Dear friends,
We’re thinking about responding to outrage online and the need to find a way to graciously and humbly defend and proclaim the Gospel while loving those in outrage against our Lord and his people. Last week we finished with a few observations about the internet itself. Let us turn now more pointedly to the choices we can make as we start striking the keyboard.
Given that Jesus wants us to humbly and lovingly serve others in every human interaction, let us consider:
- whether we might be investors more than consumers. Is most of your time online spent craving mindless entertainment and soothing your FOMO or connecting in meaningful ways with people and investing in your walk and other’s potential walks with Christ?
- whether we remember that the person on the other side of the conversation is a person! When we scream correct doctrine at others across the internet are we really being loving? Have we just fallen foul to outrage and reduced the goal of all disagreement to winning, thereby preventing listening and understanding and thinking?
- whether we might have grace as our default mode of operation on the internet. Grace has a countercultural power to break through fury.
- whether we can resist the urge to fight every battle. Proverbs 26:4-5 teaches us that sometimes we speak and at other times we don’t. We need to ask if our interaction will be for the good for Christ and those watching on – really…!
- whether we can resist the urge to comment on everything that happens. Not everyone needs to be a thought leader but we all need to recognise that anyone who speaks can end up being a thought leader. Moreover, recognise that difficult conversations are best held in person and rarely bear fruit online.
These are probing questions that warrant careful personal deliberation. You may just find that you can be someone who can soothe outrage and bring glory to Jesus on the internet. Why not try to cultivate a presence that is:
- Encouraging and edifying – 1 Thessalonians 5:11
- Loving and kind – John 13:34-35
- Missional and engaging – John 20:21
- Charitable and forbearing – Colossians 3:12-13
- Challenging and humble – James 4:10
In the end, when we logon, we need to ask ourselves, who am I being discipled by and in what direction am I discipling others? Are you on the world’s bandwagon or on Christ’s? So few Christians have stopped to determinedly think about the influence the online world is having upon them. The answer is not to stop going online, but to craft and participate in community and reveal opinions in such a way as to exalt Jesus.
Is that your online goal?
In Christ
Nigel