Chapter 24. Accountability to the Church. Surrendered Christians anchor their work to the local church. William MacDonald. Our own devout life will be greatly helped by association with other devout souls. Francis of Assisi. In parts of the northern wilds of Canada's subarctic plains, wolves still hunt American buffalo. Adult buffalo weigh 10 to 20 times as much as the wolves who hunt them, and with their large, sharp horns, these buffalo make formidable foes.
In fact, as long as the buffalo stand their ground and stay together in a herd, it's almost impossible for the wolves to kill any of them. So the tactic of the wolves is to harass the buffalo until the herd gets spooked and begins to run. The wolves then chase the buffalo herd for miles with a sole purpose in mind: to isolate one single buffalo, usually a calf or a sick animal. Once they succeed in isolating one of the buffalo, the wolves then go in for the kill.
Satan uses the same tactic in bringing down Christians: isolate us and then destroy us spiritually. As the Scriptures say, "A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment." Proverbs 18:1. The kingdom life can't be lived in isolation from other Christians unless it's the isolation of prison during persecution. We can't surrender our lives to Christ if we can't surrender ourselves to His church. That's because the church is His body.
Those who live the kingdom life are active members of a local congregation of believers, particularly a congregation where there is a high degree of accountability among all. One of the reasons Christ gave us the church is so Christians can help one another in the Christian life. John Wesley made this comment: "This was the original design of the church of Christ. It is a body of men compacted together in order, first, to save each his own soul, then to assist each other in working out their salvation.
They are united together to oppose the devil and all his works, and to wage war against the world and the flesh, his constant and faithful allies." This is what the local church is supposed to be: a band of brothers and sisters working together to fight the good fight and watch over each other in love. United we stand, divided we fall. This is how groups like the early Christians, the Waldensians, and the Anabaptists faithfully endured centuries of persecution.
In fact, they didn't just endure such persecution; they prospered under it. Accountability to each other proved to be the key. What the Scriptures teach about accountability? The majority of Christians today think that their spiritual condition is their own private affair. They think they only have to answer to Christ and nobody else. However, the Scriptures teach the exact opposite.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul explains how the body of Christ works: "But now indeed, there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you.' Nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually." 1 Corinthians 12:20-27. Is your left foot independent? Following Paul's analogy, imagine if you were walking barefoot and you stepped on some broken glass with your left foot. Would that be the concern of your left foot alone? Not at all. The pain would shoot through the rest of your body. You would no doubt instantly bend down and pull any bits of glass out of your foot.
The left foot couldn't say, "Hey, if I want to go around with pieces of glass in me, that's no concern to the rest of the body." But pain isn't the only issue. The entire body could theoretically bleed to death from a cut on the foot if the body had no mechanisms to stop the flow of blood. The blood that flows through your left foot circulates throughout your body.
In fact, before you ever stepped on the glass, your body had been manufacturing clotting factors and platelets so it would be prepared to stop any bleeding. So when your left foot stepped on the glass, platelets immediately formed a plug at the site of the injury. Then clotting factors almost instantly formed protein strands called fibrin to strengthen the plug. Your left foot had no say in any of this. The rest of the body took these actions to protect itself. But there are even more issues here.
Bacteria and other pathogens have likely entered the bloodstream through the cuts in your left foot. This presents danger of infection to your whole body, not just your left foot. So our whole body will fight the potential infection with many different parts of our immune system. Specially designed antibodies will attack specific types of bacteria and other pathogens. Again, your left foot has no say in any of this. Our spiritual health.
Just like the health and well-being of a person's left foot is the concern of the whole body, so likewise a person's spiritual health concerns the local congregation to which he belongs. It's not just his concern. If he becomes spiritually infected, his infection could spread to other members of the local body. As Paul asked the Corinthians, "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" 1 Corinthians 5:6.
Furthermore, our church leaders are concerned about our personal spiritual well-being, not just that of the congregation as a whole. That's why the Scriptures tell us, "Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." Hebrews 13:17. When we live the kingdom life, we welcome the fact that others are watching over our souls.
We do what we can to make their task a joyous one. Mutual accountability. Through the centuries, one of the greatest helps to Christians living the kingdom life has been to be part of a church or spiritual society where there is mutual accountability one to another. Such churches have made it easier for their members to obey Christ's commands by maintaining supportive biblical standards.