The Un-Social Network

1 John 2:15 "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."

I saw a commercial of the Television a week or two ago, where a young lady made a statement that older people were becoming more and more Un-social, based on the growing number of parents and grandparents getting fed-up with the current trends of immediate and constant communication; turning them off, discontinue using or disconnecting, some or all, completely. Of course, the commercial was scripted and the actor just speaking lines, but there was a message there. A quick look at some numbers off the internet shows that there are 20 million MySpace users, 156 million Bloggers, 200 million Twitter users, 750 million Facebook users, 1 billion Smart Phone users, 1.4 billion e-mail users, 2 billion Internet users, there are 3.9 million YouTube subscribers & 4.6 cell Phone users with texting. Sounds like we’re pretty social, or are we just obsessed with these latest crazes? What was intended to shame those not embracing the social network may actually be a call to evaluate what is going on in our society today, and if things have gone too far, too fast and created addictive behavior, then step back to a balanced & healthy position in life.

In the parabol of the Sower from Mark 4:18-20, the Lord Jesus explains the principle that worldly cares and desires, when the focus, become unfruitful distractions in godly instructions and affairs. "And others (seeds) are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold." It’s not the social network that is the problem. I’m blogging right now and use most of these services. There are many good and godly things happening, but there are also some behaviors of concern. It’s disturbing to hear some say that they feel ‘naked” if they leave home without their cell phone. There is a great example of the root problem in 1 Timothy 6:10 saying that it is the “love of money” that corrupts because of the obsession. Then that which was intended for positive becomes a negative. You don’t even have to know the biblical references to understand this lesson, because we see and experience it in our world daily. You have taken good things too far and make them bad. Remember, money isn’t bad, in and of itself. It’s just an item of commence. We need money to function in society to purchase of goods and services in everyday life. But greed of money can lead to gratifying the sin nature of the flesh and needs to be kept in check by “walking in the Spirit” (Galatians 16-24). Let’s remember the keep our eye on the race set before us, our priority. Keep the “right” thing, the “right” thing. Let nothing come before the Lord.

1 Corinthians 9:24-26 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26So I do not run aimlessly.”
In Christ, Brian