What do you watch when you open up Netflix, or Hulu, or Amazon Prime on your phone, tablet or other screen? What kinds of series and movies are you drawn to? Do you watch what your know is edifying, or something else—and if so, do you know why?
“…I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27 BSB)
I admit it, I watch Netflix. Over the past several years I have probably watched most of the romantic South Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese, and even Chinese offerings on the platform. But why Asian? I’m not Asian and have to follow along with subtitles—why not just watch American made shows? The answer is that, I’m ashamed to admit, Asian shows have higher moral standards.
There: I said it. American audiences seem to have a greater tolerance for the absence of any kind of censorship, but I hate it. The goal may be to reflect life as it really is in all its unvarnished misery, but I don’t want to grovel in the gutter: I want to be lifted up and have something nicer and better to be inspired to! Asian audiences show greater respect to elders and even though relations between unmarried individuals is becoming more common, even that is typically still portrayed within the confines of the better part of what we are capable of, rather than the worst. I’m sure that, with time, this too may change, but for now they still don’t put everything out there on screen.
Yet even the censored Asian shows reveal so many of humankind’s sins. Greed; physical violence is much more tolerated culturally toward anyone socially subordinate; ambition, ruthlessness. What’s my point? Cultures differ, but innate human sin nature does not.
But why do we tend to watch characters who commit so many sins? I suspect it’s because we want to feel better about ourselves. When we see someone else’s glaring faults, it’s almost as if we can point to them and say, “See? Im not that bad of a sinner; I’m actually pretty good in comparison!”
But the problem with this type of reasoning is that the question is not how bad our sins are; it is whether we’ve committed our lives to God’s mercy in Christ—a question way too many willingly ignore because it is the harder one.
We can always find someone whose sins seem greater in comparison to mine, just as there will always be someone who is more beautiful, wealthier, smarter, wittier, etc. It’s inevitable. Yet the reason that comparing ourselves to greater sinners is a mistake is because what’s important is whether or not we submit to God in Christ. That’s the only question whose answer matters.
Why? Because when we do, God takes care of the rest; of our sinning. And if we don’t? Will you really care in an eternity, banished from all that is good and forever in torment, if you were a tad bit better than the next guy? It’s an irrelevant issue.
This is not to say that we should be as bad as we can, because it does matter. But what matters most is that we trust Jesus Christ, and let him take care of our sin issue because me trying to take care of my sin is like Adam and Eve making clothes out of leaves: utterly inadequate. We need the garment of Christ’s holiness placed on us to cover our guilt: nothing else suffices.
And once we have that, we get God’s nature too through His Spirit He places in us, who gives us a new heart that hates sin and wants to please God:
“…(1) I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. (2) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (3) And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27 BSB)
God does three distinct things when we understand Jesus IS God too—His Son with Him in eternity become a human—and trust in Him; when I believe that He is God and that God forgives me because of Him.
(1) First, He forgives all my past sin: He cleanses me from all my impurities and from my idolatry—my valuing something more than God. (2) Second, He gives us a new heart; one that is really alive and sensitive to Him: it’s the new birth. (3) Third, He places His own Spirit inside us who causes us to live as He wants us to.
So, what are you drawn to? Do you watch evil people doing evil deeds so you can feel better about yourself? Stop comparing yourself to other sinful human beings and compare yourself to Jesus instead—and when you recognize you’re nothing like Him, accept His holiness in faith and let Him take care of the sin in your life!
Dear Jesus Christ,
You are God; give me Your holiness; Your forgiveness; new life from You! Amen.
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