Accountability

"[Therefore beware] brethren, take care, lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart [which refuses to cleave to, trust in, and rely on Him], leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God.  But instead warn (admonish, urge, and encourage) one another every day, as long as it is called Today, that none of you may be hardened [into settled rebellion] by the deceitfulness of sin [by the fraudulence, the stratagem, the trickery which the delusive glamor of his sin may play on him].For we have become fellows with Christ (the Messiah) and share in all He has for us, if only we hold our first newborn confidence and original assured expectation [in virtue of which we are believers] firm and unshaken to the end." Hebrews 3:12-14 (Amplified)


     A lot could be said for someone who tells it like it is. This person's candor, like it or not has the potential of saving our lives. Sometimes what they say hurts (the truth sometimes does), but in the end it will profit us greatly...much greater than the person that approaches us with flattery.


      The flattery person has a character flaw... for all they want from you is your friendship and will say anything or do anything to keep it. Such a person may benefit you in the short term, but could cause you great damage in the long term. 


       The disparity between these two individuals in unquestionable. I have a pretty good idea how God wants us to chose between them. After all, His desire is for us to exhort one another and not let time slip away without telling the people who are important to us what they need to hear, as opposed to what they WANT to hear.