There are two passages which you may be thinking of in asking this question. The first one is Acts 18:5-6, “When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, ‘Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’” Paul was witnessing to Jews who knew the Old Testament scriptures so when he said, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean,” Ezekiel 33:1-4 no doubt came to mind. It says , “Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them, When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their WATCHMEN, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and WARNS THE PEOPLE, THEN WHOEVER HEARS THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET AND DOES NOT TAKE WARNING, IF THE SWORD COMES AND TAKES HIM AWAY, HIS BLOOD SHALL BE ON HIS OWN HEAD.’” The “watchmen” were responsible to warn his people of impending danger and if they failed to heed the warning, they were responsible for their own loss of life. If the watchmen failed to warn the people, we read on in verses 5-6, “But if the watchmen…does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, HE IS TAKEN AWAY IN HIS INIQUITY; BUT HIS BLOOD I WILL REQUIRE AT THE WATCHMAN’S HAND.”

All believers are “watchmen” who are responsible to warn unbelievers of coming eternal judgment in the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41, 46; Revelation 20:15). If we fail to warn them, we will be held accountable before God. But in what sense will “their blood (judgment from God) be required from us?” Notice, we just saw in Ezekiel 33:6 that the Israelite who had not been warned and dies at the hand of the enemy is “taken away in his own iniquity,” which means he deserved to lose his life because of his sins. God will never punish us “for an unrepentant sinner ending up in hell” for they are getting the just punishment for their sins. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is DEATH” (Romans 6:23) and in Hebrews 9:27 we read, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the JUDGMENT.” This is God’s two-fold penalty for sin. The fact that we may have failed to witness to one who finds himself in hell does not change this. Add to this the fact that if we fail to witness to them, God will use someone else to speak to them, for He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth…for there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:4-5). So, in what way will God require us to answer for this failure? I would suggest we may “suffer some loss here and now” by feeling guilty for not seizing the opportunity to speak to a soul of their lost condition and what Christ did on the cross to save them. We may also experience a “loss of joy” that we could have experienced had we witnessed to them, and they responded with “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Winning a soul to Christ brings GREAT JOY to us! And an even greater joy would be “bringing GLORY TO GOD” by knowing another soul has “passed from death unto life” (John 5:24-25) by God’s grace. But I believe the greatest loss we may experience can be seen in 1 Corinthians 3:5-15 where all our service for Christ will be revealed and we will be rewarded for everything that was done for Christ and we will “suffer loss” for those things we failed to do for Christ. I will just quote verses 13-15: “Each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will TEST EACH MAN’S WORK, OF WHAT SORT IT IS. If anyone’s work which he has built on endures, he will RECEIVE A REWARD. If anyone’s work is burned, he will SUFFER LOSS; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

Notice, this failure does NOT affect our salvation. Our faith in Him and His finished work on the cross means we will be in heaven with Him forever (John 14:2-3 with 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18) and nothing can ever change that. But if there is “any failure in serving Christ” there will be “a LOSS OF REWARD.”  We should all want to hear the Lord say to us in that Day, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, 23). But in those areas where we failed to be a “good and faithful servant” we will miss out on His words of approval. Also, our “place in His coming kingdom on earth” will be determined by our “present service here on earth” and the “rewards” represent that very thing. We should all desire to experience what Peter said in 2 Peter 1:11, “For so an entrance will be supplied to you ABUNDANTLY INTO THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM or our Lord Jesus Christ.” Let us keep these things in mind as we make our way home to glory in this scene. May we seek to serve Him faithfully knowing that every act of true service to Him will be rewarded eternally. I have a plaque on my wall to remind me of this. It says, “Only one life twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”  (DO)  (667.3)