How would you describe humanity?
Most people would probably answer by saying, “Well, there are good people and bad people”.
Others might say, “Well, there is good and bad in everyone”.
I think the internet has given us more of a picture of humanity than in past times. We see people doing lots of good things on the internet, but also lots of bad things. Sometimes you don’t have a choice about what you see. The other day I was relaxing by playing a golf game on my tablet. It’s the type of game where you play against others who are logged in. So I waited for my opponent to be identified and for their profile picture to come up. The next thing I know, my opponent is identified and their profile picture is of a completely nude woman. There I am hoping to just enjoy a game and I have to be subjected to someone’s perversity.
This example of what is lewd on the internet is just a tiny little example of what is on the “World-Wide-Web”. If you care to go searching, you can find people who are engaged in every manner of evil. There are innumerable websites devoted to things like sex-trafficking, drug use, how to carry out violent acts, every sexual indecency, and websites devoted exclusively to the hate of others. The World-Wide–Web has given us a World-Wide look into the hearts and minds of many people who hold terrible views, and plenty who look to carry out acts which exploit and victimize others. I think if any one of us could view even an hour of all the sinfulness that is on the internet, we might never recover.
God is not surprised by this. He has always known the darker sides of humanity. He has always had mankind’s reprehensible behaviors in view. Just because we can have more of a sense of it through the internet, doesn’t mean that it hasn’t existed long before the internet.
At a point in time, God offered the following:
“18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:18-32
There is the reason why the internet is filled with so much filth. We as humans have “given birth” through our sinful nature to the ugliness that is found on website after website.
So, what shall our response be to this? Well, I can tell you what mine is. I want no part with it. As a matter of fact, I want to work against it. I want to live each day trying to bring some light into the darkness. I want to offer love where there is hate. Purity where there is impurity. Healing where there is harm. Gentleness where there is abrasion. For years I placed my own sinful behaviors on the trash-heap that mankind has formed. I pray and fight every day to offer no more contributions. What helps me to do this? God’s Word. God’s Spirit. My family. My brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all joined together in an effort to clean up the “world-pollution” caused by sin.
As I was writing this, I stopped and prayed for whomever put that lewd profile on the golf game I use. They are in darkness. They are trapped in sin. They are not well. They need God desperately.
So, I have my marching orders from my Lord. As Christians we all do. Let’s see if we can do something against the darkness with God’s help.
“14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:14-16
For Jesus,
Rob