Question: Okay, next one. This is from Matt. “Do you believe Christians should watch television for the purpose of entertainment, taking into consideration 1 John 2:15?”
Discussion:
Tim: Let me read 1 John 2:15, if youre not familiar with it. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” “Do you believe Christians should watch television for the purpose of entertainment, taking into consideration 1 John 2:15?” Now, I might just mention one or two things that I just mentioned. The fact is, that 1 John 2:15 does not specifically say that it is sin to own a television or to have a computer that you may watch things on. It doesn’t say that. So, I am not going to say that it’s absolutely wrong for one of you folks to own a television. Now, that being said, let me remind you of some other things that Scripture does say. Psalm 101:3 “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.” How about we read that one again,”I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.” If you are in the habit of wasting your time in front of the television, with that which is worthless, if it has no eternal worthless, means it has no value. If it has no value for your soul, it has no value for your life, it has no value for eternity, what in the world are you doing sitting there wasting your time that youre supposed to redeem?
Hey, I understand when you’ve worked all week and I understand when a man wants to come home and he’s wiped out and he throws himself on the sofa and he wants to fire up Martin Luther movie and just fall asleep. I understand it! I’m not going to condemn a guy for doing that. But I’ll tell you this, I think on the one hand, watching Martin Luther might have some value to it. I’ve personally found that old black and white one to be profitable to my soul. I understand times in your life when you need to kick back with your wife. And if your thing is sitting and watching the stars or the wind blow or whatever it is, then more power to you, if that’s what you want to do. But, look, setting things that are worthless before your eyes, that’s not a good thing. Psalm 26:4, “I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.” “I will not sit with the wicked.” If youre watching trash and filth and wicked men do wicked things on television what, what do you think? Do you think that’s any different than the guy sitting at your dinner table? If you’ll let people come into your home and say things across your television or across your computer that you would not allow them to come in and sit at your dinner table and say, what in the world are you doing? “I will not sit with the wicked.” Psalm 1:1, those of you that were there for Sunday School on Sunday, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.” And there is so much garbage and there is so much worldly perspective, there is so much counsel of the wicked, there is so much of the way of sinners and the seat of scoffers, coming across televisions. And if you’ll sit there and absorb that, you are doing what the blessed righteous man of Psalm 1 does not do.
Psalm 119:37, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things.” Now, you can’t hardly pray that if you’ll turn right around and be willing to set that which is worthless before your eyes. Proverbs 14:7, “Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.” If you’ve got idiots and fools saying foolish things, doing foolish things, “The fool says in his heart, there is no God”, living godless lives on television, it says leave that presence. It doesn’t say sit there and suck it up. It says leave it. You’ve got the power of the clicker, folks.
