Is it acceptable to watch sin?

Is it acceptable to watch sin, even if it isn't technically real?

This has been the question on my mind recently, and the short answer I have arrived at is no, for no other reason than I am trying to justify my actions-- and that's never a good sign.

But it goes past that.

Should I as a Christian draw entertainment from sin? When worded like that, the idea sounds a little backwards. As a new creation in Christ, I should be weary to idly witness sin. If the Holy Spirit of God dwells within me, then I should be horrified to take any enjoyment or satisfaction in watching others sin.

Romans 12:9 makes it pretty clear how we are to act towards sin. Paul writes,

"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good." 

However, I am guilty as most of watching rated R films laden with sexual references and foul language. You come to the point where you can seemingly completely tune the bad content out.

I say seemingly because whether we realize it, our lives are being impacted by what we witness in the media constantly. We draw our perceptions of love, beauty and truth by what we see portrayed in movies.

Currently from where I sit in the library I can see a couple, maybe juniors, who judging by the ring on her finger are engaged, and are, for lack of a better term, groping each other. I mean, these two have their hands all over everything. Mostly her on him. Which isn't surprising in the least.

Why do couples feel like the only way they can connect to one another is through physical acts like touching and kissing and most importantly (and disturbing) sex?
Because that is what the media says love is.

Think about it for a moment-- you shouldn't have to think long. When a couple "falls in love" in the movies, they usually always end up having sex, to "show" their feelings.

That's not love. That's passionate lust.

But our young people are being taught that love = sex.
This is a half truth. Sex is a part of love, but is to be used inside of marriage and only marriage.

I am not under the impression that the only way I can show someone I love them is by jumping into bed with them or sucking their face off.
Love is not sex. Love does not equal sex. 1 Corinthians does not say,

Sex is patient. Sex is kind. Sex does not envy or boast, sex is not proud. Sex does not dishonor others, sex is not self-seeking, sex is not easily angered. Sex keeps no record of wrongs. Sex does not delight in evil, but sex rejoices in truth. Sex always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Sex never fails.

This clearly is not God's interpretation of sex, but this is definitely America's interpretation.

But if I (and Christians who agree with me) continue to watch sin in the media, our perceptions are bound to change. We cannot think for a moment that we can be innocent bystanders and not be affected.

If you were to happen to be in front of a building when it caught on fire, would you stay near it to watch it burn, or would you get as far away as possible in case the fire spread?

I would run. And I should have the same philosophy when watching sin in the media.

Kim Kardashian Files For Divorce

Well, that's embarrassing.

.......after 72 days.

She's stated as saying, "It just didn't work out".

I wonder why. Actually, I don't wonder why. I know why. I'm reminded by something the Apostle Paul once said to the church of Corinth. He wrote,

"By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. ¹⁴ If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames."

Although Paul wasn't specifically speaking of marriage, he is talking about the church, who is Christ's bride. And if man's relationship with his wife is supposed to be a mirror of Christ's relationship with the church, then everything Paul says in relation to Christ can be applied to marriage, in my opinion.
By that logic, Paul reveals some key things about marriage.

First off, marriage is to be built on Christ, first and foremost. I've seen many weddings, built on many different foundations, and I can tell  you which ones survive and which ones don't. Hollywood alone can attest to the rate of failed marriages that aren't founded in Christ.

But does 'being a Christian' make marriage easy? Quite the contrary. I'm only 18 and I already  know how difficult marriage can be. And I've seen Christian marriages fail. Being a Christian doesn't automatically mean that your marriage passes go and collects $200.

However I stand by my beliefs that if Christ is legitimately the foundation of your life and then marriage, then by the grace of God your marriage can survive and actually be glorifying.

Paul goes on to assure the church that trials will come, and our work will be shown. Fire will test the quality of each work. Why would you want a foundation that is anything other than that of the man that bore the sin of humanity?

The end of this passage is what gets me every time. Paul is saying that the person will be saved; but only as someone who narrowly escaped the flames.

Personally, I don't want to live a life that just barely makes it. I don't want a marriage that makes it by the skin of our teeth.

I want a full life. I want a marriage full of laughter and joy.
I don't want a marriage that barely survives, or doesn't survive at all.

I don't want to be 72 days into marriage and give up.

That's just embarrassing. It's embarrassing for the entire union of marriage. The purpose of marriage is to demonstrate how Christ loves the Church. Christ doesn't give up on His people. Divorce isn't an option for Jesus, so why should it be for us?

Spend a little more time with a person before you marry them. Seek God's Will, and do not enter marriage unless you are ready for a lifelong commitment.

It's time that we take back marriage.

Religion Ain't Bad, It's Just Misunderstood.

In keeping with my previous trend, I am going to talk about the misconception that seems to surround the word religion. I would be lying to you if I said that sometimes I cringe at the word. That kind of upsets me. Because religion is not the problem. It really never has been. If we look at the definition of religion, we will see that simply put it just means, the service and worship of God.

There, that's not so bad.

So why does society (and Christians specifically it would seem) flee from calling ourselves "religious"?

Because it has such a negative connotation.

A lot of "crazy" people have also been "religious", and Biblically speaking, the Pharisees were considered the "most religious", and look how that turned out for them.

I do not believe that religion gets you to heaven.

Serving God doesn't get you to Heaven. Worshiping God doesn't get you there either. Rather, they are products of your relationship with God.

