Spiritual Formation and the New Media: Making Good Use of the Mammon of Unrighteousness National Meeting of the ETS November 2007 Dr. Jim Hamilton www.jimhamilton.info The task of spiritual formation was given neither to the internet nor to the seminary. It was given to the church. Jesus said he would build his church. He said that when believers were unrepentant even after numerous rebukes, the church was to be told. Paul said that the church is the household of God and the pillar and ground of the truth. Paul expected the churches to discern between the gospel he preached and perversions of it. The church is Christ’s body, and he gave himself up for her, the church. He purchased it, the church, with his own blood. Jesus will present to himself a glorious, spotless church. Spiritual gifts are for the edification of the church. Jesus is the head of the church, and Paul prays for God to be glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus. The manifold wisdom of God is displayed to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms through the church. Jesus testifies in Revelation for the churches. The proper questions for this essay, then, are: What do the internet and new media have to do with the mission of the church? More specifically, what can the internet and the new media contribute to the church’s task of spiritual formation? In defining spiritual formation, I would point to Jesus’ commissioning the church to make disciples, defining that task himself as teaching them everything he commanded (Matt 28:19–20). With this, we can point to several statements in Paul that speak of conformity to Christ (e.g., Rom 8:29; Eph 4:13). There are two aspects to this, then: (1) teaching what Jesus taught so that people (2) live like Jesus lived. This essay will argue that spiritual formation depends neither on the internet nor the new media but on the attitude of the Christian engaging these tools. Christians must engage the internet and the new media in the service of the church for the glory of God. Approached from this mindset, the internet and the new media can be tremendous tools for spiritual growth and formation. If, however, Christians approach the internet and the new media from an un-Christian, worldly, consumeristic, self-centered, self-gratifying mindset, the internet and the new medial will be a source of filth and an inciter of every form of wickedness. Our exposition of this thesis will begin with the manifold misappropriations of the “mammon of unrighteousness” that is the world wide web, before moving to the multitude of mind-renewing means made manageable by the internet and new media. Before considering these positive and negative possibilities presented by the net, a brief explanation of my reference to the new media as the “mammon of unrighteousness” is in order. In the parable of the unrighteous steward in Luke 16:1–9, Jesus commends the desperate steward’s “shrewdness” (16:8). Faced with the prospect of having to account for his wasteful mismanagement (16:1–2), too weak to dig and ashamed to beg (16:3), the
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steward had leveraged what little he had both to recoup debts owed his master and benefit the debtors (16:4–7). For this, he is commended for his shrewdness by his master, and Jesus comments that the sons of this world are shrewder than the sons of light in their dealings with their own generation (16:8). Jesus then instructs his disciples to make friends for themselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness—just as the unrighteous steward had done (16:9)—leveraging what they have for their Master in heaven and the benefit of his subjects. Just as the unrighteous steward sought to be received if his master turned him out (16:4), if the disciples will make good use of the mammon of unrighteousness by recognizing the urgency of their position, shrewdly seeking honor for God and benefit for his subjects, leveraging what they have for the cause of the Kingdom, they will be received into eternal tabernacles (16:9). The point of this parable seems to be that Jesus’ followers are to maximize what they have for the benefit of the Master and his subjects. Urgently. Shrewdly. Desperately. 1 The “mammon of unrighteousness,” as I am using the phrase, refers to whatever new media we can use for the glory of God and the good of his people.
