Q3. Giving an Account

[Zilka]

Q3. (4:5-7) Why don't non-Christians like the idea of giving an account of their actions? Why don't we Christians like it? What should the realization that we must give an account of our actions inspire in us? With what attitude should we live as a result?

Thanks God for  many times I learn the Gospel to teach me my self Control and self confidence.

We must think about our life in Jesus Hand so we do not wait but do Pray now.

[Commissioned]

On 3/27/2004 at 10:43 PM, Pastor Ralph said:

Q3. (4:5-7) Why don't non-Christians like the idea of giving an account of their actions? Why don't we Christians like it? What should the realization that we must give an account of our actions inspire in us? With what attitude should we live as a result?

Non-Christians do not like the idea of giving an account of their actions because even though they may know that they are wrong, they want to feel that  they are in charge of their actions without having to answer for it. We Christians don't like it because of he guilt it brings. The realization that we must give an account of our actions should inspire in us a desire to live holy lives.  We should live with the attitude that we are not of this world, only passing through.

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Rom. 12:2

[Krissi]

Many years ago while in the Beinecke rare book library at Yale, a friend who worked there brought me the original document of Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” I was struck by the sheer number of cross-outs and re-writes in the pocket-size cards that Edwards had used to give his sermon. Obviously, Edwards wasn’t entirely comfortable about what he was going to preach. Considering the “tough love” character of that sermon, his hesitation makes sense.

He was, in essence, asking listeners to give an account of their lives before a God who was “angry” with their sin. Edwards spoke of God’s vengeance on sinful people  (his “enemies”) and told them they were headed for hell.

I just looked up the sermon. It’s even stronger than I remembered: “There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.” I don’t want to belabor this point, but suffice it to say that in the past, people heard very strong sermons that pointed right at their actions/thoughts and condemned them to hell. This sermon must have been directed at non-Christians, though perhaps, Edwards also was targeting the consciences of backslidden Christians.

 This sermon was given in the midst of the First Great Awakening which had begun about a decade earlier. I think this is how awakenings begin – with a heightened sense of sin and punishment. No one likes to hear that their morals/values/ethic/beliefs are sinful and evil. No one likes to hear that they’re so bad they’re going to hell. Yet, at that time – and also today?? – at least some of the people who heard this Congregationalist sermon were moved to repentance.  Presumably, some were backslidden Christians who “knew better.”

 I find it amazing that preachers today rarely or never mention hell in their sermons. I have never heard a preacher tell listeners that all of us, Christian or not, would have to give an account for our lives. In sermons, I hear of the love of Jesus. His forgiveness. His gentleness. Yet this is only half the story -- I don’t hear of God’s harsh and exacting judgment on humankind.

 These passages in 1 Peter 4 are about the account we all must give before God at our deaths. The Message bible, referring to unbelievers, reads, “they’re the ones that will be called on the carpet, before God Himself.”

 

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/edwards_jonathan/Sermons/Sinners.cfm