This week, David Allston, Ministry to Singles, answers this question from Curious Christian in Greenville, SC.
Is the decision of what to bring into our homes on the television a moral or amoral issue? Can Christians in good conscience watch tv shows and movies that depict scenarios of lifestyles that are not in accordance with biblical teaching?
In Mark 7:14-23, Jesus tells us that it is what comes from a person and not what goes in that defiles him. Verses 21-23 explain, “What comes out of a person defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” If this is true, then are we free to watch anything we want since what we see on television is what comes in and not what goes out? Absolutely not! Jesus tells us that what goes into our stomachs passes through our bodies and is expelled. However, what passes through our eyes and ears goes into our hearts and minds and remains there. The content that comes into our homes can either lead us to love God more or cause our hearts to grow cold.
My dad had done his best to protect us and keep us from sin by limiting what we saw, but we often failed to engage our hearts with things that drew us to our heavenly Father.
My father understood this and decided that the best way to combat the evil that might work its way into our hearts and minds through the television was to rigidly control what we watched and listened to as children. His desire was to protect us from anything that might pollute our minds. We didn’t watch anything with cursing, excessive violence, or nudity. Our television watching was sterilized to protect us from the evil world around us and yet this did not work to draw us to God. As I grew into a teenager, I became less and less interested in the things of God. My heart was drawn farther and farther away from God. My dad had done his best to protect us and keep us from sin by limiting what we saw, but we often failed to engage our hearts with things that drew us to our heavenly Father.
Remember that Jesus said that it is out of the heart that evil comes.
A quick list of rules will not do the trick.
A quick list of rules will not do the trick.
For too many Christians, the question of what we bring into our homes has not been properly considered. It requires constant thought and that we judge both the content we see and the effect it has on our hearts. Remember that Jesus said that it is out of the heart that evil comes. A quick list of rules will not do the trick. We could resolve to avoid any content that depicted lifestyles not in accordance with godly living, but then we could not read the Bible itself. After all, in the Holy Scripture, we find murder, theft, jealousy, adultery, mass killing, rape, lying, disobedience, rebellion, homosexuality, polygamy, coveting, and all other manner of sin and wickedness. The Bible is not sterilized at all. However, the Bible does not glorify these things. The Bible demonstrates our brokenness through vivid and difficult examples. It holds up the ugliness of the broken world and demands the need for a Savior to come and set things right. The Author of the Bible desires our hearts. He wants us to long for His Kingdom. He wants us to hope for the day when the Son returns to set everything right. We do not read the Bible and come away thinking that sin is a good thing, we come away longing for the purity and righteousness of our true Father.
“Does what I allow into my home draw my heart and the hearts of my family to Christ?”
The content we allow into our homes ought to do the same. The question ought not be, “How sterilized and safe can we make things?” It ought to be, “Does what I allow into my home draw my heart and the hearts of my family to Christ?” This requires testing and conversation. It takes a great deal more effort than simply setting a list of channels that are approved or listening to a Christian review of a movie. It requires that we learn to think and process things for ourselves using the lens of Scripture.
We are created to reflect God’s glory and draw people to Him. This encompasses every aspect of our lives including where we live and work, what we eat, and even how we choose to entertain ourselves. Everything in our lives either draws our hearts to God or leads us away from Him. We could also say that everything makes Jesus more or less valuable in our eyes. Does the content on your television screen draw your heart to God? Does it cause you to magnify Him and long for His return? This is the question we must put forth to ourselves every day. We cannot be passive when it comes to the question of what we watch or allow our families to watch. We must actively engage ourselves in the process and teach those we lead to do the same.