Accountability.
We all use the word and have a feeling it’s important. It’s demanded of our politicians, pastors, bosses, referees, spouses, and children, yet many of us conveniently avoid applying it to ourselves. Most of us couldn’t define it if asked, to our great harm.
Let’s fix that.
What Is Accountability?
Merriam-Webster defines accountability as:
“An obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.”
The word account, right in the middle of the definition, began as a bookkeeping word. An account was a reckoning of money received and paid, the kind of record kept in the ledgers of a counting house. Over time the word grew from giving an account of one’s money to giving an account of one’s life.
Imagine yourself standing before others and the book of your life is opened and you have to read it aloud. In that picture, you are giving an account. Accountability is taking ownership of the words and actions you’ve chosen.
What Accountability Requires
From the definition we can note a few essential characteristics of accountability.
1. It’s owed
Accountability is an obligation. It isn’t a favor, option, gesture, or gift. It is a demand, duty, and responsibility you owe to others: your spouse, boss, pastor, friend, and God. These are the parties that are owed your accounting of your actions. You’re obliged to open your books to them.
2. It’s owned
Accountability is to accept responsibility. Ever since the Garden, Mankind has been adept at dodging our duties. To lessen or avoid the consequences of sin, Adam blamed Eve and even God. Eve blamed the snake (Genesis 3:12-13). We’ve followed suit ever since. Blame-shifting comes naturally to our Bent Race. Accountability cuts against the grain of our deepest impulses. Owning our actions – starting the sentence with “I” and never getting to a “but” – is an essential ingredient of accountability.
3. It’s spoken
Remember, to account means to read the book aloud so others know the record. It isn’t silence or a feeling, but a statement of one’s record. What exactly do we account for? Not our feelings, circumstances, intentions, influences, or other people, but our actions. “I’ve been struggling” is a description. “You had a mean tone” is an accusation. “I was wrong to shout at you” is an account.
4. It’s wise
The definition says accountability is either an obligation or a willingness. If we’re fools and don’t like giving an account, too bad, it’s our duty. If we’re wise and want to live and love well, accountability will be our desire.
To better understand its wisdom, consider its benefits.
What Accountability Offers You
The book of Proverbs has high praise for accountability and those who choose it. “Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life” (Proverbs 10:17) and “he who listens to reproof gains intelligence” (Proverbs 15:32). What about those who dodge it? “He who hates reproof is stupid” (Proverbs 12:1). Solomon’s words, not mine.
If we’re being honest, I probably like accountability a lot more as a topic than I do an experience. When I am asked a hard question or a flaw of mine is pointed out, my first instinct is usually to dodge, deny, defend, or deflect it by blaming something or someone else; but with good manners, of course.
So, yes, accountability doesn’t feel good, but it is good.
It will cause you to make better choices.
A choice you know you will have to explain will always be better, in quality and morality, than one you think nobody will ever know about. People use their phones or internet differently when their browsing history is tracked, don’t they? Taking accountability seriously will help you avoid making choices you may one day regret.
It will cause you to do better work.
We work best when we know we will have to present our work. Any teacher can tell you that once a student knows an assignment won’t be graded, he won’t do it well, if at all. Doing all your work as if you’d have to answer for it will help you avoid slacking, skimming, or cheating and instead constantly push you to do your best work.
It will enrich your relationships.
Healthy relationships run on trust. Dodge accountability for your actions and no one will trust you. Own your junk and they will.
Take friendship. Your friend says, “I feel like I only hear from you when you need something.” You blame work or general busyness and he changes the subject. But, the next time he has good news, you won’t be the one he calls. If you instead say, “You’re right. I’m sorry,” you’ll keep a friend who knows you’ll tell him the truth even if it hurts you a little.
Take parenting. Imagine sending your son to his room for snapping at his sister an hour after he watched you snap at his mother without acknowledging it or apologizing for it. Kids are lousy at hearing lectures and excellent at spotting a double standard. But, if you apologize to his mother and own your double standard first, then your correction and character carry weight.
Take marriage. Think of your spouse telling you, “When you kept correcting my story in front of our friends, it embarrassed me.” You can deny it: “I wasn’t correcting you.” You can deflect: “You do the same thing to me.” You can defend: “I was just trying to get the details right.” Each of those chips away at trust. Or you can say, “I hate that I did that and how it made you feel. I’m sorry. Will you forgive me?” and your spouse learns it’s safe to be honest with you because you’ll be honest with yourself.
Our world is filled with blamers, justifiers, and excusers. A friend, parent, or spouse who owns their actions stands out like a fireplace on a cold night: someone people notice, draw near to, and find safety with. In relationships, your lack of accountability puts up walls. Your embrace of it opens doors.
It will focus you on God.
Horizontal accountability to others becomes all the more important when we remember that one day, “each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). Embracing accountability in daily life with people will make us ready to account for all of life before God. This word is a reminder that one day the book of our life will be opened and we will have to read it.
Hopefully you can see that though the path of accountability sometimes has rough ground, it always leads to a glorious place.
Accountability Unto Joy
Here’s the hard part: every book ends in the red, not the black. Not yours. Not mine. Honestly read, all our books reveal a debt we cannot pay.
But, there’s good news. Christ took your book and answered for every line. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). God canceled “the record of debt that stood against us” and nailed it to the cross (Colossians 2:14). You will still stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10), but your verdict was read before the book was opened: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). You will give your account, Christian, but you will never have to pay for it. As the hymn says, “Jesus paid it all.”
But, some may think, if the bill is paid, why keep the books? Paul answers, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Grace doesn’t cancel accountability. It raises the stakes. A man forgiven a debt he could never pay doesn’t hide his ledger from the One who paid it. He opens it gladly because every honest line is a reason for praise.
Before the cross, accountability is a threat. After the cross, it’s worship.
One day your book will be opened, so live with it open now.
