Our Lord Jesus Christ, his Church, and his mission are done massive harm by the bad, sometimes appalling behaviour of Christians on social media platforms. Our behaviour is sometimes nothing short of shameful. Pride, anger, slander, name-calling and sowing division does not glorify God or adorn the gospel. Sometimes even pastors model sinful ways of interacting on social media. So it’s high time we considered and applied God’s wisdom to our online habits and social media, especially how we speak.
It’s high time we applied God’s wisdom to social media, especially how we speak there.
“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him.” We don’t have time to go into all seven of them. But two are particularly relevant for our behaviours and widespread sin on social media. What’s that? Our God hates “a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community” (Proverbs 6:16, 19).
We’ve All Seen It—And We’ve Seen It All
Mr Christian posts something on social media. Perhaps it’s a short quote on Twitter. Or an opinion on Facebook. The person posting means well. But before you can say “Nebuchadnezzar,” there is a tsunami of responses. It’s as if this thing develops a life of its own. The post grows threads, gains momentum, and goes places you never envisaged or imagined. Mr Christian’s expectations may have been good and honourable. Yet the results were horrible.
Do we have free pass to rant on social media? Has slander become okay, if it’s online?
I witnessed this again, recently. An international figure posted a short statement on Twitter that I thought was well meaning, constructive, and appropriate. But then it starts. The Twitterati go berserk. The comments pile up. Among them you get the typical, harmful, and often idiotic responses. Then there are the supernaturally informed exegetes, with the gift of reading between the lines. They tell you what the post really means. Next come the vibe killers, who put a miserable spin on the thing. Simultaneously, the paranoid inform us of the true, subversive intentions of the person posting. There are the teachers, feeling the need to correct everything. And don’t forget the haters, spewing vitriol.
Aggressive attitudes and hostile demeanours more than nullify any case put forward. Our attitudes and actions repel most people.
What are we trying to achieve? Is it for the glory of God and the cause of Christ? Paul instructed us to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Is social media exempt? Do we have free pass to rant there? Has slander become okay, if it’s online? Are we free to sin in how we speak, as long as it’s on social media?
A Necessary Caveat
The Bible clearly teaches that exposing false teaching is a very important matter for pastors and Christians. There are huge chunks of the Bible that warn of the deadly dangers of doctrinal falsehood. Thus pastoral care includes exposing, correcting, warning, and admonishing. Even among Christians there is a place for discussion and rigorous debate. “Iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:27).
But social media is not the forum for such a thing.
“Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing”
This is happening in the public domain! Immature Christians are perplexed, believers are discouraged, while others get thoroughly fed up. And the world thinks ‘Christians are cannibalistic. A bunch of angry losers.’ What good becomes of it? Satan has the last laugh.
How many social media rants bring about a change of mind and a change of heart?
What’s driving it? Sometimes our social media activity reveals our pride. Who will have the last word? And often things become personal. It’s easy to be brave and cocky on a keyboard. How many social media rants bring about a change of mind and a change of heart?
What about pastoral care and social media sin? Why do we turn a blind eye to some of our members going rogue online? They don’t teach in the local church, yet they say what they like on social media. Why are they not called out? Why don’t pastors intervene, and help their people to see and appreciate the problems? I understand why. I recoil from the idea of having anything resembling social media police.
Choose the Narrow Way
Sometimes it’s better to shut up! The idea that we must straighten out everybody’s theology online for the kingdom to progress is plain nonsense.
The idea that we must straighten out everybody’s theology online is plain nonsense.
You may well sense the need to correct someone you sense is going off the rails. But embodiment is the way to go. Meet with the person. Face to face. Once you speak to a person the atmosphere is different. This is so much more constructive than lobbing spiritual hand-grenades via social media or a comment thread. If you desire to have constructive discussion and debate with some people, there is a way. Set up a closed group.
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).
