Fault and Responsibility

Fault and responsibility are closely related, significantly distinct, and often confused terms. Fault is a category of personal and moral guilt. Responsibility is a category of personal and moral authority. A person’s faults are what he should have done but did not do or what he did that he should not have done. A person’s responsibility refers to the area over which he has authority and oversight, the domain for which he answers as one entrusted with stewardship. Responsibility is a larger category than fault, and fault never exists apart from responsibility.

Fault and responsibility frequently overlap. If I am responsible in a particular area and neglect my duty, then my failure is both a fault and my responsibility. For example, I am assigned certain tasks every week as part of my job. If I fail to complete those tasks or perform them inadequately, I am both responsible for the shortfall and at fault for it. As a husband, I am responsible for the welfare of my wife. If I fail to provide for and promote her welfare (e.g. by neglect, laziness, cruelty, etc.), then I am both at fault for that neglect and responsible for her consequent state.

Fault and responsibility are, however, distinct ethical categories. A person may be responsible but not directly at fault, or he may be at fault, and therefore responsible for his personal behavior, but not responsible for the larger sphere of authority to which he belongs and under which he operates. For example, a soldier who fails to guard his assigned area may be at fault for allowing the enemy to penetrate the defenses. The soldier ordered to stand guard is also responsible for the specific area (or task) assigned to him. But the larger disaster that may result from his failure is not solely (or even primarily) his responsibility. That responsibility belongs to his chain of command whose duty it was not only to place guards but to ensure they were properly trained, alert, and executing their duties competently. The commanding officer is responsible for the breach in defenses, even if he is not at fault for the specific breakdown. A failure to meet standards in a military unit may be the fault of the individual soldiers whose personal performance was insufficient, but the responsibility for the failure lies with the commanding officer and those in positions of authority in the chain of command.

As a husband, father, and pastor, I have large areas of responsibility. Everything that happens in my marriage, in my home, and in our congregation is my responsibility. Everything. Not every failure may be my fault, but I have been assigned authority and stewardship for the persons in those domains; therefore, I am responsible for them. My wife’s sins are her own, and she will answer to the Lord for them, but her personal, moral, spiritual, and emotional welfare are my responsibility. Always, and in every case. My children’s sins are their own, and they will answer to the Lord for them, but their personal, moral, spiritual, and emotional welfare are my responsibility. Although the situation is different in the case of pastoral ministry—a pastor does not have the same level of authority, influence, and responsibility for every parishioner in the congregation—the same principle applies. The young man who views pornography, the woman who cheats on her husband, the child who throws rocks in the parking lot and breaks a window, each of them are at fault for their actions, but as their pastor, I am responsible for their behavior. As a pastor, I am assigned the task of teaching, guiding, encouraging, admonishing, and disciplining them in such a way that their hearts and lives may be more fully conformed to Jesus Christ resulting in the obedience of faith.

Fault and responsibility often overlap in that while the person responsible for a particular domain may not be at fault for a specific action, he is, nevertheless, at fault for any oversight leading to it. If my son begins selling drugs out of his bedroom, I am not at fault for dealing dope, but I likely am at fault for failing to properly teach, supervise, and admonish him at earlier points in his life. King David was not personally at fault for everything his adult sons did in the latter years of his reign, but he was at fault for his failure to exercise fatherly and royal authority over their lives in the years leading up to their crimes (e.g. 1Kg. 1:6). David’s neglect of justice allowed Joab, Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah to perpetrate greater evil than would have otherwise been possible. They were at fault for their specific sins, but to the extent that David did not fulfill his responsibility as a father, commander, and civil magistrate, he was at fault for sins of enablement.

Many people seek to deflect responsibility by claiming they are not at fault. This is blame-shifting and a category error. “It’s not my fault!” they insist, but that really is not the point. In the Garden, Adam pointed to his wife, and by implication blamed God, for his transgression against the covenant. But in seeking to avoid blame, Adam failed to take responsibility for his own errors. He did not deceive his wife, but Adam was at fault for failing to protect his wife, rebuke the deceiver, and guard the paradise of God. (He also was at fault for failing to act as a redeemer when his bride fell into sin, but that is a topic for another day.)

Each person is morally responsible for his own choices and sins, but we are also responsible for the duties and stewardship God has assigned. It is pride and cowardice that leads men to deny responsibility in attempting to escape blame for particular faults. Rather than insisting, “It is not my fault,” a moral agent’s first concern should be to ask, “What is my responsibility?” and “To what extent have I neglected my duties of authority, oversight, and influence in regard to those under my charge?”

Fault and responsibility must be distinguished but never divorced. They are closely related. The former never exists apart from the latter, but the latter often exists even apart from the former. Responsibility is the larger sphere. Accepting and answering for one’s responsibility is fundamental to a moral and godly life.