BAD COMPANY

Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." 1 Cor 15v33

Has anyone else noticed how bad TV is becoming in the last few years? That which was once 'rude' and 'vulgar' 10 years ago, is now accepted as quite normal. The TV shows that are coming out, and that are most popular, seem now to be those that CHAMPION and laud evil as heroic, and somehow twist what is vile to appear as though it is good. God clearly warns us against accepting this- 

Isaiah 5:
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!

But society has done this because of what Satan has always used as a weapon to deceive us: 

'And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.' (2 Cor 11v14

The enemy is very clever when it comes to deceiving people to believe that what they think, believe and love, is actually pure, upright and beneficial, when it is actually anything but! Think about how much TV comedy today centre's around sexual joking! Those topics which should be things which exist in the privacy and sanctity of marriage, are bandied about as though they are common and dirty things and things which should be the target of ridicule and lewdness, and things which should only be for pleasure, without there being any kind of actual true love and devotion. These things should not be made into rudeness, lewdness and jokes that centre around perversity, for these are the very things which God made private in the beginning, because sin entered the world, and God COVERED UP Adam and Eve, and determined that such a relationship between a man and a wife be exactly that; something that is between a man and a wife and that is private. What God has sanctified, made Holy and made private, no Christian or the world for that matter should be making into an unholy and common thing. 

Not only this, but it seems that not many people even realise this is happening. Many comedy shows now are simply blatantly rude, blatantly sexually rude, include illicit language and are constantly vulgar. Sin and sinful ways are being exalted as being 'ground-breaking' and 'cutting-edge' and are really just glorifying the perverse and every sin mentioned and warned against in the Bible (and particularly those sins that are especially warned against). The devil comes as an angel of light to deceive, and men have listened, not only to him, but to their own hearts in making much of what now exists.

Ten years ago I remember what was on TV as being a whole lot different, even in terms of comedy shows. Those shows that were once 'mostly' innocent in nature, are now blatantly perverse and make jokes out of that which is sexual, rude and just down right dirty and degrading. It's so disappointing, discouraging and just outrageous what our society is doing now, but it is going down the way they have chosen.

I speak to myself first and foremostly here in waking up to this fact, but what was once easier to doge with a flick of a remote, now I find becoming increasingly hard, if not impossible to avoid without just shutting down a certain show completely. No one is perfect here, and our own sinful weakness makes us willingly stumble at times, but all of us need to be aware of just how bad TV is getting. If we don't realise, we'll slowly just become more and more corrupted until we wonder how we got to a certain point of sinful acceptance of what we watch so quickly. Taking a stand for righteousness isn't just about what we say or do, but what we accept into our lives and what we choose to focus on and love. Conscience, plus the Word, plus the Spirit need to be our guides here, and we all need be very aware of what God desires- not just in terms of avoiding what is immoral, but going the other way in embracing what is moral and what is good. The Bible encourages us to think on those things which good and upright, and that should be our goal and our compass:

Phil 4v8: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Just like friends rub off on us the more we hang around them (at least to some extent); thinking like them, speaking like them, imitating them, believing what they believe etc (by watching them, hearing them, hanging out with them and interacting with them), so the more we hang out with the company of shows we surround ourselves, the more we'll take to ourselves those things we watch and become like them in some ways. The eyes are the windows to the soul, and what we watch will end up inside of us, and then end up coming out of us (because the Bible says that out of the heart come the issues of life).

The Bible says that while we are free, let us not use that freedom for the flesh, but use it for the Spirit. So lets all ask ourselves, what is beneficial for us? and what isn't? What will help us spiritually? And what won't? And what has God clearly warned us against and forbidden as being directly contrary to what is good and to what He wants for us?