Accountability

What is it? The dictionary says it means the quality or state of being accountable; especially: an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions. In a biblical sense, it is developing relationships with other believers which will promote spiritual authenticity, personal integrity and obedience to God. This happens through feedback, evaluation, and wise counsel regarding how we are doing in our walk with God, in relationships with others and in the responsibilities of life.Accountability involves teaching, challenging, supporting and encouraging one another in ways that promote spiritual growth in us as believers. What accountability is not is coercion, invasion of privacy, or bringing people into conformity through guilt. It is also not submitting to one someone's personal opinion, legalism or manipulation.

The OPPORTUNITY in accountability is to demonstrate love to one another.

In Proverbs 22:6 we see that parents show their love for their children by holding them accountable to “the way they should go” or the direction they should take.

Colossians teaches us that accountability in love is an opportunity for demonstrating the presence of Christ in our lives.

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:12-17)

The POWER of accountability is the word of God.

As previously stated, accountability is not about holding someone to an arbitrary set of moral standards or personal beliefs. Biblical accountability centers on the word of God as the standard and model for behavior and actions. In his letter to the Philippians the Apostle Paul says, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.” (Philippians 3:8-9). Paul valued the encouragement of the Philippians in knowing Christ over his own wants and desires.

There is nothing a man can seek, know or own that is of more value than the knowledge of Christ and the righteousness which comes through faith in Him.

Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word, which by the gospel was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23-25)

The RESULT of accountability is maturity.
No doubt you have heard that old saying “Give a man a fish, you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime.” That is what a good accountability system will do for us. Those who have encouraged me in the word of God have given me a foundation for living.

“For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)

Some Practical Steps:

1. Get into a Bible study where the word is accurately taught.
2. Develop a relationship with a person who can challenge you in the truth.
3. Invest yourself in another and find someone who will invest in you.
4. Commit to living what you learn.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25)

In His Grace,
Pastor Glenn