary interdependency. Remember, God created Eve for the specific purpose of helping Adam. So, the implied duties of leadership benefiting her and the more apparent responsibilities of being a help meet benefiting him show that people were designed to be interdependent from the beginning because God Himself said, “It is not good that the man should be alone.”[3]

We see this interdependency wonderfully illustrated in commerce and circles of families and friendships. Yet when confronted by God after the slaying of his brother, when challenged to give an account of where his brother was, Cain, replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer, of course, is yes. Yes, Cain, you are your brother’s keeper. Thousands of years later, the Lord Jesus Christ taught a parable to illustrate our responsibility toward others. Luke 10.30-37:

30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

In the Apostle Paul’s ministry, we find restatements of this principle: In Romans 1.14-15, Paul writes this obligation in the context of Gospel preaching: “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also.” As well, Galatians 6.10 speaks to this principle: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”

We also see Paul demonstrating this principle in action when he mobilized the Churches in Europe and Asia to take up an offering for the believers facing famine in Judea. In Second Corinthians 8.1-4, we see how important the Christians perceived this duty, obligation, and responsibility in Macedonia to be toward fellow believers they would never set eyes on this side of heaven:

1 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;

4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

The question that Cain asked God so long ago was, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” That was in the days when there were only brothers and sisters in a new world, but for his mother and father. His question could be paraphrased for today’s reality, “Am I responsible for the welfare of people other than myself?” Yes, as a matter of fact, you are.

In our Lord’s day, through His parable, this responsibility was clarified as being applicable to one’s neighbors, with the good Samaritan rightly understanding that your neighbor is that person who is near at hand and who needs your help. The Apostle Paul sharpened the focus even more clearly when he wrote in Galatians 6.10, “As we have therefore opportunity ....”

It was a man named John Donne (1573-1631) who wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”[4] What did he mean by what he wrote? In part, he meant what I have been pointing out, that we are interdependent and in need of each other. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” That was Cain’s question to God when asked where Abel was. You might paraphrase Cain’s question as, “Is Abel my responsibility?” The rest of the Bible is written, in part, to answer that question.

Consider some fellow who lies beat up on the sidewalk. Do you have any moral obligation toward that fellow lying there who was beaten and robbed? Are you responsible for calling 911 or finding out if the poor guy is even alive? What if you saw the guy, but you had a necessary appointment you were running late to? Would you feel the obligation to stop what you are doing, disrupt your schedule, or perhaps risk missing a wonderful business opportunity to look after a helpless man?

Why don’t we turn the situation around? Suppose you are the one who has suddenly been overcome by illness? There you are. Too weak to move, too disoriented to cry out for help, your heart racing and gripped with the fear that you might be dying. Now how do you feel about interdependency? Would you want the guy walking by who is late for a necessary appointment to stop and help you? You see, things frequently seem very different when the shoe is on the other foot when you are the one who needs help rather than the one whose help is required. Cain asked if he was his brother’s keeper because he did not want to be his brother’s keeper. And he did not want to be his brother’s keeper because he had, moments before, become his brother’s killer, his brother’s slayer, his brother’s murderer.

The sinful nature is such that people tend to ask such questions as Cain asked. They challenge their moral obligation to help those in need. Frequently, doing so when they are in the very act of ignoring such moral obligations, or once the decision has been made to engage in some selfishness requires ignoring whatever duties, obligations, and responsibilities they might have toward others.

Most of the time, people know that when you are walking in the desert with a jug of water, and you come upon someone thirsty, you share your water. When you are standing in line at the grocery store and the elderly woman in front of you discovers that she is a dollar short of being able to pay for her food, you cheerfully and without prompting give her a dollar, even if it means you come up a little short. You are not trying to earn your way to heaven by doing such a good deed. You certainly do not expect any reward from the nice old lady for doing her a good turn. No one you know is anywhere around, so you’re not trying to impress your friends. So, why do you do it? There is an inborn recognition that people need each other, that we are interdependent, and that you are your brother’s keeper.

To be sure, there are those with sufficiently seared consciences, with incredibly hardened hearts, with a coldness to their souls, or a false religious doctrine, who would deny this. They selfishly ask, “Why should I help him? What’s in it for me? Why do I have to get involved? He is suffering for evil he did in a previous life. It’s none of my business.” Oh, but it is your business. You are your brother’s keeper. Understand, the Bible does not advocate, as some social activists these days like to pretend, that you should compensate for some lazy person’s lack of foresight and industry. It is not your duty to pay someone else’s rent who dropped out of high school and can’t hold a job. In other words, it is not your job to pay someone else’s way or to live someone else’s life. In the long run, that type of welfare mentality is quite the opposite of being your brother’s keeper since it eventually does him more harm than good.

