Swimming Through Facebook
I wanted to touch on the topic of Facebook. I thought it might be helpful to share my thoughts as a young, Christ-following millennial who has been with Facebook since its beginning.
I remember when Facebook first started! I had just created a MySpace account (apparently, MySpace is still around—I just checked!). Facebook quickly took over the scene as a fun way to “show off” your life to your family and friends (especially helpful if you had family members far away). Since the purpose of Facebook was to share your life with others, the feed mostly contained relevant updates about the lives of loved ones. It was fun, innocent, and safe.
No one could have predicted that Facebook would grow into the giant it is today! Over the years, it has become a dominating force on the web, absorbing other platforms, expanding its influence worldwide, and consolidating culture and communication into one digital location. If you met a complete stranger, it became almost expected that you could “look them up” on Facebook. Rarely would you find a younger person who was genuinely “off the grid.” This trend has only grown stronger now that many apps and websites use Facebook for logging in, and Facebook Messenger has become a legitimate alternative to texting or calling.
Where Facebook used to be a lighthearted and fun way to connect, today it feels more like a heavy burden. Once you have a Facebook account, it’s hard to get rid of it (look up articles about people leaving Facebook—it’s eye-opening). You can find the whole world there! Who wants to miss out? (We call that FOMO, by the way.) But once you log on, it’s easy to lose yourself in endless scrolling. “Where did the time go? I had other plans for my afternoon!”
Even more concerning, I’d argue that Facebook can derail someone’s faith when it’s not used biblically.
In all honesty, scrolling through Facebook feels like swimming in a polluted lake full of trash and toxic material. It bathes my heart and mind in envy, jealousy, fear, anger, bitterness, pride, suspicion, slander, sexual impurity, and other worldly traps. It’s the exact opposite of God’s Word, which is like clean, refreshing water that washes our hearts and minds in beautiful purity (Ephesians 5:26). I want to take a clean dip in the water of God’s Word—not a toxic pool of worldly voices.
This brings up a deeply grieving topic. Many Christians on Facebook create or promote unbiblical content and misrepresent Jesus and the Bible. Much of what they share is based on “cultural Christianity” rather than orthodox Christianity grounded in Scripture. This creates confusion and pushes younger generations away, rather than sharing the hope of Jesus with a world that is perishing.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been engaging with unbelieving friends to correct faulty assumptions they’ve formed based on what “Christians” post and share. It’s heartbreaking. Christians today must begin deconstructing a faith based on assumptions and culture, replacing it with the question: “What does the Bible really teach?” If we say something about the Bible or Jesus, we should also know where it’s taught in Scripture.
Here’s a perspective on Facebook from a young person: What you post or share on Facebook is a reflection of who you are. You are communicating yourself through the content you share. This concept is also biblically grounded. Jesus said, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45), and we will be held accountable for every careless word we speak (Matthew 12:36). As followers of Jesus on Facebook, we should always ask ourselves: “Is this honoring to the Lord Jesus Christ?” and “Would I say this in person?” I firmly believe we will be held accountable for what we post on Facebook as well.
Be refreshed in His love,
Pastor Dan