Digging For Truth

Responsibility and accountability

     Quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White with the phrase . . .

                responsibility   and   accountability        (  16  RELATED  PHRASES )                     

                    The  phrase  'Responsibility and accountability'  appears  16  times in the published writings of EGW           See page on Original site                                  Related phrase:   responsibility and accountability to God  ( see below )

I long to see the church arise to a full sense of their responsibility and accountability before God, to let their light shine forth to the world in clear, steady, bright rays. The light of many is too flickering, fitful, and uncertain. It will at times blaze forth in bright rays and then it becomes almost extinct. The Lord God of Israel cannot be glorified unless the light shines steadily amid the moral darkness, as well as in the light. The light of the Sun of Righteousness is never dim. It is constantly shining upon us. Notwithstanding Satan casts his hellish shadow athwart our path, the light shineth beyond.  {TDG 364.1}

 

The physician who understands the responsibility and accountability of his position will feel the necessity of Christ's presence with him in his work for those for whom such a sacrifice has been made. He will subordinate everything to the higher interests which concern the life that may be saved unto life eternal. He will do all in his power to save both the body and the soul. He will try to do the very work that Christ would do were He in his place. The physician who loves Christ and the souls for whom Christ died will seek earnestly to bring into the sickroom a leaf from the tree of life. He will try to break the bread of life to the sufferer. Notwithstanding the obstacles and difficulties to be met, this is the solemn, sacred work of the medical profession.  {CH 331.4}

 

 
Oh, that mothers and fathers would realize their responsibility and accountability before God! What a change would take place in society! Children would not be spoiled by being praised and petted, or made vain by indulgence in dress.  {CG 141.3}
 
The physician who understands the responsibility and accountability of his position will feel the necessity of Christ's presence with him in his work for those for whom such a sacrifice has been made. He will subordinate everything to the higher interests which concern the life that may be saved unto life eternal. He will do all in his power to save both the body and the soul. He will try to do the very work that Christ would do were He in his place. The physician who loves Christ and the souls for whom Christ died will seek earnestly to bring into the sickroom a leaf from the tree of life. He will try to break the bread of life to the sufferer. Notwithstanding the obstacles and difficulties to be met, this is the solemn, sacred work of the medical profession.  {6T 229.4}

 

Our responsibility and accountability are in proportion to the light that we have had--in proportion to the privileges and opportunities that have been given us. The Lord requires that far greater personal effort shall be put forth by the members of our churches. Souls have been neglected, towns and villages and cities have not heard the truth for this time, because wise missionary efforts have not been made. Irreligion and vice prevail on every hand, most earnest work must be done to come close to souls. This time demands that advance moves be made, that resolute, persevering faith be exercised, that a patient, self-denying, long-suffering spirit be manifested by every member of our churches, and that each one who professes to follow Christ shall become a worker in his moral vineyard. The God-fearing members of the church can do more good by devoted, personal effort than our ministers can accomplish when they feel no burden to labor from house to house. Our ordained ministers must do what they can, but it must not be expected that one man can do the work of all. The Master has appointed unto every man his work. There are visits to be made, there is praying to be done, there is sympathy to be imparted; and the piety -- the heart and hand -- of the whole church is to be employed, if the work is to be accomplished. You can sit down with your friends, and in a pleasant, social way, talk of the precious Bible faith.  {RH, August 13, 1889 par. 13}
 
Committee meetings as they are run by our people through the hours when men should rest the weary brain, are destructive to the mental, physical, and moral powers. Then have it understood that those who come to the committee meetings come with the thought that they are to meet with God, who has given them their work; that it is a sin to waste moments in unimportant conversation; for they are doing the Lord's business, and must do the work in the most business-like, perfect way. Let all understand that there is to be no trifling. Every one should come to these meetings in a consecrated, devotional frame of mind, because important matters are to be considered in relation to the cause of God. This work is to be done after his own order, and if men have been elected to the grave responsibility of having a voice, and exerting an influence in the accomplishment of this great work, let their actions in every particular show that they recognize their responsibility and accountability to understand the will of the Lord as far as it is possible. If a person comes to these meetings with a careless, irreverent manner, let him be reminded that he is in the presence of a witness by whom all actions are weighed. Let none come to these meetings with a hard, cold, critical, loveless spirit; for they may do great harm.  {RH, November 14, 1893 par. 5}
 