Biblically speaking, the term religion only appears a scanty five times (in the English Standard Version), twice in Acts (25:19, 26:5), twice in James (1:26-27) and once in Colossians (2:23).

Really the only one of the five that speaks to what religion is, is found in James, which states:

"Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (ESV)

So by James' definition, religion is not so much about what you believe, but how you believe it.

In other words, James' definition of religion, undoubtedly supplied by the Holy Spirit, leans more towards religion being a term to describe the action of the relationship between Christ and His followers. So while no, Christianity is not soley a religion, there seems to be a balance between our relationship with Christ and how we act on it religiously.

So instead of getting bent out of shape because someone calls you "religious", take it as a compliment. And ratify the term by claiming "religion" and  honoring God through it.

If you're reading this, I'm going to urge you to stop and instead go read what the Bible has to say on the subject of love. As a culture we have complete desensitized ourselves to its meaning. We do not understand what the word even means. Let me pause here by saying that I'm under no false pretenses that I am an expert in the subject, nor do I find myself in the right here. I'm as guilty as anyone of this love misconception epidemic.
We have robbed ourselves as Christians by losing the meaning of the word love.

Look through Scripture and find an instance when the story goes something like this,
And Jesus said, "God, I love manna. It's so delicious."
And Jesus said, "God, I love hanging out with you guys. You're so cool."
And Jesus said, "OMG I love this song!"

(Now if you notice, I also brought up another one of my pet peeves, which is the improper use of God's name, but that's for another day)

I don't think that we will find any of those phrases in Scripture. Why? Because that's not what the word love means. But I myself have said all three of those things. This week. Well, I said bread, not manna. You get my point.

I've also said, "Lord, I love you."

Ouch. So I love bread. I love hanging out with my friends. I love a song. I love Jesus.

Why in the world would I use a word to describe how I feel about my Savior to also describe bread.

More often than not, what we mean by love is really like or enjoy.

But the word love has become a universal term to show appreciation or enjoyment for something. The reason we cannot define the word love is because it's used for everything.
If we knew what the word truly meant, I think we would be more weary to use it improperly.

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us"

What Paul just said is that love is an agent that drives us to set aside ourselves completely, even to the point of brutal, torturous death for the object of which we love.

And we say we love pizza.

But that's God's love,

you might want to argue, as I did in trying to justify myself. That is true, this is Godly love. But God Himself commands us as Christians to "Be Holy as I am Holy", and to follow the example of Christ. So this is the love that Christ commands us to have.

Do we understand that when we say "Gosh, I love this song", truly we implying that we set aside ourselves completely, even to the point of brutal, torturous death for this song"

In my opinion, the Love Misconception accounts for almost everything that is wrong with the world. People "fall in love", but get divorced after 30 years of marriage. People "make love", but are left with a brokenness. 

This isn't the love the Bible speaks of. And although my mind doesn't even begin to comprehend God's, I would assume that it's a slap in the face to one minute profess our 'love' for pizza, or a song, or even another person, and the next proclaim that same 'love' for YHWH.

If you cannot tell, I am pretty convicted and torn up over this. And because I never want to be a Phariseetian (yes, I made this up), I am going to put action to my words. I am, starting now, going to take a few extra breaths and say that I "really really like" pizza.
If I truly love the Lord, then everything else should look like hate.

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple."
(Luke 14)

Obviously Jesus isn't encouraging hatred, but what He is saying is that your love for God should be so immense that everything by comparison looks like hate.

So join me, if the Holy Spirit has so convicted you, to become sensitized to the word love and it's meaning, and see how radically your view of love changes.

The Parable of the Lost Coin goes something like this, [Jesus said], "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she call together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
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I stumbled upon this verse today in my New Testament class (imagine that!), and I had an epiphany. To tell you the truth, apart from my teacher's relatively bad puns, I cannot remember much of what was said, and class just ended. I cannot remember because God was speaking to me today, through Luke.
Read through those words one more time.
It hit me like never before that God is never a passive God. Ever.
Although admittedly it's a little strange that I interpret God as the woman in this parable, nevertheless the meaning still stands.
Like the woman and her coin, God finds intrinsic value in us as His children. What fool idly stands by when he looses money? If you are anything like me, you usually seek after that pesky penny that jumps out of your wallet or purse and rolls under something, usually a counter or refrigerator or something else irritating. Or Heaven forbid a dollar falls out of my back pocket.

Why do we do that? Why do we not just leave the money on the ground?
Because it's valuable.
So why does God not leave us when we are lost?
Because. We are valuable.
This parable says that the woman diligently sought for the coin she had lost, going as far as to light a lamp [implying darkness], and sweeping her whole home until  she finds it.
Likewise, God diligently seeks after His lost children, lighting a lamp in our darkness and He sweeps across the world to find us. God does not wait for us. We do not operate on His time table. Instead, He does everything He possibly can to seek us.
And if that is not reason enough to praise Him, read on further.
The woman gets her friends and basically throws a party. For one coin. ONE. COIN. I'm thinking, come on lady. You have nine other coins. Talk about frugal. Why do you have to have the tenth?
Because it's valuable.
And just as the woman in this parable most likely planned to use that coin to accomplish a goal, so our Father plans to use us similarly.
God is not idle.
He does not stand around, moping that He has lost His coin. No, He diligently seeks it, and rejoices with all of Heaven when one of His children returns.

What a beautiful God we serve.