Social media. Selfies. People always leaving Facebook and making a big deal about it. Technology at the dinner table.
The last couple months I feel like my brain has been bombarded with constant negativity towards all things social media and technology-related.
From blog posts (and yes, you’ve even seen them here on She’s Intentional!), sermons, devotionals, and even speeches, social media and technology have become the proverbial hobby horse of my generation: the millennials. And I don’t disagree in the least — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Periscope, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkdIn, and every other networking sites and apps I’m missing all have their place. And we absolutely need to guard what we allow to come into our lives through those channels.
On the other hand — and this is where it might get a bit sticky but please stay with me, girls! — we have become a generation so so so hypocritical when it comes to social media.
Ouch. Right? But what do I mean by all of that?
We have labeled social media as the “problem” within our culture when it’s actually not the problem: social media has become the “law” of our generation.
Knowing that a [woman] is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
{Galatians 2:16}
We criticize people who post #selfies. We certainly can’t stand them if they post more than one selfie a week, and heaven forbid that it gets any “likes” because then we get so up-in-arms about it that we’re in serious danger of being angry and sinning at the same time. We justify or condemn them solely based on what we see on social media. We lambaste people that we don’t even know for their social media faults, we chastise and gossip about what so-and-so said about so-and-so’s IG photo on blah-blah-blah’s account.
Really?! Just stop. Stop stop stop.
Because social media isn’t the problem: our hearts are the problem.
In the book of Galatians the Apostle Paul admonishes the church to remember grace, to remember that Christ fulfilled the law with His sacrifice on Calvary, and to stop holding the Gentiles accountable to Jewish law that wasn’t their salvation anyway.
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain?
{Galatians 3:2-4}
Had Paul lived in our culture, it would probably sound something like this: Have you received the Holy Ghost by your good works or by following the plan of salvation? And are you so naive to think that you are perfect by what you do or do not post on social media and that you have a right to judge others who do not measure up to your standards? Have you endured tests and trials only to not learn from them?
So stop making social media the problem. Because the real problem is that faults are just now a lot easier to see, all thanks to social media.
Everyone has faults, Darling. Myself included. I’m not exempt, and I’m certainly not above reproach in this area. But the fact is that the majority of us have (at some point) shown “righteous indignation” regarding hypocrisy on social media when we ourselves are not above “the law.” Because no one is! That’s why Jesus had to come to the earth: He had to take our place: to die for our faults, the shortcomings, the hypocrisy. Because on our own we can do nothing. We couldn’t be saved if it were only through the law.
I really, honestly, truly, completely believe that if we would search our hearts, take note of what we have within us that social media would cease to be problematic within the Church. As women of intentional faith and intentional pursuit of Jesus, it is our calling — our responsibility — to shine the light of Christ in all that we do. Always. But it can be hard sometimes! And thank you social media for making it just that much harder. Thank you, social media, for making it so blatantly obvious when we fail, when we trip, when we go crashing into the ditch.
Girls, ladies of my heart, women that I love so much: please stop attributing our culture’s problems to social media. Please stop tearing each other down. Examine your heart. Examine who you are in the deepest part of your soul. Allow Jesus to be the One who guides you during the day, not the law — not social media. And then when you’ve done that, use your social media accounts to uplift, to encourage, to reach out to the ones who need it the most. Because remember: social media is just “the law” of our generation, but Jesus’ grace is sufficient for us.