How to Make Accountability Work

By: American Decency Staff

Accountability has gotten a bad rap. It is easy to see why, I guess. When it comes to battling against sin, and especially those stubborn, addictive sins, accountability relationships are sometimes held up as a cure-all, a near guarantee of success. Yet often they end up being a means of commiseration more than challenge, a time when Christians sit around feeling sorry for one another rather than full-on battling against sin.

Yet I believe the Bible promotes and even demands accountability relationships for Christians who want to battle hard against a dogged sin. Paul writes, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1-2). Accountability is a specific—and if done right, helpful—form of bearing one another’s burdens.

However, for accountability to be successful, it must be done well. In his bookFinally Free, Heath Lambert includes some helpful principles about effectiveaccountability. He writes in the context of battling against pornography, but the points he makes are equally applicable to any sin.

Here are seven principles for effective accountability; each is further explained by showing what effective accountability is and is not.

Read More: http://www.challies.com/articles/how-to-make-accountability-work#keep-reading

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