I have been thinking of this again as I continue to watch Hells Bells 2 over and over. I think about the old music that I gave up when I became a Christian. I think also of what I still have. Not only the music, but I also examine the movies, games, etc.
2 Thessalonians chapter 5 tells us to examine everything carefully, hold fast to that which is good, and abstain from every evil thing. I lent out Hells Bells to a friend and she was impressed by the people that were listed. She has brought up Sarah McLachlan on a few occasions. I agree that a lot of her songs are indeed full of trash, like the song ‘Adia’ (featured on Hells Bells) holds this lyric, “We are born…innocent”, while the Bible clearly teaches that we are born in sin! Do we condemn such artists? I don’t think so, but I will also not listen to such music for my entertainment as a regular habit. I believe that is part of the life of a Christian. But how am I doing? I got rid of the Heavy Metal stuff, but I still see lots of other things in my collection: John Lennon (an unashamed Jesus hater), Real McCoy that has many songs about sex (mostly ones about one night stands, really), and numerous others. What to do with these? Well, I am praying on that matter. All that being said, how do we, as sinful men and women, justify what we see and enjoy? How can we say that what we do for entertainment does not impact us? Well, there are two things:
1. We don’t recognize the wrong – This is mostly from lack of time in the Word, a directly inverse practice to our entertainment (ahem)! 2. We don’t care – This is a scary thought! If we don’t care to follow the commands of Christ, are we really His sheep? He says that “My sheep hear my voice and they follow after me” in the 10th chapter of John.
It seems to me that we have shifted from Christ as our measure of orthodoxy to entertainment as our measure of orthodoxy. We are no longer a culture that seeks truth, but one that seeks pleasure! If it is enjoyable to us, we allow it. “I know it is bad, but…” is the mantra. People, let us realize again that sin is sin, enjoying either the practice of or watching the practice is detestable to God. For the love we have of our awesome savior, let us abstain from these evil things as soon as we see that they are evil. But let us not do it legalistically, but with understanding.
