Overcome Porn: The 40 Day ChallengeSample

People often think, “I don’t need to be accountable to another person. I’m accountable to God.” For some people, saying they need accountability in order to make changes in their life is equivalent to saying, “Knowing that God is watching isn’t enough to get my act together. Something must be wrong with me.” 

But what if accountability is one of God’s ordinary means to help us become more like Christ?

What if we were meant to treat accountability as a lifestyle?

The New Testament uses the phrase “one another” dozens of times. Attached to this phrase are vivid descriptions of what our friendships are supposed to look like in the body of Christ.

Here are two examples. 

1. James 5:16—Confession and Prayer

The first two building blocks of accountability are confession and prayer. James urges us to regularly confess our faults to one another and then pray for each other.

Personal sin can sometimes (but not always) cause our physical and emotional ailments. What James is advocating here is good preventative medicine. He tells us to regularly check in with each other and enjoy rich face-to-face relationships of mutual confession and prayer.

2. Hebrews 10:23-25—Meet Together and Encourage Each Other

Believers are to persevere in their faith until the very end of their lives—to hold on to the hope they have in Christ until the day Jesus returns.

Our relationships are crucial to our perseverance and growth, giving us two more building blocks to accountability: stir up (motivate) and encourage one another, and meet together.

This means really getting to know one another. Not just confessing surface-level stuff, but also helping one another to see underlying motivations. 

Encouragement means investing some mental energy. If I know my friend is battling with a particular sin, I should be going to the Scriptures and the brightest minds in the church to find the best kind of motivational material I can. We are then to meet together to encourage and motivate each other.

Together, these four building blocks form a structure that gives purpose and shape to our accountability relationships.

Reflection

Today we’ve heard about meeting together, prayer, confession and encouragement. What do the Scriptures have to say about these important activities? Which of these four building blocks do you struggle to apply the most? Why?