Rated G for Godless

What is your favorite movie (Sunday School answers not accepted).

For me it depends on the day…today its Pirates fo the Caribbean…but tomorrow it might be Lord of the Rings or Star Wars.

We generally have a few or several favorites due to the different genres to which they belong.

There are certainly many movies which are generally considered to be moral because of what they don’t have: foul language and blasphemy, sex and violence, smoking and drinking. We decide if a movie ethically good by what it does not have.

If you read the previous post I am sure you know where this is going. In life we ought to not determine something to be good and wholesome merely by what it does not possess. We must also consider what it does have. Do our movies, TV shows, and media intake generally point our minds to godliness.

As John Piper once said, “‘Is it sin?’ That is the lowest question you could ask. You should ask: ‘Is it beneficial?'”

Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash

Godless Entertainment

To be more specific. A few months ago I was watching a movie with Hannah called the Time Changer. It addresses the moral decline America over the course of the 20th century, namely because Christ was disconnected from he moral commands of scripture (i.e. Do not steal because your community says so, not because God says so). As I thought about the morals of television and movies I realized that I have a large and regular intake of Godless movies.

These are not movies filled with vile language, raunchy scenes, and gory fighting. These are movies about CEO’s doing their job, soldiers defending their homes, lawyers defending the innocent, detectives striving to determine the assailant, and teachers raising a generation of minds. However, amid these stories which involve the main character’s parents and family, his hobbies, and random life events, it is Godless.

I am running hours and hours of stories before my eyes and mind in which life is lived by various individuals without an awareness of God. My soul is being influenced…or as the Psalmist says, “counseled” (Psa. 1:1) by godless men and women.

I am being led to see life and decisions without God as present and active. I am learning how to live life in a decent fashion, respectable even to the supposedly upright and moral, but not living under God’s authority and for his honor.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Think about it

Consider the last several movies you have watched in recent days and weeks. What was the motive of the main character: god-centered or godless? Did the central characters talk about God, recognizing his presence and authority? Was wickedness dealt with for the sake of God’s name or mere human satisfaction that the bad guy got what was coming to him? Did the “good guys” express repentance over sinful words or deeds?

Creatures of Influence

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 1:1-2

You can’t escape it. You are molded and shaped by what you see and hear. A regular intake of Godless entertainment will influence how you see life, the people around you, the decisions set before you, your vocation, spouse, sin, and all the other various yet real details of your life.

Stories are a powerful force in this world, whether they come from a page or screen. Such power ought to be discerned and tempered. To let Godless entertainment run on the screens of our home and phone will not be molding godliness in us.

If we desire godliness we must be intent to pursue it in the manner that the Bible teaches as seen in Psalm 1

Closing Thoughts

• Is this legalism? It certainly can be treated that way, although that is not my approach. I simply want to sound a whistle in an area of life that is huge for Americans, and tends to be especially unhealthy for God’s children.

This may seem to have a flavor of legalism, however let’s consider the day we live in. Do we live in a godless society in which we may be desensitized? Answer: Yes. So long as God’s children live in this age (and will until Jesus returns) we must be mindful of the constant pull on our minds by the culture in which we live. Our culture idolizes entertainment. God’s children must not demonize entertainment yet we ought to think about it differently than the world.

Is this legalism or are many of us desensitized to the idolatry of entertainment in our land and culture, to the degree that we only think of godlessness as movies with gore, sex, drugs, and blasphemy? Does the regular intake or G and PG movies marinade our hearts in Godless perspectives?

• Is sin the only thing to remove?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us

Heb. 12:1

Photo by Chander R on Unsplash

Of the movies and media you absorb what percentage is helping you run the race for Jesus? Does it inform your faith? Are you encouraged and challenged to pursue holiness? Is Christ exalted in the narrative? What percentage is unbeneficial to your walk with Christ?

This is not necessitate you toss all the Blu-Rays (although it may be wise to reevaluate your collection). Good art, story telling, and godly morals can be found in many places, not only “Christian Movies”, yet lets ask a question: a) Is my screen time in front of soul-benefiting entertainment higher than my intake of soul-sugar? Am I being influenced by the law of God and giving my mind to it in the Bible more than I am to the screen? Which direction would the scales tip if you weighed your screen time against your Bible time?