Should Christians watch rated movies rated “R” or shows rated “TV-MA”? Should we listen to “Christian” music exclusively? What, then, do we do with Switchfoot? Does content need to be explicitly sinful to be condemned? What about those things that are suggestive? Are labels like “suggestive” and “explicit” objective or are they better understood relative to the individual and their cultural context?

Questions like these are not easily answered. The proverbial pendulum swings from arbitrary legalisms to questionable claims of freedom in Christ to live by a worldly standard.

The Holy Spirit works within his people a desire to put off sin and reflect the image of Christ. For good reason, pornography (however one might define it) has come to stand front and center in these discussions. Avoiding sexual content is virtuous because these images stir up sexual desires that Christ has commanded us to avoid. But, what about content that stirs up other forms of vice and fleshly desires? What about content that promotes anger, greed, envy, and godlessness of other sorts?

For the past decade, God has been doing a work in my heart that has revolutionized the way I look at my pursuit of entertainment. Rather than establishing a complex set of standards in the spirit of the Scribes and Pharisees, I have learned to ask some simple yet powerful questions about what it means for me to find pleasure in entertainment. As I strive to navigate this media-saturated world with my eyes fixed on the prize before me, these are the questions that are shaping my convictions.

Am I feeding my own sinful desires?

Matthew 5:27-30 records Christ teaching on adultery. Not only does he teach against the act of adultery, he goes on to teach against participating in those things that would kindle adulterous desires saying, “I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Jesus teaches against both the act of sin and the stirring up of our desire for sin. He goes further to say that the means by which such desires might be stirred (the eyes or the hand) should be cut off lest we stumble. When my entertainment puts sin on display so that it awakens a desire, I am acting in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ. I am actively working to hinder the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit within me. Rather than limiting the means by which my flesh is stirred, I am providing the spoon.