You Need Filtered and Accountable Electronic Devices, part 1 of 2

Nobody who is reading this post should be doing so on a device that has neither an Internet filter and/or accountability.  Christians especially should never use a personal computer, phone, or other device with Internet access that is not protected from the evils the world, the flesh, and the devil make easily available on the Internet. The best route is to have both filtering that keeps the bad stuff away and accountability that sends all one’s websites to an accountability partner or two (or more), such as a spouse, pastor, parent, discipler, etc.  You need a filter and Internet accountability because:

1.) Scripture sets the positive pattern: “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me” (Psalm 101:3).  Pornography is without doubt a wicked thing which you must resolve to never, ever set before your eyes.  Holy Job said:  “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” (Job 31:1).  Furthermore, the Lord Jesus Christ warned:  “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).  The fearful connection of lustful looks with ungodly actions was manifested even in the godly king David, the man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).  Even this righteous king, after looking on the nakedness of his neighbor’s wife, committed physical adultery after spiritually committing the sin in his heart (2 Samuel 11).  You should by no means think that you are stronger than King David.

2.)  God warns that sexual temptation is extremely powerful.  Listen to His warning about the “strange woman,” the heathen, pagan, or immoral lady, who has ruined the lives of innumerable godly men and has brought innumerable worldlings to hell:  “Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.” (Proverbs 7:24-27).  Is not an unfiltered computer one of the primary ways today that men go in the “paths” of the immoral woman and are cast down to hell by their own inflamed lusts through her?

 3.) Christ’s model prayer includes the request:  “ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).  You cannot honesty and sincerely ask God to not lead you into temptation if you refuse to protect yourself from being a few clicks away from an incredibly vast library of pornography.  Furthermore,2 Timothy 2:22 commands:  “ Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”  Would you say that remaining a handful of seconds away from a bloodthirsty beast that wanted to pounce on you and devour you would be “fleeing” from it?  Genesis 4:7, in the first instance of the word “sin” in Scripture, pictures sin as a bloodthirsty beast with a passionate desire to devour you.  If you have an unfiltered, unaccountable computer or smartphone, you are constantly a handful of seconds away from incredible evil that can permanently ruin your life, your family, your testimony for the Lord, and can have immeasurable eternal consequences.  You are simply and flatly disobeying the command to “flee” lust and “follow” after righteousness if you have an unfiltered device with Internet access.  You are failing to be on guard and watch against that devouring beast of sin, remembering that your flesh is weak (Mark 14:38) and you are giving place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27).  God does not allow the believer to encounter a temptation that he cannot gain victory over by Christ’s enabling grace (1 Corinthians 10:13), but “the way to escape” is regularly to “flee” it, not to keep it around (1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Timothy 2:22; Genesis 39:12).  God commands concerning the way of the wicked:  “Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away” (Proverbs 4:15).  If you have an unfiltered phone, the fact is that you are entering into temptation (Mark 14:38).  Do not be surprised if you fall into it.

4.)  The Lord Jesus also taught: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.” (Matthew 18:6-8)  It is better to significantly change your lifestyle than to cause one Christian to stumble into sin or one non-Christian to not embrace Christ and the gospel (1 Corinthians 8:13).  If it would be better to have your body parts hacked off than to either sin yourself, lead one of your heavenly Father’s beloved children to sin, or lead one of your fellow men to eternal torment in hell by your bad example, how necessary it is for you to have a filtered computer and Internet accountability!  Vast numbers of Christians have fallen into terrible sin, and vast numbers of unbelievers reject Christ and are eternally damned because their hard hearts are too in love with pornography and other sexual sin to repent and trust in that Savior who always delivers from both the penalty and power of sin when the lost come to Him to be justified by repentant faith alone.  If you are one of the rare people who, by God’s utterly undeserved mercy, does not yourself fall into sin when you have unaccountable and unfiltered Internet access, you are certainly being a terrible example and are causing others to stumble.  If having an unaccountable and unfiltered Internet meant that your right arm and left leg would be chopped off, would you spend a few dollars and get a clean Internet connection?  Who would not?  But it would be better for you to lose your limbs than to cause even one person to stumble by your bad example.  Clearly, today is the day to make sure that you, your family, and everyone you are responsible to God for has clean, accountable, and filtered Internet access, or no Internet access at all.

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This post is an excerpt and abridgment of the study here.

TDR