Lesson 1: Introduction – Accountable for the Right Things
Read Galatians 1:1-24 - www.bible.com/bible/59/gal.1
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—
2 and all the brothers who are with me,
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Accountability from us to God is something we sometimes struggle with, even though we as believers in, and followers of, Jesus know He wants us to come to Him with every care or problem or heartache or sin or temptation we face. But holding ourselves accountable to other believers is even harder because we feel shame and guilt for the things we have done, and fear we will lose status with others or that they will judge us harshly for what we confess to each other. Yet, the Bible says in James 5:16 that we are to confess our sins to each other – to other believers, not to unbelievers.


This kind of confession can be a powerful deterrent to sin in our lives – sometimes even more so than confession to God, because we often fear the social judgment of others around us more than we fear God’s discipline. This is pride, but such fear can be used by God to help us resist temptation.

In this book of Galatians, we will learn how we are to be accountable to others. God’s plan for this kind of accountability is that it is practiced in the church, and in love. Jesus also tells us we are to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), and when we talk with someone who is confessing their sin to US, we must not judge harshly, for we also might fall into such sin if we are not carefully walking with Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:12).

The opening verses of our passage today tell us we must also be careful to hold ourselves accountable for the right things. Paul said he was not preaching what he had heard from other people, but only those things he had learned from Jesus Himself. None of us today will go to seminary the same way Paul did because we have the Bible to teach us. Paul also wrote about how we are to learn through what others say. In Acts 17:10-15 he commends the people from Berea for searching the Scriptures each day to make sure what he was telling them was what the Bible actually says. We too must search the Scriptures faithfully to make sure that what we are hearing and believing is from God rather than from the beliefs of some individual or group. It is Jesus’ wisdom on which we rely, not the arguments or teachings of people. This does not mean we do not listen to our pastors or evangelists – but we take what they say and set it beside what the Bible says. If the two do not match, then we must hold ourselves accountable to believe the Bible above other people.

*When is the last time you checked the Bible to make sure something you heard from your pastor or another spiritual teacher is true?