About 7 minutes to read
Every Believer Must Discern
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1 (KJV)
John wrote that to ordinary church members. The Bereans searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so, and they did it with an apostle (Acts 17:11). Paul told a young church to prove all things and hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
Discernment is a skill that grows with use. Hebrews speaks of those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). The writer pictures a man whose senses are trained by practice, and that training is real. A Christian who never tests what he hears stays a child. And the voices now reach you in your pocket all day long.
Testing Teaching Online
A book, a podcast, a video, or a sermon from another church is tested the same way as a preacher in a pulpit. Hold it up to Scripture, and use the Westminster Standards as a faithful summary of what Scripture teaches. The Larger Catechism tells hearers to examine what they hear by the Scriptures (WLC 160).
Use the seven questions in How to Spot a False Teacher. The last of them, who holds him to account, matters most online, where anyone with a camera can build a following.
Your Own Elders
Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
Hebrews 13:17 (KJV)
A teacher you have never met cannot watch for your soul. He does not know your name, and he will not give account for you. Christ gave pastors and teachers to his church for the perfecting of the saints (Ephesians 4:11-12), and he gives them through a local church. A sound teacher online can help. When he becomes the voice you trust over your own elders, something has gone wrong. Let the sermon you hear on the Lord’s Day be the main meal of your week, and the rest a side dish.
What the Feed Feeds You
The apps that serve you videos are built to keep you watching. They learn what stirs you, and they bring you more of it. If outrage or flattery keeps you watching, you will get more of it. Paul warned of people who, after their own lusts, heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3). A feed can do the heaping for you. Choose what you listen to on purpose. Do not let a machine choose it for you.
Worship Music and Other Songs
In the public worship of God, he decides what is sung. This site holds, with the Reformed Presbyterian churches, that God gave the Psalms to be sung in worship, without instruments. How God Is to Be Worshiped explains why.
Listening at home or in the car is a different matter, and many in Reformed churches listen to songs about God outside of worship. Some hold that any singing of praise to God is worship and keep to the Psalms in private as well. Either way, test what you take in.
- Are the words true? Read the lyrics on their own, without the music. Would they stand if a minister said them from the pulpit?
- Is there theology in them? Do they say who God is, what Christ has done, and what sin is? Or could you sing them to a girlfriend by changing one word?
- What does it stir? Music moves the feelings. That is a gift. Ask whether it stirs love for Christ and hatred of sin, or only a mood you mistake for God’s presence.
Books, Music, Films, and Games
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Philippians 4:8 (KJV)
Not all culture is evil. Paul quoted the pagan poets to the Athenians (Acts 17:28). Good stories, honest history, and beautiful music can be enjoyed with thanks. God alone is Lord of the conscience (WCF 20.2), and no one may bind you with rules Scripture does not give.
But liberty is not license. They who, upon pretense of Christian liberty, do practice any sin, or cherish any lust, do thereby destroy the end of Christian liberty (WCF 20.3). David said, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes (Psalm 101:3). Paul said to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret (Ephesians 5:11-12). Scripture itself tells of wicked deeds, so a story may show sin. The question is whether it shows sin to be hated or serves it up to be enjoyed. The Larger Catechism names lascivious songs, books, pictures, and stage plays among the sins of the seventh commandment (WLC 139). Nudity and sex on a screen are not a matter of taste.
- What does it make me love? Does it make evil look good, or good look foolish?
- Does it rule me? All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any (1 Corinthians 6:12).
- Can I do it in faith? Whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). If your conscience is uneasy, leave it.
Films that portray Christ raise a further question. The Larger Catechism counts any representation of any of the three persons of God a sin against the second commandment (WLC 109), and an actor playing Jesus is such a representation.
Your Time and Your Attention
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15-16 (KJV)
Your hours belong to God. A show can be clean and still steal an evening that was owed to prayer, to your wife, or to your children. The Larger Catechism calls for a sober use of recreations and counts their immoderate use a sin (WLC 135, 136). Many believers do not lack time to pray. They spend it on a screen a few minutes at a time.
If you find that you cannot put the phone down, that is not a small thing. It has brought you under its power. Confess it, and take steps. If the screen has led you into pornography, read the part on the eyes.
Guiding Children and Teens
Parents must guide what their children watch, hear, and read, and teach them to test it themselves. Watch with them and ask afterward what the story made them admire. Go first. Children learn more from what you scroll than from what you say. See Phones and Screens in the parenting guide.
This Week
- List your voices. Write down every teacher and channel you follow. Run each through the seven questions.
- Ask your elders. Tell your pastor who you listen to and ask what he thinks. Let him be the teacher you hear most.
- Read the lyrics. Take the songs you play most and read the words alone. Keep what is true.
- Check your screen time. Compare last week’s hours on the phone with your hours in prayer and the Word. Then keep it off at the table and at bedtime.
- Bring it to Christ. Where you have fed on what grieves him, confess it. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:7). If you have never come to him, start with the gospel.