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And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17 

The Message We Send

This post is specifically directed to my Brothers and Sisters in Christ all across the globe, especially to those who have access to social media in any form.

Brothers and Sisters, have we considered the message we are sending when we get on some form of social media and…

• Trash a political figure, movie star, or some other public personality?

• Throw rocks at other Christians with whom we may not agree?

• Spew out our frustrations regarding our neighbors, local businesses, other drivers, our spouses,  kids, etc.?

We may not have given it much thought, but, when we do the things mentioned above, we are sending a very clear message to the world that Christians are absolutely no different than anyone else. The Church is therefore completely irrelevent, and Jesus Christ makes absolutely no difference whatever in a person’s life. Is that really the message we want to be sending?

Think about it.

But…But…But…

I can imagine this will raise a number of “buts” in some people’s minds.

But what if it’s true?

Really?

If we are honest with ourselves, the only thing we really “know” about anything, especially outside of our community, is what is fed to us via the news media or social media. That being the case, all we are actually getting is information largely interpreted by the personal bias of whoever is sharing the story. We are never sure how the information is being manipulated to cause us to see things in a certain light. One sound bite taken out of context can have people frothing at the mouth in anger. When the same statement is considered within the larger context, a whole new picture emerges. (For more on this, check out this excellent post by Phil Cooke).

Let’s face it squarely: unless we are privy to the inner circle of what is going on, we really know very little. That is why we must be very cautious about responding to anything on the news, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

But I have a right to my opinion!

Is that a fact?

As followers of Christ, we would probably agree that the only person who really ever had a right to His own opinion would be Jesus Christ Himself. Let’s see how He conducted Himself in that regard.

For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. John 6:38

So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. John 7:16

 I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. John 12:49

The way I read it, Jesus certainly wasn’t going around spouting off His own opinion. Everything He did He did as a representative of His Father in heaven.

That was Jesus. So what about us? Consider the following.

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9:23

¹⁴ Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. ¹⁵ He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. 2 Corinthians 5:14 – 15

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

There are other passages we could refer to, but these serve to show that everything in our lives is to be given up the Lord. Everything we do we are to do as His representatives. That includes what we do on social media.

But it’s evil!

There are a lot of evil things that we confront in this world. Screaming at it on social media, however, is probably not the best way to confront it. I have found that the best way to deal with darkness is to turn on the light.

¹⁰ Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. ¹² It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. ¹³ But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, ¹⁴ for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said,