I don’t know about you, but I love the seasons! I do have my favorite, which is spring, but there are things about the other seasons I also love. The chills of winter bring the beautiful purity of the new fallen snow, which remind me of what believers have in Christ. That the forgiveness we have as a result of His sacrifice on the cross, washes us whiter than snow. The heat of summer brings growth. We currently live in the midst of the corn and soybean fields of Indiana. Corn and soybeans grow best with the summer heat, accompanied by some summer rains. I am reminded that oftentimes we as believers also grow best during the heat and rain. Heat, to me, represents the trials and tribulations of life. Whereas the summer rains represent refreshment, refreshment from the heat. Oftentimes the trials and tribulations of life seem overwhelming and just when I reach the point of despair, my eyes turn to the God of the universe and He moves in like a refreshing summer rain and I experience refreshment and relief. Fall, well fall brings with it colorful leafs which have their own rustic beauty. Similar in many ways to believers in the church. Honestly, it would be pretty boring if all believers were like me, and you too, by the way! Spring brings with it new life. Flowers start to bloom, trees start to bud, and in some instances have their own blooms. I picture, in my mind, and individual bowing for the first time to the Savior Who gave His life a ransom for them on the cross and the new life that sprouts in the heart of that individual.
There is one season I don’t care for. We have recently entered into that season. Perhaps you may be thinking, “Wait, didn’t fall just start? And you already said you enjoy fall, what gives?” Actually, I am not referring to any of the 4 seasons with which we are most familiar. The season I don’t care for is one that generally happens only once every four years. It is the Presidential Election Season. The season that makes enemies of close friends, enemies of family members, enemies of those you sit next to on Sunday mornings. Comments in social media turn into anything but…well social. I have noticed that over the last couple decades this ugly season has gotten even uglier. Chances are this will be the worse one in my lifetime. We are in the midst of a pandemic, which has greatly divided our Nation, and there is a racial tension that seemingly has set us back by 50 years. These things lead me to believe we are in for the ugliest election season ever! With that in mind, I wanted to give some of my thoughts on how, I believe, we as believers should approach our social media posts during this election season.
To begin with, I’d like to start with a question. What is the chief goal of every believer? According to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31, as he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the chief goal of every believer is to glorify God in everything we do. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” What this means is that before we hit the send or post button when we are on social media, we have to look back over the post to identify whether or not our post will bring glory to God. If it doesn’t, hit delete, don’t post.
Now there may be times you are unsure if what you are posting brings glory to God. I look at what I post as if what I am posting was literally words proceeding from my mouth. With that in mind, let’s look at another statement from the Apostle Paul. This one comes from his letter the the believers in Ephesus. We find this in Ephesians 4:29 where we read; “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” I love the picture Eugene Peterson gives us in his paraphrase of this verse; “Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.” Did you notice his last phrase? “Each word a gift.” In other words, each word that comes out of my mouth, or in the case of social media posts, each word that comes from my fingertips, should be something I can wrap like a gift and give to someone and that the gift of my word would bring great pleasure to them. So, similar to how the last paragraph ended, if what I am about to post, isn’t gift worthy, then the key I should hit is the delete key, not post. By the way, I want you to notice something from Ephesians 4:29. Paul ends with the phrase; “that it may give grace to those who hear.” What I want you to notice is, Paul isn’t specific with who he is referring to as “those who hear”. In other words, the listeners could be anyone, not just those who share the same political point of view as we do. What we post should give grace to virtually everyone. For some of us this may have a significant impact on what we post, in fact it may eliminate much of what we plan to post. At least when it comes to political posts.
One more question. What was the first corporate command the resurrected Jesus gave to us? We find it in Matthew 28:19 where Jesus directs us to; “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...” At Liberty Chapel, we are currently on a journey through The Gospel According to Mark. The last message I delivered was from Mark 4:21-34. There are 3 lessons in these verses, The Lamp Under The Basket, The Parable of the Seed Growing and The Parable of the Mustard Seed. Each of these lessons addresses our obligation to be a light, to plant seeds of the Gospel. As I have done throughout this post, I want to equate this to what we post on social media. This means that our social media posts should shine the light of God’s love, should be planting seeds of the Gospel to those who read through them. Again, the question we need to ask before hitting the send or post button is, Will what I am about to post shine the light of Gods love, plant the seeds of the Gospel to those who read it? If the answer is not “Yes”. Then hit the delete button, not the post button.
You know what I have noticed over the years I have been reading and posting on social media? So far, I have not seen a single individual who read a post that came from a different political viewpoint than theirs, who at the conclusion of reading the post left the comment, “Wow, I never thought of that before! I’m going to change my political party. Thanks, so much for enlightening me!” What I have witnessed countless times is threads deteriorating with each new comment. I have seen good friends become enemies. I have seen families torn apart. I have seen people that shared the same pew one Sunday, flat out ignore that former pew mate the following week, and every week that followed. I’m not sure that matches very well with what Jesus said in John 13:35; “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
To summarize this post. What we as believers post on social media should first:
1. Bring glory to God.
2. Give grace to those who read it.
3. Shine the light of God, planting the seeds of the Gospel.
4. Give evidence that we as believers have a deep and abiding love for one another.
With these thoughts in mind, post away……after you bathe your post in prayer. And do me a favor, would you hold me accountable to these same guidelines?
Thanks, Jim Canady
By the way, I welcome your comments and any discussion. I am not the end all authority on these things.
No comments:
Post a Comment