Last week, a Seattle-area man named Jeff Barth was sentenced to ten years in prison for his part in the kidnapping and murder of an 18-year-old woman two years ago. Originally Barth had faced a litany of charges that could have resulted in a minimum sentence of 25 years, but he received a reduced charge in exchange for providing testimony against the three men who, along with two accomplices, carried out the kidnapping and murder.

You may be wondering why, if these other men committed the crime, Barth was convicted at all. The court found him guilty because he knew of the plot to kill the young woman, and was present during part of the humiliation she endured prior to her death, but did nothing to stop his friends or to alert the authorities of their plans.

That’s a sobering thought, isn’t it? Tried and convicted for doing nothing. Still, the court ruled that if Barth had told the police what his pals were up to, the young woman could have been saved. Even though he did not wield the weapons that ended her life, Barth was guilty for his failure to act on her behalf.

Suppose you and I were put on trial for doing nothing. Would we be convicted? You may say, “Surely, if I knew someone was going to be kidnapped and murdered, I would do everything I could to save them.” But would you?

We all know people — hundreds of people — who are being held hostage by Satan, even as he awaits the opportunity to send them to their eternal condemnation as they die unrepentant and unforgiven in their sins. Now I’ll ask again — if you were put on trial for your inaction over those lost souls, what would the verdict be?

You might think we’ll be responsible in judgment for things we did, and you’d be correct, according to the Scriptures: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

But the standard of right and wrong does not end with our overt actions: “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17). So the question becomes: is it good to tell others of the gospel of Christ, that they may believe and obey, and thereby be saved? If the answer is yes, and you aren’t doing that when you have the opportunity, is that not sin? The Bible says it is.

Jesus Himself proclaimed that the judgment of condemnation will apply to those who fail to do what they should. “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me’” (Matthew 25:41-43). Christ says of these individuals, “These will go away into everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46).