Each Shall Give an Account

“Why then do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you look down on your brother or sister? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written:

      As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.

So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:10-12)

We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. Wow, the thought of this is very humbling and a little frightening. It reminds me of the words to I Can Only Imagine  by Mercy Me. Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall. Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all. I can only imagine.

It is so easy to compare ourselves to others. Sometimes we do it to build ourselves up. We say to ourselves and sometimes to others, “Well at least I don’t ___ like that person.” Other times we do it out of self pity, “Look at what that person has and I only have this.” And other times we may do it out of self-hatred. We beat ourselves down because we think we are weaker, or stupid or uglier than another.  All of these things cause us to take our eyes off of Christ. When we tear others down we prevent ourselves from looking at ourselves. We notice the splinter in their eye and ignore the beam in our own eye.

We will be judged on our own merit. God will ask us what we did for the poor and the sick. Did we comfort those who mourn or are lonely? Did we protect the innocent from harm? Are we going to be able to give an answer or make excuses for why we didn’t do what God called us to do? It’s not about being perfect. We are all broken but we can’t use that as an excuse. And when we fail to do what God calls us to do we must humbly go before him and repent, asking for mercy and the strength to try again. God rejoices over a contrite heart. When we stand before God, the account we give will be of ourselves, alone. Not in comparison to others but according to what God called us to do and how we responded to his call. I long to hear the words, “well done, my good and faithful servant.”