Last year, a really nice man commented on my blogpost about movies. His name’s John, and I must say, it’s such a great privilege to have someone responding to something that I write! Thank you John!
Ever since our exchange last year, I’ve been trying to answer this one question:
Having saved by Christ, how then should I watch movies?
While this might seem trivial to some, this means a lot to me because I really enjoy them! More than most people I might argue. When I watch movies, it feels as if I’ve been exposed to something vulnerable, a cry — a yearning to express something about what makes us human. I recently watched one of my favorite critic, Chris Stuckmann, reviewing the Captain Marvel movie and I think what Chris said in the first few minutes sums up exactly how I feel:
Note: To give some context to it, Chris was just talking about how the movie was polarizing to some audience even prior to its release.
“I just want to see a good film. I don’t care if it fails, I don’t care if it succeeds. I want to see a well-made film, made by people who respect the artform who are trying to tell a good story that communicates a good message to the people who are going to see this movie whether that’s for girls who don’t usually get the chance to see a female hero on screen or your average audience member who just wants to be entertained. “
Yes! I want to be entertained. I just want to see a well-made movie. I want to see how someone who appreciates movies see the world.
Yet, one has to ask, is entertainment all that is? Or does this desire say something about our heart?
Our Hearts
“The heart is deceitful above all things!” the prophet Jeremiah said.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
“I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”(Jeremiah 17:9-10)
Ever since our disobedience on Eden, we’ve been enticed to the wrong kind of beauty. One which truly satisfies, God Himself, we abhor, and those that disgust we embrace. As God is the Lord of All, One who created everything and sees everything as good, who made all the trees, even the fruit that the woman sees as delightful to the eyes (Genesis 3:16). One that He commands, which is to trust Him and enjoy Him forever (Genesis 1:28-31, Genesis 2:6). We are to enjoy His good gifts, and even the best gift He could give, Himself. We are to enjoy His presence in all of life.
He created us according to His image (Genesis 1:27-28), that we may exercise authority as He does (Genesis 1:28-31), reflecting the beauty of our Creator among His glorious creations. It was all very good (Genesis 1:31).
Yet, like all good gifts, sin offers a sliver of its evil yet enticing end and tarnishes the whole being. We’re to be made doubtful, thinking “Did God really say ….?” (Genesis 3:1-7). There’s a horror that surrounds this question, screaming, “Did God give you something good only to withhold it? Well then He mustn’t be good!”
We are deceived, thinking that we could have authority over own lives. “We are the law!” we shout. Imagine walking on a desert with a revolver strapped in, our fingers ready to reach for the trigger at a moments notice and shoot down those who dare go against us! This is the wild west, the strongest shall live, and as long as you live, may you seek riches beyond measure, with violence if necessary!
We forget that we are His creation, and we’re created that we may know Him and love Him as we know that we’re known by Him and that He loves us. How much truth is contained in this hymn, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” To put it more bluntly, as R. C. Sproul said, we had committed a cosmic treason.
Yet, thanks be to God, our wandering hearts are not left alone.
Not long after our fall, the first gospel is preached.
It writes,
I will put enmity between you [the serpent) and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”(Genesis 3:15)
And oh did He bruise Satan’s heel! The impending death did He beat (Matthew 28:5), and we can now say as Paul, “O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-46). The birth, death, and resurrection of Christ prove how men cannot save themselves, and the Lord, the same God who created everything and sees them as very good, in all His mercy, justice, and love, offer Himself for those who long for Home, for the One True Beauty, One That Truly Satisfies (Psalm 16:11).
Himself did He give!
The sin’s sting isn’t so enticing anymore. In His coming He brought a taste of Heaven, a joy inexplicable, having sought by Him that we may love the things He love, hate the things He hate, and enjoy Himself.
No, friends, we are not left alone as we meditate how Christ living in us affect all that we do. Our hearts may be deceitful, but we don’t have to follow them anymore. As He works within us, a work that He shall finish (Philipians 1:16, Romans 8:28-30), and as we bask in His glorious grace (Matthew 11:28-30, Ephesians 2), we are to realize who we are in Christ (Colossians 3), having the Word of Christ dwelling within us richly through the power of His Spirit (Colossians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 2:6-14, Romans 12:2).
The first lie on Eden proves to be untrue, and now we know that He is Our Father, He is good for He is Goodness Himself, He cares for us, and in His wisdom, all things, good and bad, works for our good (Romans 8:12-17, 28, Psalm 19).
