Resources/Articles
Choosing to See
“Viewer Discretion Advised” is a warning to those who may be interested in seeing a program that may contain sexual or violent acts which will not be suitable for any age person, whether adult or child. Such a warning gives the viewer an opportunity to use discernment. It is an exercise in will and persuasion. Depending on the direction of the will, a person will either avoid the evil or forsake the warning and what what they have been advised is unsuitable to see or hear.
We need to heed the Bible’s call for discernment. We must develop a mindset that will allow us to distinguish between truth and error, right and wrong. In the Bible, we learn that from the Garden of Eden, there are two and only two ways (one allowed, one forbidden, Genesis 2.9,16-17): God’s way and all others. There are people who are lost or saved. There is no other condition. We belong either to God’s house or the world. There is the broad way leading to destruction and the narrow way leading to eternal life. There are those who’re with us, and there are those against us. There are those within and those without. There is life and death, truth and lie, good and bad, light and darkness, kingdom of God and kingdom of Satan, love and hatred, and wisdom of the world and wisdom of God. Therefore, we need discernment.
We must remember who we are and what we have become as Christians. Remember, we have been bought with a price in order to demonstrate to the world “what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12.2). Our calling came from God as did our desire to change our thinking, which requires that we submit to the wishes of the Father.
Keep in mind that a daily, steady battle is before us. We are wrestling with an opponent who never ceases in his efforts to lure us away from the right way. Remember, our weapons of war are “mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10.4-5).
Our problem is not that we do not know right from wrong. We see the warning. We know the danger. We hear the advisory. We understand the consequences. We must see the need to turn away, stop, deny, refuse, decline, and turn down the offers, and think, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God” (Genesis 39.9).
