"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love rserve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: t“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another."
Ever since entering this new world of social media, I've noticed some interesting things "trending"(whoops #trending). It seems as though among the Christian communtiy we've taken to social media to oppose, rebuke, and sometimes outright slander tose withink our own faith. It seems as if we are resembling the culture at large in ever increasingly polarizing those who differ from us in their views. It seems that we have made it our mission to be on twitter patrol, in the eye of the public I mind you, advancing our theological positions, rather than joining together to advance the kingdom of God.
What happens in social media, is that it's so easy, we easily bypass paramaters that would make us "think before we tweet". Instead of having to have a face to face conversation, or write a letter, or a phone call, we can easily "tweet in anger". Those other processes really force us to think and process before we do them because it requires more time.
It really requires greater accountability on our part. The blog wars, the tweet wars, guys, come on. I agree Paul tells us that in order to present everyone in mature in Christ, we warn and teach everyone. So there's both didasko teaching, and admonishing/warning.
I would hope that the trajectory of our faith's presence in the social media atmosphere, would be one that proved to the world, that the resurrected Christ lives in His disciples, and that we are able, through the love of Christ, to show what it means to love in the midst of a disagreement, instead of tweeting snarky,shallow, and foolish comments.
The social media world, is not where we flex our theoligcal muscles, but rather is a God-given outlet for us to display and make much of Christ. I'm not sure if Paul would shoot a "tweet" to Peter, when he saw him shunning Gentiles because he cared about his reputation before the Jews. Paul confronted him to his face. Christ confronted people to their face. He didn't hide behind anything, because he didn't have to. His rebuke was motivated by a love for God and a love for people. What about ours? Do we hide behind out social media outlets because our motivation really isn't about God or people.....but about us? We usually hide, like Adam in the garden, when we are ashamed and know we are sinning. What do we think those outside of Christ think of us, when they see two respected "theologians" tweeting back and forth comments like "oh so your the twitter police now?". Wow. Christ has called us to richer, more productive conversation.
Can we have more phone calls, more personal emails, or ideally, face to face conversations, and debate for the glory of Christ? Let's model to this ever increasing sensitive and polarizing culture, that we can disagree but respect and love each other. Am I guilty of this? Absolutely. But I think by the Spirit we have to change our trajectory and presence in the social media world. Let us not act like cowards, but brothers.
Ever since entering this new world of social media, I've noticed some interesting things "trending"(whoops #trending). It seems as though among the Christian communtiy we've taken to social media to oppose, rebuke, and sometimes outright slander tose withink our own faith. It seems as if we are resembling the culture at large in ever increasingly polarizing those who differ from us in their views. It seems that we have made it our mission to be on twitter patrol, in the eye of the public I mind you, advancing our theological positions, rather than joining together to advance the kingdom of God.
What happens in social media, is that it's so easy, we easily bypass paramaters that would make us "think before we tweet". Instead of having to have a face to face conversation, or write a letter, or a phone call, we can easily "tweet in anger". Those other processes really force us to think and process before we do them because it requires more time.
It really requires greater accountability on our part. The blog wars, the tweet wars, guys, come on. I agree Paul tells us that in order to present everyone in mature in Christ, we warn and teach everyone. So there's both didasko teaching, and admonishing/warning.
I would hope that the trajectory of our faith's presence in the social media atmosphere, would be one that proved to the world, that the resurrected Christ lives in His disciples, and that we are able, through the love of Christ, to show what it means to love in the midst of a disagreement, instead of tweeting snarky,shallow, and foolish comments.
The social media world, is not where we flex our theoligcal muscles, but rather is a God-given outlet for us to display and make much of Christ. I'm not sure if Paul would shoot a "tweet" to Peter, when he saw him shunning Gentiles because he cared about his reputation before the Jews. Paul confronted him to his face. Christ confronted people to their face. He didn't hide behind anything, because he didn't have to. His rebuke was motivated by a love for God and a love for people. What about ours? Do we hide behind out social media outlets because our motivation really isn't about God or people.....but about us? We usually hide, like Adam in the garden, when we are ashamed and know we are sinning. What do we think those outside of Christ think of us, when they see two respected "theologians" tweeting back and forth comments like "oh so your the twitter police now?". Wow. Christ has called us to richer, more productive conversation.
Can we have more phone calls, more personal emails, or ideally, face to face conversations, and debate for the glory of Christ? Let's model to this ever increasing sensitive and polarizing culture, that we can disagree but respect and love each other. Am I guilty of this? Absolutely. But I think by the Spirit we have to change our trajectory and presence in the social media world. Let us not act like cowards, but brothers.