Discipleship and Media Detox

“We need to disciple out some of the more harmful aspects of our culture.”

When we read the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19–20, we normally do so with the understanding that making disciples means focusing on things like sharing Christ and various spiritual disciplines: prayer, studying Scripture, serving and so on. And that’s what Jesus calls us to do.

But in doing so we can miss another aspect of making disciples, and that is discipling out bad ideas and beliefs in order to replace them with the things of God. Paul commented how the Thessalonians not only received the gospel (1 Thess. 1:5) but how they also turned from idols (1 Thess. 1:9). He told the Corinthians to flee idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14).

We encounter the same realities today that Paul did in his. We also have to disciple out idolatry and other ideas in order to be discipled in the way of Jesus. Discipleship is ancient, but the saturation of media content with which we compete is new. But it’s not as novel as we may think. It’s just another way for believers to be exposed to ideas, many of which are wrong. Some of these wrong or even evil ideas pose as Christian truth.

Paul didn’t have to worry about cable news or social media in his day, but just as in ours, he had to confront some really bad ideas that seemed on the surface to be good. He warned the Colossians to avoid those who would “delude with plausible arguments” (Col. 2:4) or be taken “captive by philosophy and empty deceit” (Col. 2:8).

Maybe Paul’s day was a lot like ours, after all. Read More