You are what you watch
Ever heard of the phrase 'you are what you eat'?... what about 'you are what you watch'?
As BAC's we must be careful with what we fill our minds with and what environments we go to. Why? Because sin rubs off.
Through Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God, known as justification. However, as Christians, what we quickly begin to learn is that justification is not the end product, it is in fact the beginning. In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, that he must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. As new Christians we must grow in our relationship with God, beginning with what Paul refers to as 'spiritual milk' (1 Peter 2:2), just like physical babies must grow. This process of growth is known as sanctification.
Once truly justified, always justified - that is God's gift of grace. However, sanctification is a continual process, and there is times in our lives when we are up and times in our lives when we are down. Sometimes it is circumstances beyond our control that give us a good kick in the teeth, however more than often it is our own actions that cause us to fall.
The Bible in many places tells us to flee from temptation. If we are to take this on board, why do we chose to watch things and be around things that are ungodly and glorify sin, filling our minds with rubbish? There is enough problems in the world for us to be tempted without us tempting ourselves - wise up!.
Matthew 6:22-23 tells us that our eyes are the light of the body: "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"
Through watching unsavoury things we are filling our minds with everything that we have escaped from, therefore re-igniting the sinful desires that were once so prevalent in our minds.
If you watch films about adultery and lust, your mind will be filled with lust. It is a pretty simple formula to comprehend, and when you think about it this way, it is deadly. Yet we all wilfully continue to do it.
Going to unsavoury places too is the same concept. It is inviting temptation in and filling your mind with sin. What you may think is harmless is actually altering your whole perception on sin. If you go to night clubs, you may be shocked at the things people do, however after a while you become desensitised to the sin going on around you. You come to accept it. In doing so you let down your guard and before you know it, it is upon you. 1 Peter 5: 8 tells us to "be vigilant, for your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." The minute we stop being vigilant and become passive to sin, it overcomes us. (Note: 1 Peter 5:8 says 'whom' the devil will devour, not 'what' the devil will devour - the devil wants to destroy you through sin).
We must also be alert and vigilant to what we watch on television, what you think to be harmless and fun can have deadly consequences. Take the hit T.V show friends for instance. Friends was a major hit amongst all ages. Yet if you watch it from a Godly perspective you will see exactly what it is about. It promotes sin through comedy. It makes jokes of the fact that Joey sleeps with 100's of women, or that Ross has been married several times. It makes a mockery of sin, and sin is not something to be mocked, it is serious.
By making sin appear to be funny we come to accept it, we let our guard down and we become susceptible to it. The devil is a very clever being. 2 Corinthians 11:14 tells us that "... Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light!" We must take 1 Peter 5:8 on board and remain vigilant to sin, being careful what we fill our minds with.
Even humans know of the power of media and television. It is known that what we watch we eventually come to accept. Half of WW2 was fought on home territory, keeping up morale of the citizens. How was this accomplished? Through propaganda, media campaigns, posters and cartoons poking fun at the enemy. Joseph Goebels, Hitler's propaganda chief, recognised the importance of cinema to promote German pride and anti-semitism.
On another level, if we are truly justified we shouldn't want to fill our minds with ungodly things.
What we watch, where we spend our time and what we fill our minds with is important. Pay attention and wise up to the ways of the devil.
-BACChristian
As BAC's we must be careful with what we fill our minds with and what environments we go to. Why? Because sin rubs off.
Through Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God, known as justification. However, as Christians, what we quickly begin to learn is that justification is not the end product, it is in fact the beginning. In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, that he must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. As new Christians we must grow in our relationship with God, beginning with what Paul refers to as 'spiritual milk' (1 Peter 2:2), just like physical babies must grow. This process of growth is known as sanctification.
Once truly justified, always justified - that is God's gift of grace. However, sanctification is a continual process, and there is times in our lives when we are up and times in our lives when we are down. Sometimes it is circumstances beyond our control that give us a good kick in the teeth, however more than often it is our own actions that cause us to fall.
The Bible in many places tells us to flee from temptation. If we are to take this on board, why do we chose to watch things and be around things that are ungodly and glorify sin, filling our minds with rubbish? There is enough problems in the world for us to be tempted without us tempting ourselves - wise up!.
Matthew 6:22-23 tells us that our eyes are the light of the body: "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"
Through watching unsavoury things we are filling our minds with everything that we have escaped from, therefore re-igniting the sinful desires that were once so prevalent in our minds.
If you watch films about adultery and lust, your mind will be filled with lust. It is a pretty simple formula to comprehend, and when you think about it this way, it is deadly. Yet we all wilfully continue to do it.
Going to unsavoury places too is the same concept. It is inviting temptation in and filling your mind with sin. What you may think is harmless is actually altering your whole perception on sin. If you go to night clubs, you may be shocked at the things people do, however after a while you become desensitised to the sin going on around you. You come to accept it. In doing so you let down your guard and before you know it, it is upon you. 1 Peter 5: 8 tells us to "be vigilant, for your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." The minute we stop being vigilant and become passive to sin, it overcomes us. (Note: 1 Peter 5:8 says 'whom' the devil will devour, not 'what' the devil will devour - the devil wants to destroy you through sin).
We must also be alert and vigilant to what we watch on television, what you think to be harmless and fun can have deadly consequences. Take the hit T.V show friends for instance. Friends was a major hit amongst all ages. Yet if you watch it from a Godly perspective you will see exactly what it is about. It promotes sin through comedy. It makes jokes of the fact that Joey sleeps with 100's of women, or that Ross has been married several times. It makes a mockery of sin, and sin is not something to be mocked, it is serious.
By making sin appear to be funny we come to accept it, we let our guard down and we become susceptible to it. The devil is a very clever being. 2 Corinthians 11:14 tells us that "... Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light!" We must take 1 Peter 5:8 on board and remain vigilant to sin, being careful what we fill our minds with.
Even humans know of the power of media and television. It is known that what we watch we eventually come to accept. Half of WW2 was fought on home territory, keeping up morale of the citizens. How was this accomplished? Through propaganda, media campaigns, posters and cartoons poking fun at the enemy. Joseph Goebels, Hitler's propaganda chief, recognised the importance of cinema to promote German pride and anti-semitism.
On another level, if we are truly justified we shouldn't want to fill our minds with ungodly things.
What we watch, where we spend our time and what we fill our minds with is important. Pay attention and wise up to the ways of the devil.
-BACChristian
Comments
Post a Comment