I was having lunch with a good friend when the subject of Christian accountability came up. Namely, how much we talk about the subject as believers, and how little we actually participate and engage in it.

I mentioned recently in a message how rare (if not nonexistent) genuine accountability is in the church today. In most churches, accountability is a prerequisite for membership, but try and exercise it and watch what happens. Even as the pastor of a local church, I seldom if ever see someone graciously accept correction, even when their sin is manifestly evident, and even though my very job description says that I am to “correct, rebuke and encourage” (2Tim. 4:2). Scripture declares that it is given for “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2Tim. 3:16) yet many Christians are tacitly asking their leaders, and brothers and sisters in Christ, to walk in disobedience to the call of Christ on their lives, so they won’t be inconvenienced by all that annoying transformational stuff.

So in that spirit may I submit my “Top 10 Responses When Being Confronted with Personal Sin” list:

10. “Who are YOU to talk?” (I’m a Christian brother, the very vessel God’s Word says he chooses to bring correction through)

9. “My sin isn’t as bad as so and so’s.” (yeah, let’s take that to its natural conclusion)

8. “Like you’ve never made a mistake!” (intentional sins aren’t mistakes, just sayin’)

7. “You need to take the plank out of your eye before you go after the speck in mine.” (personal fave BTW)

6. “Look at Mr. Perfect over here!” (i.e. “Let’s move the focus from me to you”)

5. “I’m struggling with that area.” (i.e. “I’ve been sinning like that for years!”)

4. “I don’t really consider that a sin.” (even though the Word says it is)

3. “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven. (see blog from April 7)

2. “I’m not under law, I’m under grace.” (see Titus 2:11,12)

1. “God knows my heart.” (the problem is that He judges our deeds)

I wish I could say “All kidding aside”, but the reality is that these (and others like them) are the most common responses – not (as one might suppose), gratitude for someone stepping out and risking in order to help a brother or sister to walk in the light. The fact is that Jesus didn’t say “Don’t bother with the speck in your brother’s eye”, He merely taught us to take inventory and make sure that we were not disqualifying ourselves with unrepentant sin, before dealing with the sin in someone else’s life. And here’s what Jesus definitely didn’t say. He didn’t say “If someone would like to help you remove a painful splinter from your eye, first check to see if they have anything in their own eye, and if so, you can merrily walk away, ignoring the splinter that’s still there.”

The truth is that we, as members of the Body of Christ, are people in the midst of transformation. We’re not yet made perfect (Phil 3:12), and yet we’re called to both the process of being perfected, and to be used in that process in the lives of others in the Body (James 5:16-20). Nowhere in scripture does God ever promise that He will only use perfect people to correct us, and nowhere does He hint that the imperfections in the lives of others disqualify them from being used to help mold you in the image and likeness of Christ. Matt. 6 and Luke 3 weren’t written as instructions on how others must behave, but how we as personally must, in obedience to our Lord. And nowhere in either passage is there any implication that we can use these words of Jesus to preclude Him using any vessel He so chooses, to bring us into the light of the truth. Rather, both are calls for personal introspection – not tools to use against the transformative work of the Holy Spirit.

Bottom line – when you reject accountability on the basis of the perceived imperfections of another, you are rejecting the very work of Christ. Their imperfections have nothing to do with whether you are in sin or not. If the greatest and most upright of all human beings told me that I was a mass murderer, his righteousness wouldn’t make it true. But if the vilest sinner on the face of the earth pointed out a sin that I was actually engaging in, his transgressions wouldn’t make me blameless.

Look, I’m not whining here. In truth I don’t know too many authentic Christians who relish the idea of being used as a tool of correction in the life of another, and that includes me. Most of us would rather have piercings done on various body parts with a nail gun. Come to think of it, most men I know would rather submit to a full body, Brazilian wax treatment. And I’ve got enough on my plate dealing with my own junk to worry about someone else’s. All of us do. But that’s not the point. The point is that God IS concerned, and He’s ordained human beings to be His instruments in freeing other human beings from the bondage of sin (Gal. 6:1). For every instance of some judgmental idiot with a 2 by 4 in his eye going about pointing out sin, there are probably 100 damaging slivers being left alone, out of fear of getting labeled one of those fools. And that’s not even counting how many times I’ve gotten to the “pearls before pigs” stage, and concluded that I needed to leave things alone; confident that I’d been simply called to be the messenger, not the judge. But when we stand by and watch people that Christ died to set free, struggle under the weight of their sin, simply because we’re afraid of rejection, or of being labeled, it makes me painfully aware of how far off we are from the biblical command to “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21).

When people challenge you in an area of your life, it IS quite possible that they may be trying to elevate themselves. They might be misinformed. Or they might simply be trying to make you feel bad, thinking it will somehow alleviate their own guilt. But there’s only one question you need to ask – “Is it true?”. If it is, then no vessel, no matter how flawed, is “off limits” to the Lord, to use as a tool to bring you into agreement with His Word, His purposes, and His call. If it’s not true, then they’re accountable before God for their words (Romans 14:12), and you’re not responsible to receive them. My suspicion however is that if they weren’t right, it probably wouldn’t bother you nearly as much anyway.

Somethin’ to gnaw on…

Dave