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Facebook and the
Bible
Does the Bible teach anything
related to using Facebook?
How should we
use social media sites?
The
Bible says nothing directly about Facebook.
The
Scriptures were finalized more than 1,900 years before this social media site
came to life on the Internet.
What
we can do, however, is examine how principles found in the Scriptures can be
applied to social media Web sites.
Computers
allow people to create gossip faster than ever before.
Once
created, sites like Facebook make it easy for gossip (and for those using it
for noblier purposes) to reach a wide audience.
The
audience can be not just your friends or even those who live near you, but the
whole world!
People
can say almost anything online and get away with it, especially when they do so
anonymously. Romans 1 lists "backbiters"
as a category of sinner to avoid becoming (Romans
1:29-30).
Gossip
can be true information that attacks other people. It need not be false or
half-true.
We
have to be wary of telling lies, rumors or out-of-context half-truths about
others when posting online.
God
is clear about what it thinks of gossip and lying.
He
warns us not to be a talebearer to others, which is obviously a temptation on
Facebook and other social media platforms (Leviticus
19:16, Psalm 50:20, Proverbs 11:13 and 20:19).
Another
problem with social media like Facebook is that it can become addictive and
encourage spending too much time on the site itself.
Such
sites can be a big time waster when one's life should be spent on other
activities, such as prayer, studying the word of God, and so on.
After all, if someone says, "I don't have time to pray or study the Bible," but finds
an hour each day to visit Twitter, Facebook and so on, that person's priorities
are skewed.
Using
social sites can at times be beneficial or even good, but spending alot of time
on them can be wrong.
There
is a third problem, though subtle, that social sites can feed.
They
can encourage interacting with others mainly or solely through electronic means
rather than with face-to-face contact.
Our
relationships can become superficial if we primarily interact with people
online and not in person.
There is one Bible text that might relate directly to the
Internet and maybe even to Twitter, Facebook and others, "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the
time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase"
(Daniel 12:4).
The
above verse in Daniel may have a dual meaning. It could refer to knowledge of
God's holy word increasing and becoming clearer over the years.
It
could also, however, refer to human knowledge in general increasing at a fast
pace, a pace made possible by the computer revolution.
Furthermore,
since we now have relatively cheap transportation like cars and planes, people
are literally running to and fro around the world.
Many
technological innovations become good or bad depending on how they are used, not
because they exist of themselves.
Even
a gun can do good, such as when it's used for hunting, but it is evil when used
to murder someone.
Although
the Bible does not specifically address how to use Facebook (or many of the
things we use or run into today), its principles can still be applied to guide
us on how we should view and use such modern inventions.
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