In my sophomore year of high school, my favorite teacher was Mr. Wilcox, who taught biology. During tests or exams, he always had students spread out with empty seats between them. On one occasion, he put a star basketball player, Barry, and me, on the front row. Oddly, he placed the answer key within our view. It was a real temptation. At the end of the hour, the tests were gathered and graded before we left. To our surprise, only the first three questions were correct on the answer key. In effect, Mr. Wilcox was watching to see who would cheat. I was so glad I had resisted the temptation to look on the answer key, and Barry wished he hadn’t looked.
Over and over in Scripture, the Lord reminds us that He sees all we do in this life. He tells us in Proverbs 5:21, “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pondereth all his goings.” One of Job’s friends, Elihu, grasped this principle. He said, “For His (God’s) eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings” (Job 34:21). Through the pen of the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord told Israel, “For Mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from My face, neither is their iniquity hid from Mine eyes” (Jeremiah 16:17). Jeremiah 32:18-19 explains why God is watching the conduct of all men, “…the Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is His name…for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Revelation 20:12 implies God keeps an accurate written record of every individual. When John saw the lost, small and great, gathered before the future Great White Throne of Judgment, he wrote, “the books were opened…and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” There must be a similar record for the Body of Christ because each of us will “receive the things done in his body…whether it be good or bad” (II Corinthians 5:10). The issue here is NOT punishment but accountability. “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).
Knowing God sees all we do is intended to be a deterrent from doing wrong and a motivation to do right. Live today knowing God is watching.