In this video, Tim Challies provides helpful counsel on how Christians should think about and use technology to honor God.
Well, the internet is quite a challenge, and our generation is the generation trying to figure out how to use this thing while it’s going to exist for the foreseeable future. But as a new technology, we’re the ones who are thrust into trying to figure out what it is, what it can do well, what it can’t do well, and how to use it in virtuous ways instead of sinful ways. So, as I speak to people about using the internet well, I really want them to think about it biblically, to even develop a biblical way of looking at technology in general, to understand that technology is a good gift of God that’s given so we can carry out our mandate in this world. Yet technology exists on the far side of Genesis 3. So it, too, is subject to the fall.
And so, I encourage people to understand that there’s a battle going on in any use of technology and that we need to be very, very careful to ensure that we’re using these things for good, not using them for ignoble purposes. And so, just being aware of that day by day, that the pull will be there as a believer to use it for good purposes and use it for poor purposes. Moment by moment, the choice is before us. Will I use this to serve God by serving other people? Or will I use this to harm other people and dishonor God? So we should have that awareness and then determine day by day, “I will use this well. I will use this to honor God and serve other people.”
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on January 6, 2020.