If we would work as Christ worked, we must have the mind of Christ. He cannot cooperate with those whose lives reveal variance, strife, and bitterness. Those who cherish these attributes are not susceptible to the influence of the Holy Spirit. The divine Comforter strives with them, but they close the door of their hearts to its gracious pleadings, desiring to be left alone in their foolish, selfish perversity. They find a satisfaction, a kind of rest without pardon, without wearing Christ’s yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness. But let adversity come, and they find that they are leaning on a broken reed. These mistakes and delusions are to be corrected. A most solemn work, full of responsibility and accountability, is to be done. There is no peace, saith God, to the wicked. { 6MR 23.2 } 
 
      individual  responsibility  and  accountability
In order for you to become men and women that can be depended upon, there must be a growth of the powers, the exercise of every faculty, even in little things; then greater power is acquired to bear larger responsibilities. Individual responsibility and accountability are essential. In putting into practice that which you are learning during your student days, do not shrink from bearing your share of responsibility because there are risks to take, because something must be ventured. Do not leave others to be brains for you. You must train your powers to be strong and vigorous; then the entrusted talents will grow, as a steady, uniform, unyielding energy is exercised in bearing individual responsibility. God would have you add, day by day, little by little, to your stock of ideas, acting as if the moments were jewels, to be carefully gathered and discreetly cherished. You will thus acquire breadth of thought and strength of intellect.  {CT 475.2}  { MM 64.3 } 

 

                                          R E s p o n s i b i l i t y    a n d    a c c o u n t a b i l i t y    t o    g o d                                                               

                                           Related phrase:  accountability to God  ( 143 )

Each one must have the spirit of self-sacrifice and self-denial, of which Christ has given us an example in His life. We are to feel our obligation to do the very best we can. Those who have many talents and those who have few are to work unitedly, as a wheel within a wheel. And if all feel their responsibility and accountability to God, they will do His will, acting their part according to His appointment. -- MS. 162, 1897.  {MM 201.2}

 

He felt himself far from deserving the confidence I placed in him. We prayed with the family, and had the precious blessing of the Lord. Thus from time to time we visited him, and he always treated us courteously, but did not fully identify himself with us. Yet I always talked with him as one who knew and loved the truth, always laying out plans with him whereby he might be a laborer together with God. I told him that our responsibility and accountability to God was the strongest and most powerful of all motives that should lead us to obtain the very best kind of knowledge, the highest education. If he gained this, he could help other minds with a force proportionate to his intelligence and religious devotion, and be a bright and shining light to his neighborhood.  {1MR 147.1}

 

 
There is a work to do for the wealthy, in awakening them to a sense of their responsibility and accountability to God to conduct all their business relations as those who must give an account to him who will judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom. The wealthy man needs your labor in the love and fear of God. He trusts in his riches, and feels not his danger. The eyes of his mind need to be attracted to things of enduring value. He needs to recognize the authority of true goodness, which says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Put off that yoke which you have manufactured for your neck, and over which you have been perplexing yourself, and take my yoke upon you. "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."  {RH, January 4, 1898 par. 6}
 
Our work is to educate men and women to understand their responsibility to God, to understand that everything they have comes from Him through Jesus Christ. "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your Spirit, which are God's." Each one of us should stand where we realize our responsibility and accountability to the God of heaven. When we realize this, Divine blessing will rest upon us.  {AUCR, July 28, 1899 par. 9}

 

                responsibility  and  accountability  to  the  God  of  heaven
Our work is to educate men and women to understand their responsibility to God, to understand that everything they have comes from Him through Jesus Christ. “Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your Spirit, which are God’s.” Each one of us should stand where we realize our responsibility and accountability to the God of heaven. When we realize this, Divine blessing will rest upon us. { AUCR July 28, 1899, Art. A, par. 9 }

 

                                  a c c o u n t a b i l i t y    a n d     R E s p o n s i b i l i t y                                                                       

       

St. Helena, April 1, 1902.  I have not slept after two o'clock. I am praying to my heavenly Father that He would arouse the church members that they may understand their accountability and responsibility to God. Medical missionary work is mingled with so much that is selfish and not true according to the appellation, that I am seriously burdened.  {18MR 215.3}

 

 
In our conversation one with another, our influence is constantly at work. Every one is dependent upon others, and there are obligations resting upon all,--something every day to receive, something to impart. By the human associations around us we are bound to one another, as by cords, in one great web of mutual obligations. These attachments are firm and strong and genuine. We may ignore or abuse them, but we cannot possibly break one of them. We may be disloyal to every one of them, but they exist all the same, and our accountability and responsibility are the same. Every teacher should impress these principles upon all who are under his influence. If the teacher is a Christian, he will reveal these principles in his every-day life. As one connected with God, as a representative of Jesus Christ, he will not require of the student that which he does not exemplify in his own life,--purity, impartiality, nobility of soul. He may then, as Christ's servant, teach all under his charge what is really a Christian life.  {ST, August 12, 1886 par. 14}

 

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Related Information

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