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I. HOW A MAN MAYBE SAID TO PARTAKE OF OTHER MEN'S SINS.

1. By contrivance. Thus Jonadab was guilty of Amnon's incest, by his subtle contrivance of that wickedness, by being a pander to that villainy (2 Samuel 13:5). When a man shall wittingly and willingly spread a snare in his brother's way, and either drive him in by provocation, or decoy him in by allurement, he makes himself a partaker of his sin. For example: to provoke a man to passion, to tempt a person to drunkenness and uncleanness, to put a man upon murder and bloodshed, to draw souls into error, heresy, blasphemy, etc., — this is to espouse and adopt the sin, and to make it a man's own. You know the story there, 2 Samuel 11.: Uriah was slain with the edge of the sword; David was many miles off when Uriah was slain: "Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon" (2 Samuel 12:9). The Ammonites slew him, but David murdered him. St. Paul tells us he was a "blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious."

2. By compliance. By consenting and complying with sin and sinners: so a man makes himself partaker. Though he has no hand in it, yet, if he has a heart in it; though he does not act it, yet if he likes it, and loves it, and approves it. Saul — He had no hand in St. Stephen's death, he did not cast one stone at him; but because he looked on with approbation, and stood by with consent — "Saul was consenting unto his death" (Acts 8:1). You may murder a man with a thought, as they say the basilisk will with a look.

3. By connivance. By a sinful dissembling, flattering, and winking at others in their wickedness and sins, so men become guilty of others' sins: "The leaders of this people cause them to err" (Isaiah 9:16): it is in the Hebrew, "The blessers of this people cause them to err." Beloved, the blessers of men in wickedness are the leaders of men in wickedness.

4. By sufferance. By permitting the sins of others, so we become guilty, by suffering others to sin, whom we are bound in duty, and may be able by authority, to hinder.

5. By influence of bad example. By setting loose and bad examples for others to imitate. So men are guilty of other's sins; as, namely, when children sin by the examples of their parents, those very parents are guilty of their children's sins. So it is here: he that sets an evil example sins not alone; he draws hundreds, it may be, into sin after him. He is like a man that sets his own house on fire; if, burns many of his neighbours', and he is to be answerable for all the ruins.

6. By inference from a bad example, or by imitation. So a man is guilty of another man's sin, not only by pattern, in setting bad examples, but also by practice, in following bad examples; and thus that man that will be drunk because another was drunk, or that breaks the Sabbath because others do the like — he is not only guilty of his own particular sin, but he is guilty also of "their sins whom he imitates and follows; and the reason is, because bad examples are not land-marks for us to go by, but they are sea-marks for us to avoid. And this is the woful, intricate, perplexed labyrinth into which sin doth precipitate careless and ungodly sinners. If thou committest that sin which none before committed but thee, thou art guilty of all the sins of future generations by thy example — as Adam was in the world, and Jeroboam in Israel. And if thou committest any sin because others have committed it before thee, thou art guilty of all the sins of former generations by thy imitation: and so sin never goes alone; a single sin is as great a solecism in divinity as a single "thank" is in grammar and morality.

7. By countenance. By delightful society and company with wicked men to countenance them, so we become partakers of their sins.

8. By maintenance. By upholding and encouraging men in their sins, though thou never committest them thyself, yet thou art guilty. "He that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds" (2 John 11).

II. WHY A CHRISTIAN MUST BE CAREFUL TO AVOID, AND NOT TO PARTAKE OF, OTHER MEN'S SINS.

1. Out of a principle of charity to our brethren.

2. Out of a principle of pity to ourselves.

3. Out of a principle of piety to God.

III. APPLICATION:

1. Is there such a thing as "partaking of other men's sins" after this manner?

(1) Hence you may be informed of the equity and justice of God's proceeding in punishment.

(2) Hence be informed what piety, and strictness, and watchfulness are more especially required of those that have the care of others.

(3) Hence take an account why the wicked of the world do so hate the godly, and reproach and revile them. It is this: They will not be partakers of their sins: they will not commit them, neither will they connive at them; and this is the reason why the world hates them.

(4) Here is matter of reproof and humiliation this day for our want of watchfulness in this kind.

2. The second use is of exhortation and caution together.Is it so, that it ought to be every man's care not to partake of any man's sin?

1. To lay down the arguments.

(1) Consider: You have sins enough of your own, you have no reason to partake of other men's. It is cruel to "add affliction to your bonds."(2) Consider: It is a most monstrous sin, it is a most dreadful sin, to partake of other men's sins. The apostle speaks of committing iniquity "with greediness" (Ephesians 4:19).

(3) Consider: If you partake of other men's sins, you shall certainly partake of other men's plagues. "Come out of her, My people," says God, namely, from Babylon, "that you be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Revelation 18:4). See Proverbs 13:20.

2. What sins we must especially take heed of partaking of. Of all sin whatsoever: "Abstain from all appearance of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22); but especially of three sorts of sin, which may be called epidemical plagues.

(1)  Church sins.

(2)  National sins.

(3)  Family sins.

3. Now, and in the last place, we come to the antidotes: How we must so carry it. and order the business, as not to partake of other men's sins.

(1) Exercise an holy jealousy over others. Job, sacrificing for his children, said, "It may be that my sons have sinned" (Job 1:5).

(2) Watch against the sins of others. Have your eyes about, you: take heed of contriving, complying, winking at them.

(3) Pray against them.

(4) Mourn for them.

(5) Reprove them (Ezekiel 3:17-19). If we would not partake of the sins of others, we must reprove the sins of others (Leviticus 19.; Ezekiel 33:7-9). So the apostle saith expressly (Ephesians 5:11).

(J. Kitchin, M. A.)

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KJV: Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.

WEB: Lay hands hastily on no one, neither be a participant in other men's sins. Keep yourself pure.