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Probably one of the biggest challenges right now that the church faces, and I believe it was even when we were able to gather in person for worship and other group activities, is attendance minus participation.
It’s so easy to go to church or now watch service on Sunday, or maybe even pick up a live stream devotion here or there and then fade into the background without embedding yourself into the life-changing community of the local church. And simply put this comes down to accountability. And accountability may not be what you are thinking it is or what you may have been led to believe it is. I often believe we have been taught incorrectly about accountability.
When it comes to accountability, we often are available to hold others accountable to living the holy life that we witness Jesus calling all disciples to live.
Parents always want to remind children, the Bible says children obey your parents. And children want to remind parents, they are not to exasperate their children. Husbands remind their wives the Bible says that they should be obedient. And in turn, wives want to remind husbands you need to love the way Christ loved and lay down your life for me. It seems like we have made a culture around telling others how they should be accountable to us. But this is not the Jesus way.
When we talk about Jesus and His first Disciples, we say that He called them – not commanded them. It wasn’t a mandate that they come and do everything He was going to teach them. It was handled in a way that was not controlling - this is the Jesus way.
Matthew and Mark tell almost the same exact story about those first disciples and their call to follow Christ. Luke has some details that Matthew and Mark leave out, but the stories all agree that Jesus called them to Him.
Can you see how Jesus might look at accountability and discipleship from a different angle of perspective here? And that is how the Kingdom of God usually is – compared to our earthly or humanly customs, thinking, or logic.
So here’s my one point today. Accountability truly has nothing to do with you holding another person accountable for their actions or behaviors. Accountability has to do with submitting to each other to be discipled. And there’s THAT word – submit.
Ephesians 5:21 (NIV) Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
When we translate the word used for submit, we interpret it to be under command or order mutually, did you get that – mutually. It’s a mutual thing – one places themselves willing under another, or in this case under each other. One does not lord themselves over another person. And when we look at the example of Christ, we can know that THIS IS the Jesus way for accountability. You also notice there is another part to this mutual submission. It is what we translate into the word reverence.
The word here used for reverence in the Greek is phobos. And it expresses awe, reverence, or respect. But it’s also where we get our word phobia – which means uncontrollable fear.
Think about it for a moment, this is the same word – phobos – that is expressed when we read the account of the Israelites and God at Sinai. It’s the word used in how the Israelites viewed God at the parting of the Red Sea. They step back in awe or reverence of God.
Phobos is what made Moses hide his face before the burning bush. It’s what caused Isaiah to lament his unworthiness to God in the Temple, it’s what causes Peter to ask Jesus to leave him because Peter realizes his sin before God ( Lk. 5:8). It’s the same for John when he was on the island of Patmos . And in his vision he encounters Jesus and falls as though dead (Rev. 1:17). This is the reverence that Paul is talking about for each other when we mutually submit to each other in accountability.
Paul is telling all of us – and disciple that reads his letter to the church in Philippi, this same reverence that infects our hearts where God is concerned, is also the level of reverence we should have for each other. And I would add that we need to do this especially considering that each of us who are disciples of Christ have the Holy Spirit living in them. We are now the Temple and God resides in our hearts. If people were that reverent when God possessed burning bush or was a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire or resided in the Holy of Holies, then how much more should we submit – and I would say should we place ourselves accountable to one another
Philippians 2:1-8 (NIV) Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
So let me ask you this – in light of Jesus showing us what it means to be submitted – what makes it difficult for us to place ourselves under someone else for accountability while we are on this journey? That’s our discussion, our comments for today – it really isn’t that hard is it…