Doug Van Pelt

Bon Jovi is a Christian band...

I mean, with song titles like "Keep the Faith," "Lay Your Hands on Me" and "Livin' On A Prayer," they've gotta be, right? So was the thinking of many a young music enthusiast (myself included, although not for this band). We thought in terms of, "I'll only listen to Christian music." It's like saying, "I'll only drink milk from a Christian cow." Now, the vast majority of the music I listen to is Christian (duh) and my music choices are still weighted by a desire to "eat good stuff" or "healthy themes/thoughts for my soul," as I don't really have an "appetite" for death/destruction/evil. I still have those concerns, but I don't hold a steel-trap door over my entertainment choices that filter out anything questionable. To me it's a matter of balance. If I over-indulge in junk food, I'll get unhealthy. The same with entertainment. Everything under the sun is available and a possibility to enjoy, but if no care whatsoever is taken, that would surely lead to illness.

I don't want to have a sick heart (a sick soul, a sick spirit), and thus ingesting God's Word is a wonderful and healthy habit. It would almost belittle the Word of God to allude to vitamins here, but permit me just this: it's good for you. A "secular" song by Merle Haggard, Sum 41, Muse, Coldplay, or (gasp) Marilyn Manson might be something you can enjoy very much. Like sweets and sugar, though, too much of something with no nutritional value can be detrimental to your mind and spirit. Moderation, I think, is the key. Caring about what we eat/watch/read is good. Being legalistic and "eating nothing that's not great for me," is fine if that's what you want to do. You might miss out on some fine desserts and some fun music, but that's okay, too. One mistake many make in this area, though, is imparting their personal convictions on others. It mostly works itself out like this: "You can't listen to that!!! It's secular. If you're a Christian, you can't." (Now twist that reverb knob to the right): "You can't! You can't! You can't! You can't! You can't!"

First of all, if we shut ourselves off from all non-Christian communication, we shut ourselves off from the world. What good are we then? Salt must mix with a prone-to-decaying matter like meat to be a preservative. Ya gotta hang out with sinners to save some. We also can miss out on some Truth God has for us in unexpected places. He didn't give us believers a monopoly on the truth. Some people out there that don't believe are smarter than us, more skilled than us, even wiser than us. If we don't give ourselves the benefit from listening to them, we're robbing ourselves of a good thing. What's the key to keep us from falling off the deep end into unbelief and wanton living? Besides keeping your love alive, it's thinking! Filter the things you read and hear through your brain. God gave us the ability to think -- if we just use our brains. Becoming a Christian leads to a new worldview. We begin to think of things in a different way. Our perspective on marriage, family, death, crime, justice, suffering, bounty, exercise, are all different than they were before Christ.

A Christian can read a book or watch a documentary on evolution and not bow down to Darwin and recant our faith. The Truth is a ferocious beast. It can defend itself. We don't need to fear lies, false thinking, deception, and even evil. The Truth is powerful enough to stand up to any test it's given.

Now, that was just my intro! Hehe. Ecclesiastes 5 talks about acting wisely (and keeping quiet) in the house of God. There is a stern warning, too:

"When you make a vow to God,
do not delay in fulfilling it."

There is some insightful words on materialism, too:

"I have seen a grievous evil under the sun:
wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,
or wealth lost through some misfortune,
so that when he has a son
there is nothing left for him."

And again we see the thought talked about yesterday:

"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb,
and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor
that he can carry in his hand."

There is also a balance:

"Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him -- for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work -- this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart."

If I had to boil down some of this though into a few words (and I don't, but I will try), it'd be: live free from guilt but also free from sin.

In other words, don't let yourself be weighed down by traditions of men or misinterpretations of Scripture. Live fully before God. Your abandoned love for Him will make you abound in love for others and will give you a deep desire to honor God and live rightly before Him. This will probably take care of all the little gray areas or behavioral questions you or others may have. It's okay to be different. It's okay to have a freedom that others around you might not understand. Flaunting that freedom is immature (and leads to strife). Submitting yourself to someone else's slavery is probably not a good idea, either. Sticking close to God and surrounding ourself with at least one (preferably many more) person we can trust will help us stay on the right path.

Having someone to bounce ideas and our interpretations of Scripture off of is a good structure of balance that is helpful...

If this is how we live our lives, we're probably less likely to get tangled up in a mess of sin. It won't keep us from falling or committing a sin (it's kinda hard to avoid sin all of our days when we live in a fallen world with a fallen nature), but it's likely to keep us from being ensared, tangled, defeated, and consumed by sin. See the difference?

I better stop now.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at June 22, 2005 08:37 AM