As we venture on such an important journey of deciding what’s worthy to be seen and not, may this truth stirs our hearts. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36).
Good Gifts
As His imprint is seen in all of us, that we may enjoy a good meal, being in awe of a mesmerizing music performance, as His creations, we are by His grace wired to enjoy beautiful things. As we, believers, are given the opportunity to enjoy His Word daily, we are also given the gift of enjoying Him in His creations. As the great passage found in Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (v. 1). This is a gift not only given to Christians to enjoy, but also for unbelievers (Matthew 5:45). As Christians seek joy, so does the others. Here I’m making a case that watching secular movies (that is, not created with religious purposes in mind), doesn’t necessarily dishonor God.
Tony Reinke in his great book on reading books, comments about reading secular works:
Therefore, in reading profane authors, the admirable light of truth displayed in them should remind us that the human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator. If we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful, as we would avoid offering insult to him, not to reject or condemn truth wherever it appears. In despising the gifts, we insult the Giver.
Similar to his approach on deciding which is permissible to be read, I think we can apply the same logic: as we see the works of filmmakers, regardless of their religious convictions, “the admirable light of truth displayed in them should remind us that the human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator.” And that we should be careful not to insult the Giver.
Yet Tony gives an important note,
“If we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful, as we would void offering insult to him, not to reject or condemn truth whenever it appears.”
As secular as the works may be, it may contain truth that is consistent with the Creator, which makes sense for He creates all of us without exception.
Tony also writes,
“The bigger point is that by clutching tightly to a worldview that is informed by Scripture, we set the agenda. The author will not be allowed to lead us along blindly. We read more safely when our understanding of Scripture is sharp. As we mature here, the mist in the canyon will lift and we will better understand the gap that separates us from a majority of contemporary authors. Once we can clearly see the ravine, a large library of literature is unlocked for our benefit, and we can read from a safe distance.”
Here he is talking about discerning what is good, what pleases the Lord, and what benefits the heart and the mind. As we place our eyes facing the feature-length movie, we are not to be controlled by it, but we as Christians could see it from a safe distance, never allowing it to define or drive our ever-wandering hearts.
He comments again on discernment when reading books:
“Christians can read a broad array of books for our personal benefit, but only if we read with discernment. And we will only read with discernment if the biblical convictions are firmly settled in our minds and hearts. Once they are, we have a touchstone to determine what is pure gold and what is worthless.”
Matt Chandler once says that this is the simplest definition of the Christian life he knows, to find the things that brings us closer to Christ and cling tightly unto it, and to run from the things that steal us away from it.
By the same principle, we are looking unto Him as we define what to watch and not to. We do so cautiously, knowing that He is good and that He grants gifts for those who trusts in Him and even for those who don’t. We are all His creation, and in His wisdom and love, He gives us these things. While our hearts often wander, we are not to condemn everything secular as evil, but sees discerningly by His Word illuminated through His Spirit.
One more quote from his (brilliant!) book and I’m done:
Literature is life. If you want to know what, deep down, people feel and experience, you can do no better than read the stories and poems of the human race. Writers of literature have the gift of observing and then expressing in words the essential experiences of people.
The rewards of reading literature are significant. Literature helps to humanize us. It expands our range of experiences. It fosters awareness of ourselves and the world. It enlarges our compassion for people. It awakens our imaginations. It expresses our feelings and insights about God, nature, and life. It enlivens our sense of beauty. And it is a constructive form of entertainment.
Christians should neither undervalue nor overvalue literature. It is not the ultimate source of truth. But it clarifies the human situation to which the Christian faith speaks. It does not replace the need for the facts that science and economics and history give us. But it gives us an experiential knowledge of life that we need just as much as those facts.
Literature does not always lead us to the City of God. But it makes our sojourn on earth much more a thing of beauty and joy and insight and humanity.
The truth contained within the many arraying works are still truth, and therefore are God’s truth. We are to benefit from them with a discerning mind, looking and clinging unto Christ at all times.
In the end I’d like to close out with a quote from the great expositor John Calvin,
“For in the cross of Christ, as in a magnificent theatre, the inestimable goodness of God is displayed before the whole world,”
Wow.
Once again, may we wholeheartedly believe, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)
Amen!
Tommy Winarta 