SIN FOR RENT
You can rent almost anything these days, from a car
to a tuxedo. You can even rent sin! And when you return it - you
keep on paying and paying!
"Sin for rent" refers to many of the videos
available in the massive movie-rental boom. These worldly
videos are filling the homes of many Americans and even homes of
Christians. My concern is not that movies are being rented but
with the kind of movies being rented. Reading a list of
available movie titles from one store, I was appalled to notice
that the great bulk of them were rated R or X. So-called ADULT
MOVIES are filled with explicit sexual immorality. Other R and
even PG-13 movies are filled with violence and a preoccupation
all things evil, that are contrary to the moral standards of
God's word.
In making moral choices to please God, we must ask,
"If a form of entertainment is not suitable for children but it
is for adults in the world's eyes, how can it be fit for those
who are trying to become pure, innocent children in God's eyes
(Matt. 18:3)?
Many of these films on video glorify sin in its
basest degree. The Bible condemns "inventors of evil" (Rom.
1:31). Many movie directors and studios search for bloodier,
more graphic and shocking displays of violent blood and gore,
sexual promiscuity outside of lawful marriage, and foul
language. The Bible condemns to hell (Gal. 5:18-19): immorality
(all types of illicit sexual behavior), impurity (moral filth),
sensuality (anything tending to arouse unlawful sexual desires),
idolatry (all-consuming devotion to anything besides God). Isn't
it inconsistent to enjoy being entertained by that which God
says is evil? Would we allow our children to guest to use
profanity or rape or murder in our homes? Yet, do we invite such
behavior in our homes by the videos we watch? Remember, God sees
and knows everything we do: "The eyes of the Lord are in EVERY
PLACE, behold the evil and the good" (Prov. 15:3). Soon we are
desensitized to evil when we're entertained by it. Listen the
apostle Paul tell us a real danger this raises: "who knowing the
judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of
death, not only who do the same but have pleasure in those that
do them" (Rom. 1:32). Do you take pleasure in behavior depicted
in movies that God says is morally wrong? Will you financially
support such pagan depravity?
If we choose to fill our minds with a menu served
up by the pagan mass media, we will not cultivate an appetite to
fill our minds and lives with the things that are true,
honorable, right, pure, lovely, virtuous and of good report
(Phil. 4:8). The writers and producers of the majority of
Hollywood's films do not profess any type of organized religion,
meaning they have no respect for the Bible, and even see it as
an archaic obstacle to the liberalization of culture in general.
Hollywood movie critic, Michael Medvid has documented this in
Hollywood Vs. America. Also, do we spend more time with the mass
media in general (newspaper, radio, TV, etc.) than in doing the
things of God, like Bible reading and prayer. Harold Comer did a
survey where he found that the typical Christian spent 26 hours
with the mass media. Yet, how much time is spent in God's Word?
Prayer? Attending worship?
We are to vigilantly "keep oneself unspotted from
the world" (Ja. 1:27). We are to be "ABOVE reproach in the
midst of crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear
as lights in the world" (Phil. 2:15). We must not "conform to
the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds"
(Rom. 12:2). We must influence the world for good, and not let
it influence us in strengthening the hand of evil.
-- adapted from an article by John McPherson
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