There is no denying this world is a dangerous place. Apart from disease, crime, and poverty that have always plagued mankind, modern technology allows us to communicate so rapidly that geopolitical concerns, incidents of social unrest, terror attacks, and so on, pervade our daily lives. This non-stop consumption of information currently foisted as “normal” demands a continuous escalation to trigger emotion and generate interest.
Media is, in the end, a competition to get as many people to look as possible. Think about it. If somehow nothing truly important or controversial happened for a day, or better yet a week, would the news cease to report? Would they take a day off? Can television or print and online publications even do that?
Of course not! Getting you to pay attention, to watch or read, is their business! It is how they make their money, and the more people view their product the more they can charge advertisers and the more of it they make. They need you to look at them, to care, to worry, to be genuinely interested. When it takes sensationalism or misrepresentation to find that emotional trigger truth is often the first casualty.
So, should we ignore the world as it crumbles around us? Is this a call to completely tune out and become the proverbial ostrich? Quite the opposite. It is our Christian duty to watch, to be informed that we may be ready to inform and to educate when opportunity arises.
Jesus Christ said to His disciples, after warning them of the events that would precede the establishment of His kingdom, “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:
“So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.
“Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.
“Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
“For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
“Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
“Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
“And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13:28-37).
This command cannot be ignored, nor can the many others our Lord has laid upon us. He commended the humble, the meek, those who show mercy and make peace. He demands that we abandon hatred and unnecessary anger, lust, hypocrisy, and greed. He said “Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 8:21).
Ours is an active calling. It requires the walk to back up the talk. There are things we must strive for and others we must avoid.
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
“Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
“Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
“Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
“Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:19-26).
To live life by these precepts is not easy. Jesus Christ called the path that leads to life straight and narrow and said few would find it. The requirements of the righteous have never changed but today we are exposed to the perfidious vagaries of the world in a manner likely unimaginable by previous generations.
Ideological challenges can be presented across the globe in real time. Never before has mankind been exposed to so much. Never before have we been so connected and yet at times it seems we have never been so divided. These tools of communication that can, and have been, used for good also challenge us in an unprecedented manner.
The internet especially provides temptation for the darkest parts of human nature. It offers adultery and fornication at the touch of a button. It is a venue for hatred, wrath, and strife with the benefit of anonymity, taking the danger of physical confrontation completely out of the equation.
Never before have men and women had to confront these temptations this way, to have access to the darkest reaches of human nature in the palm of your hand or the privacy of your home. The tool or technology does not bear the blame, but the evil use to which men put it. Jesus Christ said, “because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12).
Even a cursory study of the bible illuminates the gross errors of man. We are required to watch, but what we see is so often sickening. We are provoked and put upon by the sources we rely on to inform us. We are baited, switched and swindled. Our love, joy, and peace are tested as our longsuffering is measured.
It is difficult to restrain our own wrath and hatred when looking on the grievous sins around us, to condemn the sin and not the sinner. How much less restraint have we seen from the incensed mobs that have recently been taking to the streets? Should the righteous emulate the sinners?
God forbid. Ours is a delicate balancing act. As it says in Ephesians 4:26-27 “be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil.” Remember that, above all, we are to have love and that love, as it says in 1 Corinthians 13:5, “is not easily provoked.”
These are the challenges we face as Christians in the twenty-first century. The battles we face are the same as in any other generation but the battleground is ever changing. We have information, luxury, and convenience like never before but it is accompanied by abundant opportunity to veer from that straight and narrow path.
If we suffer because we see the direction the world is going, and because we cling to God’s way of life as we endure temptation, then let us rejoice because we suffer as Christians.
