Iron Sharpens Iron: How godly accountability can help you stay on track, grow in maturity, and overcome struggles. Proverbs 27:17

A Recipe for Disaster

 3   A boy who avoids accountability becomes a man who is answerable to no one—a recipe for disaster.

Rick Johnson

That’s My Son (2005)

Rick Johnson

Too many of our young people, both young men and young women, are setting their lives up to be a recipe for disaster because they refuse to allow anyone to hold them accountable.

They avoid doing hard things neglecting the process of refining your character with fire. They shun had relationships that hold them accountable for doing the right thing all the time. They try to live life on their own, as if they live on an island, never enjoying the fruit of iron sharpening iron. The consequence is when the waves of trauma and tragedy hit their house, they loose focus, they remain immature, and they never get up after they get knocked down.

Accountability is a crucial value that ensures transparency, responsibility, and trust within the church, community, and home. In the biblical context, accountability means taking responsibility for one's actions, as nothing is hidden from God, and we are all accountable to Him, as well as loving our neighbor by offering accountability.

Proverbs 27:17 teaches us the importance of accountability in our lives. Just as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. This passage challenges us to surround ourselves with people who will encourage, challenge, and hold us accountable in our walk with God. It reminds us that we are not meant to journey alone, but rather in community, helping one another grow in faith.

Today, Proverbs 27:17 will help us understand the importance of accountability in the Christian life, highlighting how the process, the relationships, and our community help you stay on track, grow in maturity, and overcome struggles.

In other words, I want you to

Surround yourself with godly accountability so they can help you grow in your faith and walk with God.

The Process: Sharpening Through Accountability

Proverbs 27:17 CSB

17 Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another.

In the first line, Solomon mentions the process of making an iron edge sharp. The prophet Isaiah describes the process of sharpening iron. He says,

Isaiah 44:12 (ESV)

12 The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm…

Using metaphor, Solomon says, in a similar way iron is sharpened by heat and hammers, so one person sharpens another. Two questions come to my mind when I see this metaphor. First, how does one person sharpen another? Second, what is the process of one person sharpening another? Do we use literal heat and hammers, or is Solomon saying something else? Let’s address the second question first.

What is the process of one person sharpening another?

To sharpen an iron blade is to make it more useful for serving its purpose. If it is sword, then sharpening it makes the sword a better weapon. If the iron blade is an ax, sharpening it makes it better for cutting down trees.

To make an iron blade soft enough to sharpen the blacksmith must heat the iron to 1300 degrees Celsius which is 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the metal is soft, the blacksmith needs to pound the edges with a hammer the edges to mold the blade. You can sharpen the iron blade by rubbing two iron edges together. Notice how it takes heat, hammering, and rubbing to make an iron blade sharp.

In a similar way, God uses his own process of heat, hammering, and rubbing to sharpen you. God will bring the heat of circumstances to your life that are difficult to help you grow stronger in your faith. God will use his truth to hammer out foolishness in your feelings and thoughts so you will be wise and walk in his ways. God will rub and polish your life using his Spirit to counsel, comfort, and clarify the truth of his Son to your heart so you will bear fruit that proves you belong to Jesus and glorifies the Father (John 15:8).

Someone once said

It is the roughness of the grindstone that sharpens the axe. It is the storm that hardens the fiber of the oak. It is the workday and not the holiday that makes muscle.

Anonymous

God uses circumstances that provide heating, hammering, and rubbing to your soul to help shape you. It is part of God’s accountability to you, to help you be conformed into the image of His Son.

That being said, how does God use people to sharpen other people? God uses relationships in your life to act like a blacksmith. A blacksmith works to remold and refine metal.

The Blacksmith: Refinement in Relationships

Proverbs 27:17 ESV

17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

In the forge of our lives, like a blacksmith shapes a blade, God uses our relationships as tools for sharpness. Just as iron sharpens iron, we must embrace the friction of friendships that challenge us. Picture two best friends in high school, navigating their faith together—they hold each other accountable, discussing scripture, encouraging each other through trials. This sharpening process might feel uncomfortable, but it's how God molds us into instruments for His purpose.

