Resolution 7 - Love

Transcribed from our YouTube video:
10 Resolutions for the MediaWise.church - Resolution 7 - Love

What if I told you, social media will make you more loving? 

Okay, wow. That sounds great. So, this is a resolution to spend more time on social media? 

No. Far from it. Social media fosters the wrong kind of love. 2 Timothy 3 describes it this way.

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self.”

The kind of love that flourishes on social media, is self love, and there is nothing more difficult than a life ensnared by it. Social media is an incredibly efficient snare. These are difficult times.

Instagram, Snap Chat, now TikTok, even ZOOM, have mastered the art of realtime photo retouching, ensuring that our skin is smoother, our imperfections are smaller, our eyes are bigger, our cheeks are rosier, and the wreathes floating above our heads are… wreathier. 

Wreathes, little crowns of glory, spoken of by Isaiah, but incredibly prescient to our generation. He calls out their self love, their pride, when in chapter 28 he laments:

“Ah, the proud wreath of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty” Isaiah 28:1 Ephraim had a lot going for it, but its pride was its downfall. And social media enables, no ensures, that we fall deeper and deeper into self love, and the crowns of beauty, those wreathes, affirming what we want so desperate to believe….that “we are lovely”.

Some of the most watched TicTok’s of the past year, depict self love on social media so vividly. Videos consisting of nothing more than facial expressions put to music. And these faces, these smirks, these glances, and the precision facial muscle control required, can only be achieved by those who’ve spend a lot of time looking at themselves in the mirror, or in this case, their selfie cam. We don’t make these faces naturally. These are the finely tuned expressions of self absorption, trained under the scrutiny of ones own watchful gaze, an obsession that has spanned years.

This is the self-obsession of Narcissus, captured in that classical Greek myth where while looking at his reflection in a pool of water, he falls in love with himself, is entranced by it, and ultimately dies because of it.

In addition to all these photo filters, the steady flow of “likes” and “retweets” trains us like Pavlov’s dogs, to be more self loving. The subtlety of how they influence our activity on social media can not be understated. Over time, you simply will avoid posting things that get fewer likes. Your personal brand management is being reformed, crafted, sculpted, in real time. We are being trained to post only the things that extract the maximum social media payout. The wreathes of likes and retweets. The ringing bell that we are trained to salivate over.

Our hunger for self love is never satiated. And without even realizing it, we’ve made this appetite our god. Philippians 3:19 says the end of those who glory in their shame is destruction. That is to say, instead of being ashamed of our self obsession, social media trains us to glory in it. And it does not end well.

With that knowledge, we can be tempted to resort to self deprecation, posts that glory not in our crowns but in our lack of crowns. But it still is a form of self love, a cry for affirmation, an insatiable insecurity. 

But insecurity is not the opposite of pride. It is merely the longing for something to be proud about. A jealousy for pride. And this kind of self love is also rewarded with all the likes and emojis, because our society esteems, if nothing else, the virtue of being “self aware”. That is to say, “Yes, we agree with your depressing self assessment. Here’s a wreath to help make you feel better.”

But all of these wreathes wither, “their flowers fade”, as Isaiah 40:8 puts it. These likes and retweets are but a vapour.

So, is the resolve of the MediaWise.church to simply avoid the trap of self love? To reject wreath wearing?

No. Simply removing a wreath is insufficient. 

In fact, Isaiah triumphantly proposes wreath wearing as the solution, four verses later, when he says “In that day the LORD of hosts will be a wreath of glory, and a diadem of beauty to His people”

But this is an entirely different wreath. The wreath of self love must be replaced with the wreath of love for God, where He is the most precious diadem of beauty, where He is our glory, and our “best thought by day or by night”. A wreath where He is our boast. Galatians 6:14.

A wreath that is not awarded on the basis of our merits, but on the merits of Jesus. A wreath for those who, despite being unlovely, Christ died for anyway.  An unfading wreath of glory (1 Peter 5:4) awarded to those who “confess their sins and are cleansed from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). A wreath of righteousness for “all who love His appearing”. (2 Timothy 4:8)

This wreath completes the garments of salvation. Not woven on the loom of sin, but on a cross. Not found in the market of pride, but in a grave of humility. Not bought with the currency of self love, but the infinite worth of the selfless blood of Jesus. Not earned, but given non the less, as Isaiah 61:10 puts it, “for HE has clothed me with the garments of salvation; HE has covered me with the robe of righteousness”

And this righteousness is what makes us beautiful. As the groom speaks of his bride in Song of Solomon 4:7. Jesus speaks of his bride, the Church, “You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.” We are made righteous, we are made beautiful, we are made lovely.

The resolve of the MediaWise.church is to adorn ourselves with the wreath of Jesus on social media. The loveliness of our Saviour. A deep, profound, mysterious love, not for ourselves, but for the One who gave Himself for us.