So you see, God’s Word reveals a middle ground between a government-mandated social welfare system (where people are taken care of and lose initiative because they expect others to fulfill their own life’s tasks) and the kind of extremist individualism we sometimes find reflected in the attitude expressed by “I mind my own business and expect others to mind their own business, and I don’t need nobody and don’t like the idea of anyone needing my help.” Both extremes are wrong, and it takes considerable wisdom from God to know how to be your brother’s keeper.

We are interdependent. I plan to help you when I have an opportunity and think that you plan on doing the same thing. Further, I plan to raise my child and appreciate your help from time to time should you see something you think I need to know and benefit from hearing what you have to say. When I see your kid with his friends in the mall, I will pass on to you the kind of information that I hope you will pass on to me if the situations were reversed.

Do you see where I am coming from in all this? I am not an island. You are not an island. Though I expect to take care of most of my business myself, I know that there are times when I need help. Although you need to take care of most of your business yourself, I know that there are times when you will need my help. I am my brother’s keeper. God made us that way. Not only are we all ultimately utterly dependent upon Him, but He has created each one of us to be interdependent upon each other in various ways. Therefore, be mindful that being your brother’s keeper is a personal duty, obligation, and responsibility before God.

I want to apply this principle of being your brother’s keeper to the most crucial matter of a person’s life:

First, CONSIDER THE CHRISTIAN

Christian, you are your brother’s keeper. Though this is a concept that is poorly understood by those who do not embrace Bible truth (though they are typically all too willing to advise on the matter), it means you have specific duties, obligations, and responsibilities toward other people that you are exceptionally equipped to deal with as a Christian. God’s Word is explicit in showing what those duties, obligations, and responsibilities happen to be:

First, toward the lost. The Bible is obvious in revealing that lost people are spiritually helpless.[5] Lost people are turned around and confused in their thinking.[6] Their sin confounds their perception and understanding of spiritual things. Finally, of course, they are doomed to eternal torment. The result, of course, is that their greatest need is met with the Gospel. They need to be evangelized. They need to be talked to at work, at school, and in the neighborhood, invited to Church, encouraged to consider the claims of Christ, and earnestly prayed for.

Our understanding of human depravity, and our own experience before our conversion to Christ, convinces us that lost people cannot save themselves, cannot find their way out of the darkness, and are incapable of making right decisions about which Church to attend, what books to read, and whose preaching to listen to. After all, what else can spiritual blindness and deafness mean? This is why we are given the Great Commission to go. This is why we are given the Word of God to take. This is why we go out as a Church to corporately canvass and invite people to be our guests here at Calvary Road Baptist Church. The entire purpose of Calvary Road Baptist Church, our outreach and our missions thrust to the uttermost parts of the world, is to be our brother’s keepers in the highest sense of the concept. That is why we were here last night instead of socializing. That is why we were here last night instead of partying. That is why we were here instead of sitting at home watching television. We are our brother’s keeper.

However, you are not only your lost brother’s keeper. You are also your Christian brother’s keeper. Consider a Christian friend who is doing something wrong. Perhaps, in a moment of stupidity, a believer does something that threatens to utterly ruin his credibility as a spiritual and conscientious follower of Jesus Christ. What would you do if you become aware of such a thing? Would you sit by and watch a Christian friend engage in testimony-destroying folly without comment, without objection, without feeling any sense of responsibility? Of course not. You are your brother’s keeper.

In Galatians 6.1, we read these words: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Do you know what this verse means? It means that if you see a Christian do something he should not do, you do not just stand by and watch. You do something. Why do you think Paul withstood Simon Peter to the face when they met in Antioch?[7] Remember what happened? Peter had acted one way around Gentile Christians and another way around Jewish Christians. In other words, he was acting like a two-faced hypocrite. He was not only endangering his testimony, but his actions were confusing and might have caused people to misunderstand the purity of the Gospel of salvation by faith. Paul could not sit by and do nothing.

