We don’t like accountability. Oh, we like the idea of accountability. For governing officials. For pastors and priests. For bankers and doctors. But personally? Uh, no thanks.
(Photo: Ruins atop Samaria’s acropolis mark the kings’ administrative center. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
From the pages of Scripture, an unlikely prophet named Amos helps us learn why our refusal to accept personal accountability is more than simply wrong or foolhardy. His words to the northern capital of Samaria are words we need to hear as well.
Without accountability to God, we will never become all we want to be.
Amos’ Simple Question
The Prophet Amos spoke to the prosperous nation of Israel who sensed no need for anything spiritual. Amos asked a penetrating question:
Do you put off the day of calamity? —Amos 6:3
These were people who may have recognized a time of accountability to God would come, but they did not believe it was near. So they gave themselves up to a life of spiritual insensitivity, material gluttony, and sensuality.
(Photo: Samaria served as the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Part of the image of God within us is a sense of justice. When we see an outrageous wrong, everything within our spirit demands justice. That is, until it comes to the sin we commit — and then we want God to just drop it and forgive.
How to Take Your Accountability to God Seriously
We are all accountable to God, and the day we stand before Him is unavoidable.
- For the one who will not respond to God—and believe in Jesus Christ—he or she will stand one day before God’s Great White Throne and face eternal judgment. The Bible makes this clear in graphic detail (Revelation 20:11-15).
- For the person who believes that Jesus’ death on the cross paid for his or her sins, heaven is secure. But as Christians, we still face God’s temporal discipline—and if we remain unrepentant, we face premature death (Galatians 6:7-8; Hebrews 12:7-11).
Answer these two questions honestly:
- When someone confronts you with a personal flaw of yours, do you receive it or reject it?
- Who do you have in your life that you allow to keep you accountable?
If no one is confronting you anymore, you are in a dangerous place. Your blind spots may be revealed one day by tragic consequences (Proverbs 29:1).
We ought to view accountability with God for what it really is—a good thing!
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