A Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy and Thoughts of Christianity

Section 2 - Article 13

Article 13 - Social responsibility of a Christian
Everyone has an influence on the people around them. As people seeking to do God's will, it is necessary to do make sure that the influence is in accordance to His will, and in His way. The Bible clearly teaches to love and show kindness to all, regardless of whether they are believers or not. What is difficult is that we have to continue to be of a good influence regardless of their responses as well. This article highlights this duty.

Deciding to be a Christian does not make one suddenly nice and wonderful, or Christ-like. It is a long process to learn to be Christ-like, and often it is difficult. One needs to recognize that their actions and decisions affect people around them, and it is necessary to make sure that the effect is positive and Christ-like. The Scriptures clearly state that no one should become a stumbling block to another, and it is their responsibility that they do not. One illustration to show the impact of one person on the people around them can be seen from Oscar Wilde's 'The Portrait of Dorian Gray', where the bad influence on one has let loose evil in another that cannot be controlled.

One lesson that can be extracted from this philosophically and psychologically challenging book is 'moral responsibility' or 'social responsibility'. In the story, the protagonist went into a moral pit because of bad influences and bad beliefs in life. And one of the deadliest things that he did was to be a bad influence himself at some point in time. Although a mere story, the book reflected some of the lives of the aristocrats in Britain during the Victorian age, and it highlights the importance of each and everyone of us being a good moral example, even if we do not have children of our own.

What is unknown to us is that we do not really know how many people around us look up to us, or look to us as role models. Our responsibility becomes bigger as we gain status in the society, or even age. There could be people who look up to us, simply because we are older, stable and decent. Therefore, the follower of God needs to further act on this moral responsibility such that our ideas and beliefs do not corrupt others. If we realize that they are wrong, we must correct it right away. It is morally unacceptable and wrong to lead others to become corrupt. Similarly, the more influential you are, the more people will look up to you, and the easier others get influenced and corrupted by you. Yet, part of our moral responsibility is that we need to look to Jesus Christ as the role model, and we need to demonstrate that to others who erroneously look up to us.

It should be clear to us, and to those that look up to us that Jesus is the one role model, and that the blind cannot lead the blind.