Pursuing Peace On Social Media
This morning, we are wrapping up our series on Kingdom Thinking. We’ve been in this series since the beginning of August and our focus has been on finding biblical responses to current questions. There are a lot of questions out there and a lot of opinions as to the answers to those questions – our objective as followers of Jesus is to answer these questions for ourselves and our friends as Jesus would to the best of our ability.
This morning, I want you to take a nostalgic trip back in time with me to August 2005. Here are a few major things that were happening in culture. The ipod was revolutionizing how we listened to music. We were shifting quickly from burning cds for our crushes and friends to having “1000 songs in our pockets.” Hip hop artists like Kanye West, Mariah Carey, and Jay Z were dominating the charts and rock and punk were blending into a genre called pop punk and alt rock and creating what we now refer to as emo music. The final installment of Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith was the Summer blockbuster and Youtube was becoming the primary way we watched videos online. All of these things were growing and changing culture in unprecedented ways and at a rate the world would not be able to keep up. But something was beginning in this era that would change the world forever and is here to stay: social media. MySpace was gaining popularity in 2005 and Mark Zuckerburg was beginning to expand his kingdom of The Facebook from his Harvard dorm room to other universities. We went from printing our photos from our film and digital cameras to posting pictures of ourselves on Facebook for “likes.” We went from journaling our thoughts and writing things down to posting every thought we have on our wall for the whole internet to see. We went from maintaining obscurity in our relationships, personal lives, and family matters to posting whether we were “single” or “in a relationship” and who we were interested in on our profile pages. We went from a culture of keeping our political ideology and opinions mostly quiet to shaming, lambasting, and cussing out anyone who shared a differing opinion from us. Social media changed everything. And while I am not here this morning to blast it and say we should all take a leave of absence from our social media, I do want to caution us what our motivation is for using it? Is it for acceptance and likes? Is it to keep up with our kids or reconnect with friends from college/high school? Is it our source of news? Asking ourselves questions like why we are using social media and how are we engaging others and representing the Kingdom are important questions to ask ourselves. For skeptics here this morning, social media could’ve been the reason you decided to visit or watch City Awakening but it also could be the reason you have taken a break or stepped away from God and faith because of something you saw a Christian say or a pastor do. If that’s you, I’m glad you’re here to check out our church, and I’m hoping to give you a biblical view of social media that counters any negative view you have of Christianity that’s come from negative Christians on social media. If you don’t have social media, this message is still relevant for you, because it’s about how we socially connect with other people. Our text is from James chapter 3 this morning. If you open your bible to the end to Revelation and walk back about 6 books, you will find the book of James. We will also have the words on the screen for you this morning if you don’t have a bible. We’ll be in James 3, and the title of the message is Pursuing Peace on Social Media. The big idea of the message is Kingdom Thinkers strive to be Peacekeepers. Kingdom Thinkers aren’t Pushovers, but we should strive to be Peacekeepers..
By the way, I enjoyed Louis’ message on AI so much last week that I had ChatGPT write this entire sermon for me so we will see how this goes! KIDDING. Here’s your context. The author of James is the half-brother of Jesus and he is a church leader in Jerusalem. He is writing to Jewish Christians who are scattered among the nations. There was dissension and quarreling amongst them, teaching happening before they were ready, and a lack of accountability. Sounds a lot like today’s times. In Chapter 3, James has divided it into two sections: verse 1-12 which are about the power and danger of the tongue and verses 13-18, which contrast earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom. Let’s dive in.
James 3 1-18 states: “Not many should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgement; for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man who is able to control his whole body.”