Think about adults in your life: parents, teachers, coaches, who make you do things you do not want to do, to push you out of your comfort zone. It may feel harsh, but God uses this process to make you a better person, a young man or woman who looks like Jesus.

In the Bible, Jesus surrounded Himself with disciples who were not all the same; they had different backgrounds, personalities, and ways at looking at life. This diverse group often debated, challenged, and sharpened one another's faith. God calls you to learn from each other—whether it’s through differing opinions or shared struggles—so you can help each other grow your faith. Embrace these relationships; they're part of God’s plan to prepare you to persevere in the faith.

In Ecclesiastes 4:9, the Preacher says

Ecclesiastes 4:9 ESV

9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.

He also says

Proverbs 13:20 (ESV)

20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise…

The writer of Hebrews commends us to let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together’ (Heb. 10:24–25a). John Kitchen is wise when he says,

“No man can be his best or reach the heights God intends for him without those blessed friends who comfort, provoke, challenge, rebuke, chide, affirm, stimulate and encourage until his thinking is clear, his wisdom mature, his purpose refined, and his faculties sharp.” John Kitchen

Embrace relationships in your life as part of God’s plan to refine you the way a blacksmith refines iron.

The Tool: Community Crafted Character

Proverbs 27:17

When you confess and repent of your sin, Jesus not only forgives you giving you eternal salvation, but he also places you into a new community. His church is made up if Spirit empowered sinners who have been redeemed and are being sanctified toward holiness. God uses this community to help craft your holy character.

God provides pastors who preach God’s truth and help shepherd your spiritual walk as a new creation in Christ. He provides older saints who disciple you toward holy living by holding you accountable to change; to put off the old self and put on the new self. God provides opportunities for your serve in ministry that will challenge you to mature in your integrity, responsibility, courage, and compassion. God will put all kinds of people who are at different stages in their walk who will rub your patience and deepen your love in all kinds of unique ways. In the church you are an iron tool who is sharpened by other tools, and who sharpens those around you with accountability.

Jesus sharpened his disciples

Jesus held His disciples accountable, corrected them when necessary, and encouraged them to walk in truth. In the same way, we are called to reflect Christ in our relationships and accountability towards one another.

Jesus spent three years doing life with his disciples. He taught them with sermons, object lessons, and experiences; especially Peter.

When Peter revealed that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus affirmed him. When Peter would let let Jesus go to the cross to die for our sin, Jesus rebuked him. When Peter said he would follow Jesus to death if he had to, Jesus responded

Luke 22:31–34 ESV

31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” 33 Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” 34 Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”

Jesus told Peter the truth. When Jesus took His disciples to pray,

Matthew 26:40–41 ESV

40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus held them accountable, calling them to fight the temptation to sleep, stay awake, and pray. And when Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus found Peter after Jesus’ resurrection, forgave him, and restored him to ministry, and Jesus will do the same for you.

One day God is going to call us to give an account for our lives. Paul says

Romans 14:12 ESV

12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

The writer of Hebrews says

Hebrews 9:27 ESV

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

Those who are not in Christ will be held accountable for their sin, and the Bible says the wages of sin is God’s condemnation. Jesus, however, is a gift of eternal life to those who put their hope in him. Jesus came to live a perfect life so he could die on the cross in your place. When you accept his gift of salvation by faith, God holds him accountable for your sin. Jesus receives God’ wrath on the cross, and he in turn gives you his righteousness so you can be justified (made right) before God.

Believe in your heart that Jesus is the son of God who is the only one who can save you, and that God raised him from the dead accepting his sacrifice. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

The Jesus will save you and give you his Spirit. He will transfer you out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. He will unite you to His church where he will sharpen you so he can use you to joyfully advance His kingdom.

Don’t let you life be a recipe for disaster. Receive Jesus’ grace of accountability. Receive his process of heat, hammering, and polishing. Receive his refining grace through hard relationships that hold you accountable to do the hard things. Receive his community, his church, who helps you craft your new holy character so you can stay on track, grow in maturity, and overcome struggles.