Manifold Misappropriations The greatest danger posed by the internet and the new media is the enemy within the person signing on. I am not referring to some virus or malware that has snuck into us. The enemy within is our own desire for evil. We are prone to pride. We lean into lust. We harbor hatred. We are inclined to self-destructive, God-dishonoring perversions of true pleasure. This means that the most important thing to be vigilant about when signing on is the state of one’s own heart. At a computer, alone, it is very easy to forget the members of the local church with whom one is in solemn covenant before the Lord of heaven and earth. When we lose sight of our relational commitments, foremost of which is our consciousness of God, his presence, and our place among his people, our vision becomes blurred and we no longer clearly see the consequences of our thoughts and actions. In such circumstances, it is very easy to become a poor steward of one’s time, one’s emotional health, and one’s virtue, indeed, one’s very soul. Anyone who regularly reads weblogs knows the danger of the easy drift into frittering away hours reading about someone else’s controversy. At some point a valid desire to be apprised of current events crosses into an irresponsible neglect of one’s responsibilities. It is all too easy to abandon the all-consuming task of writing to see if anything juicy has been posted on our favorite blogs, to forsake the long labor over texts in Greek and Hebrew to check email, again, or to allow the window of time for prayer and meditation to be closed by some other new media outlet. We must be good stewards of the time given to us. 1
Cf. Arland J. Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 152–54; E. Earle Ellis, The Gospel of Luke, NCB (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 198–200. 2
It is easy, and unrighteous, to make bad use of the time that we do have for the projects on which we are working. I do not think that the apologies made in prefaces to books to the wives and children who were neglected during the writing process make up for time that cannot be recaptured. I suspect that neglected wives and children are not any more impressed with these prefaces than I am. Which is more important: writing a book or managing one’s household well? If wives and children must be neglected in order for writing to happen, better for writing not to happen. Sacrifices do have to be made for valid and necessary work to be done. But we are not good stewards of our resources if we exhaust our working hours consuming the ever-available new media and then steal family time from our wives and children to finish our work. If we are in church leadership, we must manage our households well. That simply cannot be done without time. If we are neglecting our wives and children because we are foolishly wasting our time consuming enough news to keep up with the pundits, that neglect will show itself. We should also be wise enough to recognize that there are great books in the world that will elevate the souls of those whose eyes are blessed to pass their pages. These books, by the likes of Homer, Virgil, Augustine, Dante, Luther, Calvin, Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, Owen, Edwards—name your favorite—should not be allowed to suffer neglect because we are too busy with our daily blogs. Great readers are made by great books, and those who do not read great books become, as C. S. Lewis put it, “men without chests.” 2 We leave these books unread to the detriment of our own souls, and denying our souls the high thoughts and lyric lines of this literature deprives the church of leaders whose minds would otherwise be lifted above the constant chatter of the chest-less chattel. There was something stable about the news formerly coming at certain times from certain outlets. I can imagine the age now over, one in which the daily paper arrived on the doorstep in the morning book-ended by the nightly newscast after dinner. Before the days of the twenty four hour news network, that was it. Working hours in between two healthy doses of daily doings. Now it is not so, and this transitions us into the perils to emotional health presented by the internet and the new media. Not only is it crouching there on the desk, distraction ready to pounce at the slightest mental difficulty, through it we now have unparalleled access into other people’s business. All this access makes it all too easy to be silent gossips, going about from site to site reading and typing things that have little or nothing to do with what we are called to accomplish, things that are not necessary (1 Tim 5:13). And all of this gives our wicked hearts a willing accomplice, one that would serve as a vacuous vanity able to cause virtue to vanish. Not only could we waste our lives reading blogs instead of the lofty thoughts of the best thinkers, being distracted by the daft deluge of daily dither, we could be defiled by the tempting advertisements that fund the new media, whether on the side of the site or popping up when it opens. Come to the web
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See C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man: How Education Develops Man’s Sense of Morality (New York: Macmillan, 1947). 3
weary, avoiding the day’s labor, see the wrong advert, and suddenly an irrational lust ravages the soul. We must recognize our propensity to sin, and if we are not mortifying sin before we open the web-page, we are making provision for the flesh and its lusts. 3 Whether these lusts are for images of human bodies, for the juicy tidbits of scandals that should not be named, or for the (sick) pleasure of meanness to those with whom we disagree, the internet and the new media will feed us these falsehoods that drip honey but in the end are bitter as gall (Prov 5:3–4). We are sinful people. God is a holy God. He will call us to account for what we have done. Our only hope is the mercy of God in Christ, whose death on the cross satisfies God’s justice, whose resurrection seals the justification of those who believe, and whose ascension to the right hand establishes him as the reigning King who will return. This establishes his claim on the allegiance of all men. Those who know God by trusting Christ are further summoned to renew their minds.