James starts off with a bang. He is continuing the warnings he has been giving in chapters 1 and 2 cautioning followers of Christ to be Doers of the Word – not just hearers, not showing favoritism or preference to the rich over the poor, and warning us that faith without works is dead. He also spends time cautioning people about the dangers of the tongue which he is about to expound on in Chapter 3. But he starts with a warning to his brothers – showing us he is directly addressing others in the faith – and to teachers specifically that not all are ready to teach. Much like today, teachers in this time were admired and looked up to. People valued their opinions. They were held to a higher standard of accountability because of the strong influence they could have on people, which could be good or bad depending on what they’re teaching. Today, teachers don’t just need a lectern, podium, or stage to hold a captive audience. Because of social media, anyone with a platform and a following act like a teacher. Influencers have so much sway over our worldview and what we share with others. And often times, it is not used for good. We will continue to dive further into this as we go on but Alistair Begg says: “We are quick to type, slow to think, and rarely pray before we post.” This is a sobering reminder that what we should take our role as “teachers” seriously because what we say on social media can have a profound impact on others and it can have a profound impact on others, good or bad, depending on what we say.
He continues in verse 3, “Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things.”
The tongue is a source of greatness: great good or great evil. There’s a saying that goes “actions speak louder than words.” Yes, but our actions are driven by our words. There’s another famous saying about how words affect us, let’s see if you all can finish it together: Sticks and stones may break my bones but…words will never hurt me.” What a load of garbage that is! Words absolutely do hurt us whether we want to believe it or not. And while the origins of that saying were to protect against verbal abuse, words have a major psychological impact on us. Something that was said to us a long time ago as children that we tried to bury could be the entire root system of pain and hurt that we deal in adulthood. We can cut people down in seconds with our words. Parents, we must be so careful in the way we speak to our children – I am having to work on this myself A LOT lately. Spouses, be loving in the way you speak to and interact with each other – I am also having to work on this lately. Siblings, in the words of Bill and Ted from their excellent adventure: “Be excellent to each other.” Oh, by the way, this is also something I am still working on with my brothers and even my sister in laws. If any of you were under the deception that I have worked all of this out in my own life before coming up here and speaking about this stuff… well, you have been deceived. Wait until we dive more into the dangers of posting on social media in a moment. But James is saying all this to say that the tongue is not easily mastered and that is why he ties maturity in verse 2, with being able to control the tongue. The person who masters what he says, controls his whole body. I’ve been challenged in this in my own life. Seasons where I have been very disciplined with my speech and how I talk to others, there is a correlation in how disciplined I am in other areas of my life. Do you want to be disciplined in how you work, study, act? Start with the discipline of controlling your tongue.
Verse 6, “And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
The tongue steers the course of the whole body, that sounds good. Discipline with the tongue is important and leads to discipline in other areas of life. I think I can learn that discipline. Wait a second. The tongue is a fire? That sets the course of life on fire? It is set on fire itself by hell? And no one can tame it? This just took a fast turn into the wall of hard truths to swallow. One thing you will learn about James the more you study him is he does not pull any punches. He doesn’t have patience or time for lukewarm believers and wishy-washy faith. Maybe that stems from growing up as the younger brother of Jesus. He goes straight for the jugular. And it is good for us because evil speaking and out of control tongues are the epidemic of this age. Kurt Richardson says, “Hell has outcroppings in this world, and one of them is evil speaking.” The wickedness of this world is an immense blaze that is set by the little fire of the tongue. The carelessness of our tongues can start a small spark that destroys people’s lives, integrity, image of themselves, and more. Not only is the tongue destructive, but we cannot tame it ourselves. We need help.
James continues in verse 9, “With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.”
James softens his tone a bit here, recognizing that he is perhaps providing his audience with little hope by saying the tongue is destructive and cannot be tamed. So he identifies his audience as brothers and sisters in faith, and reminds people that when we curse them, we are cursing God because people are made in God’s image. He is saying that to dishonor any human being in any way, is in some way dishonoring God. College football started up this weekend and let’s be honest, while many of us would say this is our favorite time of year and our favorite sport, college football brings out the worst in us. No, just me? Some of us, not 24 hours ago may have called up our friends who lost and rubbed salt in the wound of their season being over week 1. While that may not be that bad, some of us may have gotten a bit too emotional about our team losing and said something we regret in a moment of frustration and impatience to a friend or someone in our family. Perhaps we were at lunch or a bar, and someone who is not a follower of Jesus but knows we are overheard us speaking that way. We cannot act like that on Saturday and gather here on Sunday to bless God and praise his name! The inconsistency of our speech – especially online – damages our witness. That’s hypocrisy. We must guard and control our tongues because as we are about to see, the person who controls his tongue is the person who has heavenly wisdom.