What kind of a friend would you have to be to do nothing? Paul, realizing that he was his brother’s keeper, intervened and stopped what Peter was doing. He was willing to risk his friendship with Peter to keep Peter from doing severe damage to his testimony and the cause of Christ. Would to God we had more courageous Christians who faced their duty to be their brother’s keepers. If Peter had been your friend, would you have done anything? Or would you have stood silently by while he did something foolish that he would have later regretted? My Christian friend, as a child of God, you have a duty to fulfill toward those who are lost as well as those who are already saved because you are your brother’s keeper.

As Well, CONSIDER THE NON-CHRISTIAN

Not everyone is a believer in Jesus Christ. Perhaps you are not converted. Duties, obligations, and responsibilities toward God and your fellow man are not the focus of your life. The Bible shows us that the focus of your life is yourself. Please, consider these things:

Just because you are not a Christian does not mean you are not your brother’s keeper. After all, God confronted Cain about his brother Abel, and Cain was not a believer. Not being a believer, Cain attempted to deny his duty, obligations, and responsibilities, but to no avail. God still held him responsible. The same is true with you. You are your brother’s keeper, whether you are a Christian or not. Of course, the problem is that while you are unsaved, you cannot possibly fulfill your ultimate duties, obligations, and responsibilities as your brother’s keeper. Your life outside of Christ is focused primarily on this present life, meaning you will pay little attention to the eternal needs of others. Their significant spiritual needs will generally go unnoticed or unnoticed by you.

Those of you who are unsaved men and women married to believers, do you have any idea of the damage you do by continuing in your lost estate and failing to be your brother’s keeper, which is to say failing to be the proper spouse to your husband or wife? God only knows what might have resulted from a union of two Christians. Instead, you are content for a marriage that cripples along, one Christian married to one Hell-bound sinner, never giving much thought to what God might have accomplished had you come to Christ and begun to be your spouse’s keeper. What about you unsaved moms and dads? Ever think about your children’s spiritual needs when the issue of being your brother’s keeper is before you?

What real chance do your children have with you dead in trespasses and sins? Of what eternal benefit can you be to your children as one who is the enemy of God, as all unsaved people are?[8] You brothers and sisters who are not saved. Have you no concern for your little brother or your little sister, as the case may be? When that sibling needs a godly example, where are you? As a Christian, you could show others in your family the greatness and glory of God, the goodness and graciousness of the Savior, the sweetness, and the sanctity of God’s Spirit. But no, you are no example at all. You are not much different than Cain, feeling no sense of responsibility for your brother or sister, whatever the case may be.

I know that there are always unsaved people who are more interested in converting others than they are in their conversion. You would be surprised how many times unsaved people urge me to witness to this person or to that person, all the while remaining lost themselves. While that is an attempt to be your brother’s keeper, how can anyone keep his brother while still opposing God? How can you keep your brother while rejecting the Savior? How can you keep your brother while grieving the Spirit?

Make no mistake about the importance of being your brother’s keeper, my friend. It is more important than you realize because it is part of the fabric from which God weaved you. His plan for you and me, and everyone, includes being our brother’s keeper. Are you your brother’s keeper? Of course, you are. However, the question is not whether you are your brother’s keeper. The problem is whether you keep your brother, whether you look out for him, whether his welfare, especially his eternal welfare, is your concern.

Those of you who are not Christians are so very sad. Take it from me. I know what it is like to fail as my brother’s keeper. How can you keep your spouses, children, friends, and relatives in the sense of being their keeper? How can you watch over them and play a role in their ultimate welfare? The fact is, you cannot. You can only fail in your responsibility to be your brother’s keeper because you are unconverted, as Cain was. However, you who are Christians can succeed as your brother’s keepers. Not if you are cowardly. Not if you are timid. Not if you are distracted. Only if, like Paul, you are willing to sacrifice a friendship to save a life’s testimony. He put his friendship with Simon Peter on the line by confronting him as he did, but it paid off in the long run. My prayer is that you who are Christians will take seriously your duty to be your brother’s keeper.

Let me close with this: In reality, the entire missions outreach of our Church springs from the realization that we are our brother’s keepers. Not just to those nearby, who we are related to, or who we see on a regular basis, but also to those scattered around the world. This is why we preach the Gospel. This is why we support missionaries. This is the why behind our annual missions conferences. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Yes, Cain, you are. We all are.

__________

[1] John 1.29

[2] 2 Samuel 12.14

[3] Genesis 2.2.18

[4] Norton Anthology of English Literature. Fifth edition. W. W. Norton, 1962. Vol. 1, page 1107.

[5] Romans 5.6

[6] 2 Corinthians 4.3

[7] Galatians 2.11

[8] Romans 5.10

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Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church