03.05.08 The 6th Practice for Avoiding Corruption
6. Be Accountable at All Times
Accountability refers to taking responsibility for one’s actions and being answerable for them. Further, God requires us to be accountable to Him not only at all times; but ‘Now’. This is what the tense in Hebrews 4:13 portrays. That verse reads (NLT): Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable. The phrase ‘we are accountable’ teaches us that we are required to be accountable to God at every present moment.
However, some corrupt church-going officials see things differently. Many promote the doctrine that God will require people to account for their actions only on judgement day and not any earlier; thereby comforting followers to relax since the day is nowhere on the horizon. That is how some find themselves indulging in corruption.
Therefore, do not entertain that erroneous perception. Rather, monitor your actions through God’s eyes and be accountable to Him at all times as that will effectively keep you from engaging in corruptive dealings. Be ready since you and I know that the day will come as a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2) and that it should find your accounts in order.
If you are in a leadership position, you should note that the fight against corruption demands more from leaders than their supervisees. A case in point is in Micah 3:9-12, a scripture that recurs in this book, where God was ready to hold leaders accountable for the rampant corruption in the country, lamenting that it was because of them that the situation had gone haywire. That scripture is repeated here for emphasis, It reads (NKJV): 9Now hear this, You heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice And pervert all equity, 10Who build up Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with iniquity: 11Her heads judge for a bribe… Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.” 12Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest. Therefore, it is the bosses to lead in being accountable each time and always - to God, the people they lead, clients, organisations and the country at large. That will go a long way in refraining not only the leaders but their followers, from yielding to corruption.