Easy access to evil
I once believed that explicit porn is not allowed on public media platforms such as Facebook. Lo and behold; they are, and readily available for consumption by not only our young people but also Bible-believing, tongues-speaking Christians. This is my major concern about the rise of these media gadgets, they are certainly not helping in our sanctification, but are in fact, fuelling the sexual immorality that is already the biggest enemy to the Church.
Privacy compromise
There are multiple stories where people have been robbed, scammed or kidnapped after the perpetrators used their information from social media to trace them. This is because most of us are so naïve enough to post anything online, even something as personal as our newborn babies, can you imagine? Some people update everyone with every detail of their lives including their current location and even their present emotional status. You see friends, we must mature and re-discover the dignity of our private lives, and separate it from the public profile. How about that?
Fake persona
Now, as much as we all have a right to privacy and dignity, we have no right to deceive other people into something that is not true about us. This is very common these days, where people open these public platforms (even anonymous accounts) so as to project something that is not a reality about them. It is to pretend to have something, or to be someone, so as to impress or exploit other individuals; eventually to get more “followers”. Therefore, we must be careful about how we use our social media platforms, and shy away from these fake profiles so as to gain the admiration of men. If anything, the online world must be an overflow of what’s real about us, especially our Christian lives, not a way to hide our godless behaviors.
Anti-local church attitude
It is understandable that the pandemic lockdown forced everyone away from the physical gathering towards the online platform. However, that does not mean that the local church is to be despised, and replaced by the “Zoom services”, which in my opinion, are not church services at all. We now have a problem of young people being too mesmerized by the internet preachers than they are with their local Pastors. Although I admit that this is largely caused by the famine in the land when it comes to the sound biblical churches in our areas. That, I can relate to. However, I cannot run away from the fact that God’s plan has always been the incarnate gathering of His people. This makes it easy for them to fellowship, care for, pray for and even encourage each other in the faith as they meet in person, while also being gracious to each other’s weaknesses and sins. To use the words of Paul Washer, “I don’t care if you are hearing the greatest preachers in the world every day on Youtube…if you are not a viable, serving, dedicated, devoted member to a physical local church, you are outside the will of God.”
Abuse
It is a well-known fact that social media has neither rules of engagement nor laws of morality. It’s a world where everyone is justified to say anything, to anyone, anytime, regardless of how it might affect and probably destroy them. When someone is unhappy about anything, Facebook is the place they run to spew out their poison to other humans. I have often said that if you want to see how evil human nature is, just see how it behaves on the internet. Here is my advice to fellow believers; those people who are there online might be strangers to you, but never forget that they are still people; alive and loved by God the same as you are. Therefore, whenever you engage in those debates, never lose your sense of humanity, even more, never forget that you are still a believer in Christ, who is expected to treat people with respect and kindness, even though you disagree with them.
Addiction
To be addicted is to continually practice something that damages your wellbeing without any ability to stop. We all know the experience of being glued to our cellphones to the point where nothing else matters in this world. Even when we are among other people who need our attention, we just can’t help it but prioritize what’s trending on our smartphones. Have you ever noticed how your screen time has completely taken away your prayer and Bible time? This is how bad media technology has affected this modern generation of Christ’s sheep.
Conclusion
You may think I purposefully cherry-picked these negative things about the media world so as to discourage you to stay away from it, on the contrary, I am actually encouraging believers to stay on social media. If you already have an account, please use it to its full, for the glory of our Lord. So that you may be the light in the midst of darkness. I mean let us be very active on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, TikTok so as to invade darkness and attack its stronghold with the light of the Gospel. Good soldiers are those who run towards the sound of the gun, not away from it. Therefore, far be it from us that we will run away from Satan, and allow him to reign on social media, rather, we will arm ourselves with the weapons of our warfare and challenge him on the same platform that he uses against us. I mean why are we silent about our Christian faith on these platforms? You see, when we don’t use technology for the spread of the truth, we are actually surrendering to the enemy and giving him dominion that he does not deserve. Therefore, my Christian comrade, please shun the habit of being just a consumer of social media without inputting anything. Instead, be the producer and create Biblical content for others to consume. The Gospel is still the power of God unto salvation, especially online. The world is still waiting to see/read biblical truth from your bosom. Start now and make everyone feel your godly presence.
Sinothi Ncube
Part 2, not to be missed…
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