158: Accountability?

Having good friends to encourage us and build us up in our faith and remind us that we are righteous is very healthy. We were created to be interrelated in a community of faith. Good friends inspire others to good works and to love one another. Although the goal of biblical church life is not to get people to stop sinning, they will sin less in a community that stands on the foundation of the Gospel of grace.

However, the “accountability” that I see advocated in the church today is more like having a spiritual parole officer. There is alot of talk in the church about the need for everyone to have “accountability” so that we won’t sin. The idea is that if no one is watching out for us, there’s no telling what we might do!

A motto I used to teach was this: “There should be at least one person in your life who knows everything about you.” So here’s how it would work: whenever someone was tempted to “take another cookie out of the cookie jar,” he would imagine having to confess his sin to his accountability partner. The threat of shame and rejection would be the force that kept his hands tied safely behind his back when temptation would come… unless the temptation overtook him and he ate a cookie. What would he do then? For a time he would confess his sin after succumbing, but in a religious setting where righteousness is not understood and taught, he will eventually begin to keep his sin secret because of the condemnation. My experience with this type of accountability is that people will work very hard to give the impression that they are living holy lives, but their sin goes underground.

In an environment where pure grace is taught and lived, people feel the security to come out in the open and be transparent. Grace creates an atmosphere of safety in the church where it’s alright to be weak. It’s alright to have failures and to admit our struggles. People don’t feel stripped of their dignity, dishonored, or gossiped about when they “confess their sins one to another” as James instructs us.¹ It’s in that honesty that friends who walk in grace can encourage and build up others who are struggling. When there is a revelation of grace, the Holy Spirit speaks through believers to remind fellow believers that they haven’t lost their righteousness. Sin will have no power over them because they are not under law, but under grace.² Sin won’t go underground, it will be overcome by grace as the person rises up in their identity, takes authority over the flesh, and says no to sin.

All of this is a demonstration of the internal motivation of love by the Holy Spirit rather than the external motivation of fear that comes from legalism.

(from pages 249-250 of Unveiling Jesus)

Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!

Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.

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¹James 5:16
²Romans 6:14