Be Accountable To God & Yourself; Hold Others Accountable, Too

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(11) It is written <per Isaish 45:23>: “ ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’ ” (12) So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.’ (Romans 14:11-12)

In Romans 14, the context Paul writes of accountability is who is accountable to who.  We are equal but not the same; Paul understood that for Christianity to spread through the world that there would be those who had different dietary customs or needs.  How could one avoid eating pork, for example, if that was the prevalent food source available?  We are not to judge those who prefer a more ‘pomp and circumstance’ in their worship of Christ, or those who practice adherence a religious calendar that is different to ours. 

For example, Ash Wednesday and Lent is practiced by some Christian denominations; the Eastern Orthodox calendar celebrates the Epiphany (with the annual ‘Cross Toss’ for teenage boys to find in the waters of Tarpon Springs); Ascension (40 days after Easter) is celebrated by many Catholics.  Us who are Baptists typically do not hold these dates in as high of esteem or celebration, but we should not judge these celebrations as ‘wrong’ or judge those who choose to recognize these dates as heretics.  We should not judge those on how they choose to worship God as long as it is done with reverence to Him and in humility. 

Who can we hold accountable?  First, ourselves.  We should daily look in the mirror and live blamelessly, and hold ourselves accountable to living under the banner of Christ and His precepts.  This should not be done in piety or conceit (‘ooh, I’m so Righteous’) but in humility to Him.  Then, carefully and without malice we can hold each other accountable in the light of Christ.   We should be comfortable to speak the Truth to another when we find a fellow Christian stumbling or in error, and we should recognize that when we are provided with constructive criticism to correct a errant action or account we are being held accountable – and we should be thankful for this. 

We can also hold those who we elect to lead us accountable, whether it be in government or in the church.  Admittedly, we as Americans and as Christians have not done a great job in this as a whole.  In government, at any level, we as citizens should question the decisions of our representatives and demand accountability from them for their voting actions.  While we cannot expect our representatives on every vote or decision to please each of us individually (one cannot please all of the people all of the time), we should ensure that they are as an aggregate doing a good job in representing us.  If not, we should not be afraid to vote for another candidate (or if one so desires to run against them).

Our church leaders need to be held accountable, but we need to expect to be held accountable by them in return.  In MBC, for example, the Pastor, the ministry leaders, and the Elders are to corporately represent the congregation on our Faith to Christ, and reciprocate the representation of the Righteousness of Christ back to congregation.  We are accountable for teaching and preaching the Word properly, and in turn our leaders correct or stop that which is counter to the Truth of His Word when it enters into the church.  We see when the leaders and the congregation fail to uphold Godly principles and allows secular trappings to enter, the church stops trying to be accountable to God but to the secular world, and it is no longer a church but becomes a social club.

Ultimately, the One who holds each of us accountable is God.  Romans 14:12 is clear that each of us will be judged by Him, to give an account of what we did – particularly did we choose to follow His Son Jesus and His path to our Salvation and live according to His principles?  As long as we stay accountable to Him and to each other on this mortal side of Eternity, we will be found to have been accountable when we face Him in judgement.  We will also have our Advocate, Jesus, with us, who will testify we are following Him and have accepted His gift.  With Jesus and the Holy Spirit on our side, we should always remain on the good side of His accountability balance sheet!