Sunday, February 28, 2016

Virtual Courage or Cowardice?

When I was a child, I would often hear adults refer to alcohol as "liquid courage." The idea was that a drunk would be brutally honest. Excessive alcohol relaxes an individual and removes inhibition so that they are seemingly bold in their blunt honesty.

The same phenomenon exists with many today in this world of virtual communications. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks seem to give people a false sense of security, a "virtual courage" that enables them to be honest, yet deceptive all at the same time. Like the "liquid courage" this willingness to air the proverbial dirty laundry is not to be applauded, as it exposes in many the hypocrisy that lies in those of us who claim to be a child of God.

In the streets, there is a code of honor which dictates that if a person has something to say, they should say it to the face of the intended recipient. Gossip, back-biters and snitches are not regarded highly. The Kingdom of God is the same way. If we have an issue with another, especially another in the Body of Christ, we have a responsibility to talk directly to that person (Matthew 18), rather than posting innuendos on social media in hopes to build a "virtual gang" to help us fight the ensuing battle.

We must remember that Satan is still the prince of this world (John 12:31; 2 Corinthians 4:4). These airways of media and networking, while we can certainly use them to glorify God, were created for the world. Let's not adopt worldly methods to handle Kingdom business. It just doesn't work.

Man up or put on your "big girl panties" and handle your business like a child of God, rather than a hoodlum. Selah.

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