Is It Sinful to Watch Sin on a Screen?

00:00:00.000 | Is it sinful to watch sin on a screen?

00:00:07.920 | This is a huge discussion ignited by a very specific question from a young man, a regular

00:00:13.400 | podcast listener, who writes in to say this.

00:00:16.280 | "Hello Pastor John, I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

00:00:19.280 | Thank you for your lifelong commitment to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

00:00:23.980 | My question is about the sin of taking God's name in vain, of saying "OMG" but really saying

00:00:30.400 | it.

00:00:31.400 | Interpreting the third commandment and applying it brought a lot of conflict to my childhood

00:00:36.700 | with my father.

00:00:37.700 | He and I both agreed it is always sinful for each of us to take the Lord's name in vain.

00:00:43.020 | Where we disagreed and still do is whether or not the taking of the Lord's name in vain

00:00:46.600 | disqualifies a movie, television show, music track, or any other entertainment from the

00:00:52.980 | diet of the Christian.

00:00:54.740 | This would of course have major ramifications.

00:00:57.740 | As a teen I often said my father was being legalistic here on his wide application of

00:01:01.940 | the third commandment to media.

00:01:03.940 | I have said the display of this sin was not an endorsement of it by the viewer.

00:01:08.180 | This remains a sore spot in our relationship today.

00:01:11.260 | So my question is whether you think it is sinful to consume media that happens to include

00:01:15.100 | God's name being taken in vain."

00:01:19.340 | This train left the station 60 years ago.

00:01:25.260 | And he's roaring down the track about 250 miles an hour.

00:01:30.700 | And I don't mean simply the obvious fact that movies and TV shows long ago forsook the God

00:01:41.240 | of the Ten Commandments and the God of the New Testament who didn't just say "don't

00:01:46.700 | take the Lord's name in vain."

00:01:48.380 | He also said, "Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking which are

00:01:56.980 | out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving."

00:02:00.300 | And he said—that was Ephesians 5:4—and he said, "Let no corrupting talk come out

00:02:06.860 | of your mouths, but only such as is good for up-building, as fits the occasion, that it

00:02:12.620 | may minister grace to those who hear."

00:02:15.700 | Ephesians 4:29.

00:02:16.700 | And the standard is way, way higher than "don't take the name of the Lord in vain."

00:02:24.660 | And Colossians 3:8—that was 429—Ephesians 4:29, here's Colossians 3:8, "Put away

00:02:30.420 | obscene talk from your mouth."

00:02:33.300 | So that train, that train left the station.

00:02:35.900 | I'm talking about not just that the train of forsaking such a God left the station,

00:02:41.780 | I'm talking about the fact that people, Christians, are on the train.

00:02:48.020 | Most Christians today are on the train.

00:02:52.060 | Every screen, it seems, is now playing in every corner of every car, and everybody's

00:02:59.140 | watching the car, this train.

00:03:01.180 | Everybody's watching.

00:03:02.180 | Why?

00:03:03.180 | Because they're on the train.

00:03:04.860 | That's what you do on the train.

00:03:07.620 | We have computers, we have TVs, we have cable, we have big flat screens on the wall.

00:03:13.500 | That's what they're for.

00:03:15.440 | What else can you do?

00:03:16.440 | You're on the train.

00:03:18.580 | So I don't have any illusion that what I say here will have much effect on the train

00:03:26.660 | and what you do on the train.

00:03:29.140 | My modest hope is that a few people might be moved to consider being crazy and countercultural

00:03:38.460 | enough to think that a great life of joy and fruitfulness is possible without being on

00:03:47.140 | the train.

00:03:49.480 | Of course, the short answer to the question is that it is not a sin to hear God's name

00:03:57.260 | taken in vain.

00:03:59.580 | God hears it a billion times a day and sees every sin committed on the planet—the most

00:04:08.700 | outrageous, gross, unjust, wicked, defiled—He sees them all.

00:04:14.420 | And God never sins in seeing them.

00:04:17.380 | Jesus heard the Lord's name taken in vain.

00:04:20.600 | They called Him a demon.

00:04:23.100 | That's not the issue.

00:04:24.700 | That's just not the issue.

00:04:26.260 | The enjoyment of being entertained by sin is the issue.

00:04:32.820 | The enjoyment of being entertained by sin is the issue.

00:04:36.140 | I'll say it again.

00:04:37.260 | The enjoyment of being entertained by sin is the issue.