In verse 13 he says: “Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice.”
James changes his tone again in these final six verses and challenges us to show our wisdom by how we live and not by what we say. There is a YouTube channel I subscribe to that hosts these “Surrounded” interviews. 1 atheist vs 24 Christians, 1 republican vs 16 democrats, 1 pro-life vs 20 pro-choice, etc. They’re fascinating but rarely is it more than whoever is in the hot seat making the claim being screamed at and grilled by the opposing voices. It is an opportunity many people unfortunately use to promote their voice, platform, and supposed “wisdom” on the topic at hand more than it is an opportunity to have an actual mature conversation with someone on the other side of a tough topic. What it reveals is that wisdom is not proven by clever arguments or viral posts. It is proven by character and peacemaking. James is finishing his argument by saying that controlling the tongue is a chief mark of Christian wisdom. Many people use their platform to “show off” their wisdom but by doing this, they are using their platform for selfish ambition and out of bitter envy – which calls us back to the Fall. Adam wanted something he didn’t have – wisdom and knowledge of good and evil and to have his eyes opened and be like God. The very fact that he thought his eyes were closed off to something showed his envy and inability to trust God. His selfish ambition to become like God is what drove he and Eve to eat the fruit. And what James is saying in verse 14 is that if these attitudes exist in our heart, stop boasting all together. In other words, shut up. By boasting, we are denying the very truth we claim to believe in and he seems to be saying it would be better to not even say we have faith than continue boasting. What’s interesting is who he is calling out here. Again, he is speaking directly to others in the faith. He is speaking to the religious teachers. There may even be a tinge of frustration in his words in that these were the very people who took Jesus to the Romans to be crucified: The Pharisees. For the world, the sins of the ungodly and unwise behavior result in little hope. But for the religious elite and the teachers who are wise in their own eyes, there is no hope. In verse 16, he says that this type of wisdom does not come from above (or heavenly wisdom) but from the earth and it is unspiritual and demonic. I was reminded of when Jesus tells Peter, “Get behind me Satan!” Peter was focused on his human centered interests not on the Kingdom mission of Christ. By way of saying this, Jesus was saying to Peter, “If I do not go to the cross and die, no one will be saved and you are interrupting me and trying to stop that that because of your own self interests.” There is no more selfish ambition we can have than to go directly against the wisdom of seeking God out first in all things. And where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder. Is there a place more chaotic and disorderly in society than on social media?
Again, to come back to this, I have used it in such offensive ways in the past. Engaging in ridiculous arguments, commenting on topics and posts I should have stayed out of. All the while, my non Christian friends were seeing me engage in that and wondering “This guy calls himself a Christian?” It would have been better for me to shut up. And this is what I do nowadays. Instead of interacting with someone on Facebook or Twitter that frustrates me or tempts me to engage, I will either write out my thoughts in a note or text my brothers what ai want to say and that allows me to get it out but do so privately rather than posting it all over the internet. And that is thankfully due to the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. There are times when it’s better for us to shut up, but there are also times where we need to speak up. But whenever we speak up, we should do it by speaking truth in a loving way like Jesus. We need to teach people truth, because if we don’t speak up then people won’t know biblical truths. But we need to speak truth in loving ways like Jesus, instead of setting people on fire with our words. Remember Kingdom Thinkers aren’t Pushovers, but we should strive to be Peacekeepers who speak truth in loving ways like Jesus.
