I grew up during the “social media boom”. I had a Facebook account way back when you could only get one if you had a college email address. Over the years, I’ve seen social media’s reach expand exponentially. Virtually everyone is sharing, liking and following at this point. As social media has grown, my dislike for it has grown too. I still have a Facebook and use it, but really in a very limited way. I do think social media still has potential for being a good thing, but right now it seems the good is being drowned out by the bad.
My biggest concern with social media has been the same for a while now – vitriol. Everyone hates everyone else. I’m not being hyperbolic here in the least. Go ahead and scroll through your favorite feed and tell me that people aren’t continually berating, belittling, mocking, and smearing each other. They are, and Jesus has a word for that – murder.
Matthew 5:21-22 is absolutely clear that anger and name-calling are the fruit of murderous hearts. To avoid confusion let me say, I’m not talking about serious and vigorous debates – those have their place and can be beneficial. What I’m talking about is the insults and abusive language. Jesus used the term “raca” which means, “One who is totally lacking in understanding – ‘numbskull, fool.’”[1] Jesus is telling us not to call people morons (feel free to look at the Greek word for “fool” in that passage). Hateful words are fueled by hateful, murderous hearts whose owners are liable to judgment and the hell of fire. Yikes.
I’m am not surprised when I see this type of behavior coming from unbelievers. Why would I be? Their hearts have not been changed, but when professing Christians behave this way it really is shocking – well, it should be, but I fear we have all become desensitized to it. We need to be more aware of how our words reflect upon our hearts and on our Christ. And frankly, we need to repent of our hateful hearts and the wicked words that spew forth from them.
Brothers and sisters let us not be in the habit of burning our mission field to the ground by blasting everyone who disagrees with us with hellfire breath (James 3:6).[2] Let us be always aware of our need to mortify the works of the flesh by replacing our hatred towards others with love of Christ (first and foremost) and love of others – even if they are wrong. Let’s use social media for good; building up and expanding Christ’s Kingdom, instead of fighting earthly battles using hellish weapons. Let’s stop trying to “fix those idiots” and instead fix our own hearts.
[1] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 387.
[2] For the concept and language of burning the mission field, check out this helpful article: https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2019/july/partisan-evangelicals-and-burning-of-mission-field.html?share=
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