Individual Responsibility – The Sixth Commandment

Individual Responsibility

The Sixth Commandment

Each is responsible for his own sin only.

Deuteronomy 24:16

“‘Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.’”

Under the Law of God each person is responsible for his or her own conduct, and he or she alone is to bear the judgment against sin. Guilt by association, even as close relatives, was not considered a form of justice, even though it may have been commonly practiced in other societies.

Especially encouraging in this statute is the idea that parents are not responsible for the transgressions of their children. This did not give parents leave to raise their children to be hellions; at the same time, it alleviated faithful parents of any sense of culpability in their children’s wrongdoing. Here is a word of comfort to many Christian parents today, whose children are in rebellion against their upbringing, the Church, and the Lord.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.