This calls us back to what he says in verse 8 that no one can tame the tongue. We cannot do this ourselves. Good works of the wise happen in us because of the goodness of God in our lives.
Disorder is disturbance within the community. We must seek to be promoters of peace in our communities as believers. And James shows us that process in the final two verses.
Verse 17: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.”
Peace making is the act of protecting unity. Peace making is not tolerance. When heavenly wisdom or “the wisdom from above” is active in a believer’s life, these virtues begin a process of linking together. First, pursuing purity of our speech and mind. That produces in us a love for peace and gentle humility. Which produces in us compliance or submission – meaning we submit to authority and teaching from a posture of humility - Of course never submitting to things that would go against Jesus and his teachings. Compliance produces mercy and good fruits. To halt deadly activity of the tongue, we must live with mercy towards each other. Or acting generously towards one another. One of our codes at City Awakening is Generosity: Living contently, giving generously, to reach more missionally. This is not just referencing financial generosity but a desire to be generous with our time, treasures, talents, and the way we speak to and treat others. From that mercy, comes an unwavering spirit and focus, much like the rudder of a ship locked onto it’s destination. These good fruits, when they are sown by us, produce in us an unrivaled spirit of peace and control. And when seeds of peace are sown, the resulting crop is the multiplication of righteous deeds.
The big idea of the message is Peacekeepers are Kingdom Thinkers. As we close out this series on Kingdom Thinking today, I am not sure there is a better place to land the plane than with social media and being peace makers. In the movie, The Social Network, Sean parker, one of the cocreators of Facebook is dreaming with a group of students about a picture sharing application (Instagram) and the “digitalization of real life” when he proudly proclaims, “We lived on farms, and then we lived in cities, and now we will live on the internet.” A sobering, yet true reminder that so much of our lives for the past 20 years has taken place on and been lived on Social Media. We have engaged in discussions about moral truth, science and more recently Artificial Intelligence in Facebook groups, Twitter threads, and Instagram comments. We have searched for wisdom in 90 second reels and videos on Tik Tok from college students. Social media certainly has some benefits to it. It can help us connect with people from all over the world, reconnect with friends we've lost contact with, even allow us to spread the gospel and truth of God's word to encourage others. We can post scripture, post truths about our faith, and maybe it leads someone else to faith or has a positive impact on their lives. We can even share sermons from our church so the gospel message can spread. But social media also has some cons. There can be lies that are posted, people wounded by other people like we've talked about in this message, and it can affect people's identity and how they view themselves when they receive a negative comment from someone. It can also cause people to be disconnected from the very people in the room, because we're often having face to phone time instead of face-to-face time with the people we're around. It can connect us digitally, but it's also disconnecting us relationally from the physical relationships around us. there are certainly pros and cons to social media. It can certainly connect us with others, but it's also changing humanity and how we relate with each other. We can use it, but we should use it with caution. We can use it, but also realize it can't ever replace our face-to-face time and connection with others physically instead of digitally. We can use it, but also seek to be Kingdom Thinkers, seek to be peacekeepers who reflect Jesus with our words and actions. So should we avoid social media? At this point, we obviously cannot. But we can be a people and a church that engages with it in a wisdom from above type of way. We must strive to be peace makers on social media and encourage others to do the same as a church. Because a church that is rich in evangelism, defending the poor, counseling the wounded and broken, showing hospitality to the stranger and immigrant, providing shelter for the battered and homeless, and sending gospel focused missionaries out into the world is a church that will reap a harvest of righteousness. This is the evidence of a kingdom thinking church. And this is precisely what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 6:33 when he said, “Seek FIRST the kingdom of God, and all of these things will be given to you.” What things? Righteousness. Mercy. A controlled tongue. And a peace-making spirit. We need Jesus to help us with this. James says nobody can tame the tongue, which is why we need Jesus to die for our sinful words and actions. But we don’t just need Jesus to die for our sins, we need Jesus to help transform us into becoming more like him. We need Jesus to help transform us into become more like him in our words and deeds.