The entertainment we watch on screen and read in print is far more than mere entertainment. Stories communicate a view of the world. Whether we recognize it or not, they can shape the way we think and behave.
There are at least three reasons Christians should engage with entertainment wisely and discuss the stories we consume.
1. For Our Own Spiritual Health
Most of us wisely critique the messages preached to us from the pulpit. We understand how lies can harm our relationship with God, each other and creation.
However, we are often far less diligent in critiquing the messages preached to us through entertainment. Yet the stories we watch and read can also contain lies that harm our relationship with God, each other and creation.
If we do not actively examine the messages we hear through our entertainment, we will passively receive them.
2. For the Spiritual Health of Others
The people of our culture love stories. They consume narratives on screen and in print and often experience a deep personal connection with them.
We love and serve them by talking about the stories they care about. The common ground of a common story can give us an opportunity to point them toward the truths of God’s Story.
3. For the Glory of God
Jesus says the greatest commandment of all is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.
For this reason, Christians ought never engage in “mindless” entertainment. Even if the entertainment itself appears mindless, we worship God by using the minds he gave us. We can compare every story with His Story and determine what should be received, rejected and redeemed.
To do this well, we need to:
- Know God’s Story.
- Understand man’s story.
- Interpret man’s story.
Knowing God’s Story
The story of the Bible is God’s Story. It is our story. It is the story of life. As such, it is the grid through which we are to interpret all stories.
It begins with paradise created by God in a perfect garden and ends with paradise restored by God in a glorious city.
Creation
The Triune God, existing eternally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, created everything out of nothing. God created human beings in his image and placed them in a garden he specially prepared for them.
In this paradise, human beings lived in perfect and intimate relationship with God, each other and all of creation.
Some key truths revealed in the Creation act of God’s Story:
- God exists eternally in perfect community between Father, Son and Spirit.
- God created everything out of nothing, and everything was good.
- God created human beings to reflect his image and show what he is like.
- As the creator of all people and things, God has authority over all people and things.
- Human beings were created in perfect and intimate community with God, each other and all of creation.
Fall
Human beings chose to transfer their worship from the Creator of all people and things to created people and things.
This transfer of worship occurred as Satan, a spiritual being opposed to God and his people, deceived the original human beings. They distrusted God’s Word and disobeyed God’s commands.
In doing so, they trusted and obeyed themselves as god. They brought sin and death into God’s good world and caused a permanent and hostile disruption in humanity’s relationship with God, each other and all of creation.
Some key truths revealed in the Fall act of God’s Story:
- Sin is distrust of God and disobedience to God that manifests itself in a desire to trust and obey self as god.
- Sin has disrupted our relationship with God, each other and creation. Therefore, it is the root cause of every human problem.
- Sin has placed us under God’s judgment, which includes physical and spiritual death.
- Sin has infected all people so that they are born with a natural propensity to distrust and disobey God.
- Satan is our enemy who works to turn us against God, each other and creation.
Redemption
Human beings were both unwilling and unable to return to God and fix what had been broken in the world. Yet God chose to come to us and fix everything for us.
He did this in the person of Jesus Christ, who is 100% God and 100% man. Jesus lived a life of perfect trust and obedience to God as our substitute. He died a terrible death under God’s judgment as our substitute and rose from the dead to live forever as our forerunner.
Those who turn their worship away from themselves and toward Jesus in faith are redeemed from the consequences of the Fall. They are restored to a right relationship with God through Jesus’ mediation and with others through membership in Jesus’ Church. They also enter a right relationship with creation through freedom from the fear and victory of death.
Some key truths revealed in the Redemption act of God’s Story:
- Human beings are helpless to fix what is wrong with the world.
- Jesus is the only solution to the problems of the world because only Jesus deals with the root of the problem: sin.
- All evil must be judged. God offers to take that judgment for us.
- Death has been defeated and no longer has the last word.
Restoration
Though God has redeemed his people from the consequences of the Fall, they continue to live in a world infected by it. Jesus promises to return to Earth and complete the work he began through redemption.
When he returns, he will fully and finally do away with all evil and its effects. Human beings will again live in perfect and intimate community with God, each other and all of creation.
All the glories of Creation will be restored to even greater glory. All the pains of the Fall will be destroyed for all eternity.
Some key truths revealed in the Restoration act of God’s Story:
- All that is wrong with the world will be fully and finally made right.
- Evil and all of its effects will be gone forever.
- Every person on Earth will live in perfect and intimate community with God, each other and all of creation.
- Everything good found on the restored Earth is present simply because Jesus is present.