Mind-Renewing Means How, then, do we come to the new media with an attitude that will make good use of the mammon of unrighteousness? The most basic answer to this question is that we must come to our computers seeking to serve the church for the glory of God. First a comment on how we should not pursue this. We should not tolerate any attempt to allow some form of online “community” to take the place of a real, live, local church made up of real, live people whom we actually see face to face. It almost seems absurd that this even has to be written, but Google the words “Internet Church” and you will find that this really is being attempted. Anyone who has participated in the life of a church knows how difficult it is to cultivate the vulnerability and authenticity necessary for church members to walk together in holy intimacy. When we approach this kind of love for one another, we enjoy true community. A church that only meets online will never accomplish this. We were not made to hide behind keyboards and monitors. Followers of Jesus are commanded to make disciples, and this goal has as its end the glory of God. The New Testament program for disciple making is the church. When the New Testament describes people coming to faith, it also describes them being incorporated into the church by means of Baptism. When the New Testament describes people growing in the Lord, the context in which this happens is always a local church. Individual members of the church are members of the body of Christ, united to him by faith, joined to other believers who also enjoy union with Christ by faith. This is the group of people who are to practice the “one another’s” of the New Testament. 3
A great help in fighting for our lives has been made available by Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor, who have edited three classic works by John Owen in Overcoming Sin and Temptation (Wheaton: Crossway, 2006). 4
This is why Christians exist: for the glory of God in the church. Everything that Christians do should be somehow related to the ultimate end of serving the church for the glory of God. Is this why you make use of the new media? Is this why you surf the web? Is this what you are looking for as you stare at your screen? The new media will not give us hearts that seek the glory of God through the proclamation of Christ for the transformation of people. We will only come to the internet with the mindset of glorifying God in service to the church if the following is true of us: 1) We must be born again. Those who have not experienced the miracle of regeneration are unable to live by faith for the glory of God in service to the church. If, however, by the power of the Spirit we have been made alive (John 6:63; Eph 2:4–5) and given the gift of faith (Phil 1:29; Eph 2:8–9) that comes in the hearing of the word of Christ (Rom 10:17), we have been lifted out of deadness in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1–3) and have a new ability. This new ability allows us to perceive the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor 3:18). Whereas the unregenerate see Christ and the Gospel and perceive it only as folly (1 Cor 2:14), those who have experienced regeneration are taught by the Spirit and enabled to understand the wisdom and power of God in the Gospel (1 Cor 1:24; 2:6–14). 2) We must abide in Christ. Jesus tells his disciples in John 15:5 that they can do nothing apart from him. Do we believe this? As he exhorts his disciples to remain in him (15:4– 6), he tells them how to remain in him in verse 7 when he refers to his word abiding in them. Insofar as we are conscious of the words of Christ, we are abiding in him. God mediates his presence to us through his word. The word is made active in our hearts by the power of the Spirit. In order to abide in Christ, we must be mindful of his word by the power of the Spirit. It is tragically possible to go, almost instantaneously, from thinking about the Bible to thinking about sin—if we are thinking about the Bible in the power of the flesh. We abide in Christ as we are empowered by the Spirit to proceed through life with the Bible as the frontlet on our forehead, filtering what we see and do, think and say through the word of God. 3) We must be walking in the Spirit. Paul explains in Romans 8 that those who walk according to the flesh will die, while those who walk according to the Spirit will live (8:5–6). We must put to death the deeds of the body, which is dead because of sin (8:10), by the power of the Spirit (8:13). We do this by deriving our understanding of who we are, what life is about, and what we should do with our time from the Bible, taught by the Spirit, and abiding in Christ as we go through our days conscious of biblical reality. This is what it means to walk by the Spirit. Born again people who abide in Christ by remaining in his words and walking by the Spirit will approach the internet and the new media in distinctly Christian ways. The following is only a sample:
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1) We are not our own. We were bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19–20). We do not live for ourselves but for God (Rom 14:7–8). This means that we do not access the internet and the new media for our own-personal-private-compartmentalized-selfish interests. Rather, we live for God. We think for God. We exist for his glory and the advancement of his Kingdom in the good of his church. 2) The fact that we are not our own implies that we do not access the new media merely for our own benefit. We approach these new outlets of information seeking to grow in our knowledge of God and our serviceability to the local body of believers with whom we are seeking to advance God’s Kingdom. At least, we should approach it this way. If we ask ourselves whether what we are doing is helping us know God and better serve his people, we might filter out some ways we are failing to redeem time in these evil days (Eph 5:16). 3) Our lives have purpose. Jesus commissioned his people to make disciples. The Spirit gifts believers for the common good of the church (1 Cor 12:7). Our task is to discern what we are called to contribute to the glory of God in service to the church. Once we have identified what it is God has given us to do, or how he has called us to serve in his Name, if we know him we will plunge into that task with holy urgency. Preserving this urgency in the long, slow obedience of life’s daily grind, not forsaking kindness and patience, is one of the great challenges we face in this life. The church is God’s program for spiritual formation, and the new media is a mammon of unrighteousness that can be used for good or ill. Having argued that everything depends on the state of one’s soul, how might the internet and the new media be used for glorifying God in service to the church? When we pause to consider the possibilities offered by the new media, we should be astonished at the opportunities it provides. Before I say anything else, though, I begin with the assertion that the internet and the new media, with all their promise, are not the Holy Spirit. Apart from the Spirit, the access to information available through the new media as well as the opportunities it yields to disseminate the truth are only sounding gongs and clanging cymbals. With that caveat, consider where we find ourselves in world history. Never before has it been easier to connect with like-minded people. This connectivity affords mutual encouragement, mutual instruction, mutual benefit. Never before have people been more connected not only to one another but also to truly staggering amounts of information. Google any topic—what formerly required a visit to a library, stacks of books, encyclopedias, journals, magazines, newspapers, and other reference tools—is suddenly on screen. Never before has help in understanding the Bible been easier to access. And it isn’t just print media. No longer must one travel to where some brilliant preacher or teacher is expostulating to listen and learn. Many of the most stimulating teachers and preachers in the world today have posted hours and hours of sermons and lectures online. It is possible to allow this
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availability to cut us off from people, making us less connected to real people, less involved in real churches, and more privatized and selfish. But wise use can be made of these truckloads of information to supplement one’s ordinary diet of instruction. The instructional possibilities of the new media hold out profound help for those seeking the glory of God in the church. For those who think that education will cure the ills of society, the new media could be the great hope. For those who know that information is only truly beneficial to the wise in heart, the new media is an opportunity to exercise discretion. Never before has it been possible to be so informed about so many situations across the globe. The wise heart will be spurred to prayer by this information: prayer for those in difficult situations, and prayer for insight to hear wisdom crying out in the streets and on the webpages. Never before has it been so easy to find reliable book reviews and helpful interaction with key ideas. The wise heart will not be bamboozled by this easy access. There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom, just as there is a difference between image and character. Character comes from endurance that grows out of rejoicing through affliction in the hope of the glory of God being revealed. Such character produces hope, which is empowered by the love of God being poured out in the heart by the Holy Spirit whom God has given to us (Rom 5:1–5). We should not look to the new media to produce character. Used wisely, it can strengthen existing character. Those who come to it without virtue are like soldiers without training marching into battle. The fight is not the place to train. If, on the other hand, we come to new media with mortified flesh, mindful of the One who searches minds and hearts, wielding the sharp sword of the Spirit, seeking the glory of God in the up-building of the church, the internet and new media can provide us with many helpful resources that can aid spiritual formation. Everything depends on the state of one’s soul. The task of making disciples was given to the followers of Jesus, and it requires teaching everything Jesus commanded. Jesus taught his followers to make good use of unrighteous mammon, and from this teaching we learn how to deal with the new media. Unrighteous mammon does not conform people to the image of Christ. The church is God’s program for doing that. Those conformed to the image of Christ, however, will use unrighteous mammon well.
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