The Necessity of Accountability

Dear friend,

When it comes to eating correctly (everything in moderation) and losing weight for the glory of God, there is a biblical principle that will greatly help us along the way. In this edition of NeverThirst we will discuss that principle in some detail.

You know, I look back at the times in my life when I was habitually overeating, and in each instance I had no, or very little, accountability for the way I ate. I would go days, weeks or even months with just eating anything I wanted and at anytime I chose, with nobody else knowing. Of course eventually this self-indulgence would show up in the form of weight gain and everybody would know, but for a time I felt I could indulge my flesh without accountability and get away with it.

But when God convicts me of ungodly eating patterns and I repent of them I also come to the understanding that I must implement accountability in my life with regard to how I am eating and exercising. This principle is stated clearly in Hebrews 3:13:

Sin first deceives us, then enslaves us, then hardens our hearts. Do you recall a time when in bondage to overeating when your heart was hard? I sure do. It was not a pleasant time in my life.

The above verse tells us that encouragement from someone else, "day after day" is an antidote to the hardening of the heart that comes by the deceitfulness of sin. So daily accountability, which includes both encouragement and admonishment is a very important aspect to losing weight for God’s glory. God has given us the body of Christ to help us and we need to ensure that we are taking advantage of the help that other people can be to us.

Jesus sent out His disciples in pairs, instructing them to go throughout the cities of Israel proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and then they were to return and report to Him all that they had seen and done. This is accountability. They were to report of their journeys, to give an account of their travels, to provide the details of what they had done.

This same accountability, (reporting in, providing an account), will go far in helping us to honor God with our bodies. This accountability is discussed in some detail on Day 15 of The Lord’s Table course, but let’s look at this subject again as a reminder if you’ve already done Day 15. Notice these verses with me:

These verses show us the value of walking through this life with another godly person or two. There are at least four specific benefits of this "walking together" that these verses show us. They are:

1. Increased Return for effort (verse 9). It is clear that we can accomplish more with the help of others than we could by ourselves. In applying this to weight loss, we want to have the "return" for our "labors" of pounds dropping off. This return can be increased through accountability. "Two are better than one" the verse says, "because they have a good return for their labor."

2. Help in recovery (verse 10). There are times in everyone’s life where they succumb to temptation, where they give in to sin. In Scripture this giving in to sin is described as a "stumble" and if this stumble is followed by a series of other stumbles it is called a "fall." A fall is where we have abandoned all effort to resist temptation and are now just living in sin. We are down. We are fallen. The popular TV commercial illustrates this condition well: "I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!" The verse above tells us that there are times when we can only recover from a fall through the help of another. An accountability partner should be able to pray us back up. He or she should be able to admonish us, to speak the truth in love, to encourage us to get back up. The warning in this verse is clear: "Woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up."

Right here it may be good to clarify that we are not recommending the typical "support group" mentality. Support groups have sometimes done more damage than good. Here is a typical scenario: A woman has had a terrible week of overeating, she is greatly discouraged with her lack of will-power, and she drags herself to her weekly group. There she hears the testimonies of others who have done real well the previous week which discourages her further because she thinks she is the only one who has such lack of will power. After the meeting she sees a friend who confesses that she, too, has fallen off the bandwagon. They cry together, express their discouragement, vow to do better next week, and leave feeling somewhat better with a renewed hope that next week will be better than the last.

The problem with the above scenario is that most likely biblical truth has not been brought to bear on the person’s life who gave in to the sin of overeating. There probably has not been any challenge issued to call upon the Lord, asking Him for mercy and help in time of need. There probably has been no warning to repent of sin. There usually isn’t any encouragement to begin eating in such a manner that honors God. No admonishment, no biblical encouragement, no warnings. These groups are ineffective because biblical truth, the "truth that sets us free" is not a part of the process. If we are utilizing accountability partners to help us lose weight we should ask them for reproof and correction, for encouragement and admonishment, as they fulfill the role of helping us to lose weight.

1. Help in providing "warmth" (verse 11). Scripture describes the condition of one who backslides as getting "cold." They have possibly lost their first love, they have drifted from the fire of passion for God and are now growing cold in their devotion. One thing I’ve noticed in my life is that times of coolness toward the Lord are always followed by times of overeating. They go together. An accountability partner can help us revive our passion for the Lord. They can "put a coat around us" by sharing Scripture with us, reminding us of how enjoyable it is to feed on Christ, encouraging us to seek after and experience His love again, and warming us with the truths of God’s Word.

2. Finally, accountability should be a preventative to giving in to the temptations of the devil (verse 12). Verse 12 above states that one alone can be overpowered. How many times have I eaten in secret? How often have I snuck away to indulge myself in a special treat? When I remove myself from others like this I am "overpowered" because I am alone. We need to ensure that we have accountability in our lives so that we always know we must give a report. Verse 12 says, "Two can withstand him." If I have someone who is standing strong in the Lord, not giving in to the lusts of the flesh, walking in humility and victory, it is much easier for me to do the same.

Accountability can be as simple as me providing my partner with a report of how I did the previous day, or it can be more in-depth to include what I actually ate and how I exercised. I usually like to include how I sought the Lord the previous day, what I learned from Him, how I ate in general, whether or not I exercised, and my number of steps for the day (utilizing my pedometer). This gives my partner an overall understanding of how I am doing. If I report in doing well and living disciplined I will normally receive encouragement from my partner. If I go several days in a row of not doing well I hope to be admonished and encouraged to seek the Lord for His grace. If I have a complete fall I hope to be rebuked in love and grace, and encouraged to get back up. This is biblical accountability and it is effective in the life of a Christian.

So accountability is helpful and necessary. One of the things that our board of directors at The Lord’s Table Ministries does is to pair up members of the board with each other and utilize daily accountability with each other for the period of one week. Then we will switch partners and interact with another member for the next week. We hope to begin implementing this within the mentorship here at The Lord’s Table as well.

Please consider your life for a moment. Is there any area in which you are not accountable and have been falling to sin in that area? If so, it may be that you recognize the importance of accountability. One of the ways you can implement the biblical truth of accountability is by going through the Lord’s Table Bible study with a partner, either online or in book format. There are other ways of maintaining accountability as well, and with some thought many ideas may emerge. But for now, please remember the truths stated in Ecclesiastes 4 above, and especially the summary statement: "One may be overpowered, two can resist him."

grace and truth,
Mike Cleveland
Team Member, Setting Captives Free

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