I’m not sure if you have moments of personal doubt and insecurity—I sometimes do.  Recently I was feeling quite useless.  A stray comment here or a thoughtless decision there and one can easily spiral into a defeatist attitude.  Satan wastes no time in capitalizing on our mistakes.

Satan accuses Christians day and night.  It is not just that he will work on our conscience to make us feel as dirty, guilty, defeated, destroyed, weak, and ugly as he possibly can; it is something worse: his entire play in the past is to accuse us before God day and night, bringing charges against us that we know we can never answer before the majesty of God’s holiness.

What can we say in response? Will our defense be, ‘Oh, I’m not that bad?’  You will never beat Satan that way.  Never.  What you must say is, ‘Satan, I’m even worse than you think, but God loves me anyway.  He has accepted me because of the blood of the lamb

— D. A. Carson, Scandalous

Unfortunately, Satan is not our only accuser.  Other Christians waste no time pointing out your flaws and imperfections.  I am convinced that accountability is necessary within a Christian fellowship but accountability is for the purpose of edification and restoration.  It is very easy to drift from accountability to accusation.  We love to see others fall.  There must be a point where we allow the mistakes of others to be left in the past.  The acceptance and forgiveness of Christ is the basis of our status before Him and each other.  For me, the words of Paul are profoundly applicable:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

Am I willing to treat others not just as I want to be treated but as Christ treated me.  Am I willing to consider them as better than myself?  Am I willing to suffer wrongs and insults rather than be defensive?  Am I willing to measure others by the work of Christ rather than their good or bad behavior?  Am I willing to forgive their sins rather keeping score?  Am I willing to love like Christ?