Theology & Life

Living the Christian life is hard. It’s easy to cave to our flesh, to do what we know to be wrong, to just go with the flow of society. It takes grace-driven effort to slow down, look around, and keep our head in the Bible and our eyes on the glory of God.

I’m certainly no expert—as I have my moments of doing this—but I have noticed too many Christians not being slow—to speak, to react, to write, etc. In other words, many Christians are too quick to react to the latest headlines. And then they publish their reaction through social media or blog.

I don’t think it’s wrong by itself to publish a reaction on social media. But I would contend that it might reveal a problem with the person’s heart. For many Christians, their ministry is one of reacting—to heretical sermons, to head-scratching articles, to confusing videos, etc.

The Bible calls for us to be “slow to speak” (Js. 1:19), and that applies to our online communication as well. That is the foundation here. It doesn’t matter what the controversy is, we all should be slow to react to it. Yet, from every corner, Christians are posting reactions and giving their two cents. Again, doing this isn’t wrong by itself. I’m not saying brothers or sisters who do this consistently are in sin. I am saying, however, that we don’t have to post a reaction, write an article, or give our opinion to every little thing that happens in society or the evangelical universe.

There is much wisdom in seeing an event unfold and saying, “I don’t have to give my opinion.” For some ministry leaders who have larger platforms, that will perhaps be more difficult, because many Christians will be waiting for his or her reaction. But the point remains: most of the time, a reaction or response isn’t necessary. At best, it’s part of your ministry and you do truly reach many people through your responses. At worst, the itch you feel to make a reaction article or video to every event reveals a deeper issue with your heart: immaturity. You need to ask the question: What is my motivation behind reacting publicly to nearly every cultural event or evangelical controversy? Am I sincerely trying to show unaware people the dangers, or am I feeding my need for clicks and popularity?

I don’t pretend to not do this on occasion. I fall short here, too. Once in a while something catches my eye that I am quick to react to, specifically on Twitter. All it takes is one quote tweet. And I also know there is certainly an in-between to the two scenarios I mentioned above. It’s not one-size-fits-all. But I am asking you, the reader, to consider the question of heart motivation. If you do react to every event publicly, why do you do so?

It’s certainly a question worth pondering. We must be slow to speak, to write, to make videos, to react. Being hasty is not a virtue. Let’s be slow, friends.