00:04:44.180 | Whether it's the sin of taking the Lord's name in vain or the sin of cocky, self-exalting

00:04:50.940 | arrogance, which seems to permeate everything, or the sin of lust and fornication and adultery

00:04:58.780 | and indecency and immodesty, which is virtually ubiquitous, or the sin of distortions of womanhood

00:05:06.540 | and manhood, or the sins of disrespecting parents, or the sins of drunkenness, or the

00:05:13.020 | sins of desiring to be rich, which Paul said we ought not to do, or the sins of dishonesty,

00:05:19.820 | or the sins of slandering with stereotypes, or the sins of simply profoundly ubiquitously

00:05:27.140 | ignoring and thus not glorifying or thanking God.

00:05:32.940 | Whatever the sins, the issue is, what does it say about our souls that we enjoy being

00:05:41.180 | entertained by them?

00:05:43.940 | If you say, "Well, I'm not being entertained by—I'm not enjoying being entertained

00:05:50.240 | by the sins of the story.

00:05:52.620 | They grieve me.

00:05:54.260 | But by other aspects of truth or excellence in the story and the way the story is presented,

00:06:04.540 | I would say, 'Well, I'm certainly glad about that.'

00:06:10.540 | And then I would say, 'You are an amazing person with capacities for purity and holiness

00:06:19.460 | far greater than mine.'"

00:06:22.860 | If you can over and over again be entertained by, in your relaxed, amused, pleased state,

00:06:33.540 | by the enacting of sins that are not treated as sins—they're glorified, they're not

00:06:41.180 | treated as sins in the shows—but as acceptable and often preferable to righteousness, while

00:06:50.220 | not being defiled or shaped by those sins, you are an amazing person.

00:06:58.060 | I could wish for such holiness.

00:07:01.640 | But for most of us, it's just not going to work like that.

00:07:07.340 | If when we are tired and want to unwind from a good day's work, we settle in with some

00:07:15.140 | series or movie that we hope will be minimally offensive or crass or obscene, and then we're

00:07:23.060 | drawn into a suspenseful or interesting plot, and then scene after scene portrays a God-ignoring

00:07:31.380 | man-exalting, sin-condoning, sex-distorting, marriage-weakening, maleness-mocking, femaleness-trivializing,

00:07:45.100 | righteousness-ridiculing, arrogance-admiring worldview, we, we ordinary struggling saints

00:07:52.980 | who long for purity of heart and holiness and all the fruits of the Holy Spirit, we

00:07:57.740 | simply won't be able not to be entertained by sin and shaped in our minds and hearts

00:08:07.420 | by that very entertaining worldview.

00:08:11.260 | So God bless you if you are growing in holiness and purity of heart and mind and manner and

00:08:19.700 | mouth, and if you are being helped to love God and feel an urgency for the salvation

00:08:26.380 | of the lost, and if you are being taken deeper into prayer and into loving service to your

00:08:32.700 | church, and if you are being made more bold and more strong to stand against the destructive

00:08:38.900 | tides of our culture, and if the desire for God's Word is rising with greater passion

00:08:45.560 | because of your regular enjoyment of sin-soaked movies because you are not entertained by

00:08:51.580 | that, then carry on.

00:08:55.500 | But try to understand that for some of us who know the difference between the pursuit

00:09:01.180 | of grace-based holiness and legalism—in other words, your dad may not just be operating

00:09:07.340 | out of legalism—for those of us who really do know the difference between grace-based

00:09:12.700 | holiness and legalism, try to understand that we find that approach to entertainment and

00:09:19.620 | zeal for God a path that doesn't work for us.

00:09:24.400 | Our zeal for God and the gospel and gospel holiness just doesn't grow that way.

00:09:33.760 | Maybe my answer to the question has been frustrating.

00:09:36.660 | I understand that, because what our friend asked was, "Is it sinful to consume media

00:09:46.340 | where God's name is taken in vain?"

00:09:48.940 | And my answer has been, "Take heed that you not be consumed."

00:09:54.660 | Powerful.

00:09:55.660 | There's a ton to think about here, Pastor John.

00:09:58.300 | Thank you.

00:09:59.300 | And thank you for listening along.

00:10:01.040 | Be sure to subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app or in YouTube to

00:10:05.380 | get the latest episodes as they are released.

00:10:08.100 | And for our archive of episodes or to send in your own question, go to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:10:15.660 | Next up, how should we look back on our life regrets?

00:10:19.740 | Big regrets, small regrets, medium regrets.

00:10:22.540 | We all have regrets of various sizes.

00:10:25.660 | So what do we do with them?

00:10:26.660 | I'm your host Tony Reinhke.

00:10:27.660 | I'll see you on Monday.

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Is It Sinful to Watch Sin on a Screen?

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