December 28 | Standing for Personal Accountability

Series | The Life of Revival

Scripture | James 5:16, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

Lesson 28 | Standing for Personal Accountability

Everyone on the job is accountable to someone and if serious problems arise there are consequences in the form of discipline.  If the troublemaker on the job wishes to remain, they will have to endure the discipline for their negative actions or they will be fired.  Similarly everyone in society is held accountable to the laws of the land and if they break them they have to suffer the consequences.  Even violating the law and receiving parking tickets, if left unpaid, could result in someone being sent to jail.

However, today in many churches, people are not accountable to anyone and so when they sin and cause harm to the Body of Christ there is no godly discipline.  Every church should have godly accountability and discipline according to that what Jesus taught.  As a result, when we have personal accountability in the church we then will be better people of honesty and integrity on our jobs, in our community, and everywhere we go.

Jesus was so direct with His “problem solving technique” that He said if a fellow brother didn’t repent of their sin, they were to be treated as a “pagan” or a “tax collector.”  It was not okay with Jesus to have “hypocrites” and “secret sinners” hiding in the church.  He said in Matthew 18:15-17, “15 If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”   

Therefore, today’s church leadership must take the appropriate actions to insure the local gathering of believers is holy and in biblical order.  Leaders are to “rid the church of yeast” and “judge those within” so God’s people can live without rebellion or willful sin in their midst, 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.  No good boss would allow someone to stay on the job that continually slandered and discouraged the rest of the workers and neither should the church embrace nor accept that which Jesus has said to rebuke and reject.

Here are three ways to stand for personal accountability: (1) Be in a trustworthy accountable relationship with someone of the same gender; (2) Continually grow in your faith and walk with God; and lastly, (3) Be a person of good character and godly morals in all that you do and receive good church discipline when needed.

Reflection | Do you have an accountability partner?   

Action | (1) Explain from the Bible why you should stand for personal accountability.  (2) Pray that God will use you to reach out to those who need accountability.  (3) Lastly, for more information regarding standing for personal accountability read the following books, “Covenant Discipleship,” by David Watson and “Great Excuses of the Bible,” by Howard Goldthwaite.

One Year Reading Plan (Optional) | Zechariah 12:1-13:9, Revelation 19:1-21, Psalm 147:1-20, & Proverbs 31:1-7. Click here to read online.