As the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) announced a new article series in Faith Today, a national evangelical magazine, I was reminded of a few conversations I’d had over the years that I wanted to hunt down and compile into a series of thoughts. Living life online is like living life offline in many respects. I don’t refer to online life any differently than offline, and always get a question mark in my head when I hear of online life, and then, “real life”. I don’t know, when I pay a bill online, I can visit the vendor offline and verify that bill was indeed paid and in their records. When I make an appt with someone online and we meet for that appt on the phone, the fact we were both ready for the phone call tells me the online appt was very real. I believe this conversation of how we live online is extremely important to the conversation of Christian witness.
Back in 2011, I ended up in a conversation on Facebook with someone that led from an offensive profile pic to how Christians should live their lives on and offline in the world around them. Picking up in part of the conversation that pertains to a subject I want to lead to toward the end of this piece:
. . . Paul has the following to say about liberty and sin:
Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Gal 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Gal 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Gal 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Gal 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21 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.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
We are not to engage in the works of the flesh. We are not to encourage them or condone them. We are to live according to the Spirit and offer a hand up out of the sin that has these people bound.
There are many Scriptures that talk about how we are to live amongst ourselves, among the weaker brothers in Christ, and out in the world, etc. James 1:27 puts it this way: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
The entire chapter of James 1 is a great discussion on this. Other verses that stand out to me in this discussion are:
Jas 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Jas 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Jas 1:23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
Jas 1:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
Jas 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Jas 1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
In the digital age in which we live, we have to be even more careful of our witness, of the weaker brother we may never realize is in our friends list on some social network, and of the sinner so close to that point of Salvation but potentially turned aside by our apparent approval of their chosen way of life. The Internet is, in my opinion, the final frontier of missions. Every nation of the world, at some point in history, has heard the gospel. Today not everyone in every nation has heard, but every nation has at some point, heard. We are now trying to reach every people group within those nations, and that is a mammoth task without the age of the Internet. Add the Internet to that mix, and you have no idea who you might be touching with your witness.
We are to avoid behaving in ways that might have others accusing us of being in sin. We must seek to reach others without falling prey to the sin that entraps them. We can’t condone sin by showing any kind of approval for it. We are told to love the sinner but hate their sin. Christ never left the tax collector in his sin, His interaction at the dinner table caused Zacchaeus to go out and give back all he stole and then some. Christ never left the adulterous woman in her sin, but told her to go and sin no more. Our witness should ideally, do the same. Rather than appear to encourage the sin, we need to be living in such a way as those living in sin want to turn from their sin to join us at Jesus’ feet.
We have a witness to uphold before the world. What we post online needs to reflect the faith within us even more so than what we live offline out around town. The reason for this increased level of watchfulness over our witness, is because people online can’t see our facial expressions, they can’t hear our tone of voice, they can’t catch the nuances of our body language to know if what we are saying is really what we believe, or if its something else. Those of us who like to write can figure out how to string our words together such that others generally get a good idea of what we mean.
Its incredibly important to be seen as living out our faith online! We can’t leave doubt in anyone’s mind what we believe and what we stand for online! It’s far too easy to get misinterpreted to be agreeing with, condoning, or going along with things that we know are wrong.
In Fall of 2015, these thoughts carried on: As Christians, we have the biggest platform of all time sitting right at our keyboards! We have the opportunity to not only be real, (and I’ve found more people publicly doing things online that they’d never admit to face to face, so they ARE being more real, just not the real they present in properly conducted interpersonal interactions, knowing full well if they were real to your face, you’d probably end the friendship) but be real in our faith walk. There are many people online who are searching, hurting, and praying for someone to come along who has the answer, which is Jesus Christ! We can’t show Jesus if we are doing things online that we’d never do in “real life” such as gambling games, drinking games, just to name two of the calmer “its just entertainment” online pursuits. Entertainment stains the soul and eventually causes a person to think something’s ok in reality that used to stay just in their heads. We can halt that. We can take God literally when He says He sees in secret, and be as true to Him online as we are to each other offline. Someone out there will thank us for it in the long run, or curse us for having led them down a dark path just be watching what we post/do online. Yes, your online life DOES MATTER! It is THE BIGGEST missions frontier EVER! Will you be among the fakers, or among the digital missionary engagement???
In 2020, two more thoughts on these lines came along: I have long felt that the Internet was the final frontier in missions, but 2020 has shown so much more potential for The Church than simply missionary behaviour, but in carrying on many aspects of the discipleship portion of the mandate as well. Being driven back into our homes has created the perfect opportunity to learn how to use these tools for these purposes for many.
As an A+ certified computer repair tech, I find two chapters in Daniel very interesting as the AC is described as worshipping various elements that go into the making of computer parts. In January 2022, my daughter (mid-20’s in age), had a dream of a medical room, faintly lit by a demonic being in a soft computer-blue hue. There is an aspect of what we are dealing with in 2022, that is not merely digital in nature, but also demonic. In Scripture and down through history, God enables His people to use the technology of the day to further His message. The one bit of tech we are told to avoid is the mark. These days, the Internet is the final frontier in missions. Let us always be ready to redeem the technology of the day in sharing the Good News and ministering to others.
Faith Today, an evangelical magazine here in Canada, has begun a series on using the Internet to reach out to those around us with the Gospel. Their first article says many of the same things I share above, that I’ve shared in various ways with various people over the years. The only thing I’d caution from the article is the use of Youtube now. Instead, start a channel on Bitchute, Odysee, Rumble, or another video delivery site.
Above all, be real, don’t hide your faith, and be aware of how your online interactions add to or detract from, your faith witness! People are watching! Would God be pleased with what they are seeing?
