Accountable Action

In the last post, I spoke about the Law of the Harvest.  God has taught us that we will reap what we sow on this earth.  If we take that at face value, then all of us are condemned by God's immutable laws.  "All have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God."  But God is merciful as well as just.  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whomsoever would believe on him would not perish, but would have everlasting life."  Clearly, God has laid out a path for redemption and a path for condemnation.  I believe that He has also left us free to choose either path.  He has given us the Gospel in plain language and then He set a boundary on Himself by choosing to leave the wrong options open to us.  In this He is a perfectly patient teacher.  No matter how many times we push him away and willfully choose to harm ourselves and others, He always returns to us, ready to show us the way out.

So how do we receive God's redemption?  It's quite simple really: you reap what you sow.  In order for God to return you to His presence, He must change your very nature.  You must be reborn through the atonement of Christ.  How is this done?  Through Accountable Action.

Accountable Actions are those actions that we take where we have full knowledge of the consequences possible and then we make a choice.  If a child has never seen a hot stove, he may still burn his hand, but he is not accountable for that mistake; he did not know.  If I am envious of my friend's iPod and I steal it, then I have made an accountable action.  Two actually: the Sermon on the Mount teaches us that we will be held accountable for even our thoughts.  "Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already in his heart."  Accountable Actions are not all negative.  If you risk your life to pull a wandering child out of traffic, you are accountable for that action too.

Why is accountability important?  Is it simply enough that at the end of our lives, the cosmic scales balance our good deeds and bad and we are blessed or doomed by which way the scales tip?  I think that this is not so.  And here is where a proper understanding of emotion comes into it.  See, emotions are just another word for Spirit.  I stole the iPod because I first let in a spirit of envy.  Why did I envy?  I made a choice that fostered that spirit and diminished others.  If I play violent video games for three hours and then snap at my wife, I believe that I invited in a harsh spirit into my home and relationships.

Back to the cosmic scales, I don't think redemption is a matter of math.  Redemption is offered to all men who can accept it.  Redemption is a gift offered in the Spirit of perfect love.  In order to receive that gift, we must match that Spirit.  "Bridle all your passions, that you may be filled with love."  The act of bridling your passions makes your heart more able to love, makes you more eligible for the gift of God's redemption.  "For that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."

To summarize:  We can find happiness in this life and redemption in the life to come by having the Spirit of God's love within us.  We can obtain that Spirit through making Accountable Actions that foster it.  "No man can serve two masters..."