(The following is a devotional I prepared for the Centro de Estudios Cristianos Kuyper in Buenos Aires concerning social media and intellectual piety.)

Based on what we learned today, social media in particular and AI in general are both powerful tools and a dangerous threat. Social media is a medium and a message that has positive and negative impacts. The technology itself impacts our brains. It demands attention and often produces addiction and obsession. (Keep in mind that we have not discussed computer games or pornography.)

The message is often about consumerism and whatever values popular culture celebrates. Sometimes, it fosters extremism and harmful ideologies. Together, the medium and the message often promote anti-intellectualism, twisted forms of groupthink, and tribalism. It discourages critical reasoning and reading. One author calls social media and the internet a “weapon of mass distraction.” Social media use often distracts us from what is really important.

Social media, therefore, teaches, mentors, and disciples its followers. But the question that we must answer is, who disciples us, as Christian believers?

The church is challenged by social media in at least two ways. First, the minds of unbelievers are captured by harmful values and deceptive mental habits. Second, the minds of many believers are impacted by the same values and practices.

Sadly, most Christians manifest the same social media use as broader society. This messenger communicates constantly with us in forms which seem more compelling than the church and the word of God. In addition, using new and powerful technologies, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4).

For a few minutes, therefore, I will frame the challenges of social media in terms of the biblical worldview.

The first theme is listening. For the Bible, the chief intellectual question is: who are we listening to? Listening correctly is the pathway to knowledge, wisdom, and blessing. Listening incorrectly is the pathway to folly and destruction.

In Genesis 3, when God confronted Adam and Eve, the reason he provided was intellectual. They had listened to the serpent and adopted his worldview. In Deuteronomy 8, God showed mankind the key to knowledge, not just about God but about every fact of creation. He said:

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (v. 3)

God explained that “man,” meaning human beings in general and not only Israel, “live” by listening to the word of God. When we do not listen, we lack comprehension and we do not prosper.

In the New Testament, Jesus used this story from the Old Testament about eating the mana from heaven and called himself the “bread of life.” He said, “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). He also told us that, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63).

In Luke 6, he told us, “Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock” (vs. 47–48). In a similar passage, he called those who hear and obey “wise servants.”

In Mark 9, God said about Jesus, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (v. 7). And Jesus, himself, instructed us, “Take care then how you hear” (Luke 8:18). Healthy Christians and mature believers, therefore, listen to revelation and know how to distinguish between true and false messengers and messages.

The second theme is our intellectual context. In Matthew 24, the disciples asked Jesus about the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world. We do not have time to read the passage, but I want to point out several themes the Lord emphasized that have intellectual implications for us.

He warned them about being led “astray,” meaning falling into syncretism, ethical disobedience, embracing false worldviews, and deserting the faith. Five times he mentioned the term “astray” (vs. 4, 5, 10, 11, 24). He told them “do not believe” false messages and messengers (vs. 23, 25). He advised them to become aware (v. 39), to “stay awake” (vs. 42, 43), and become “faithful and wise” servants (v. 45). Self- and situational awareness must be our mental outlook at this moment in God’s redemptive story.

Finally, there are several implications of these two themes for us to consider. Today, every day, we hear thousands of messages through a very powerful and addictive medium. These messengers struggle to capture our attention and disciple our minds and conduct. We do our thinking within this intellectual matrix. Yet, Jesus called us to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16). How will we resist temptation and the pressure to conform? Who will we pay attention to? Jesus told us to “set our mind on the things of God” and not “on the things of man” (Mark 8:33).

I believe that there is no greater challenge in the church today than learning to listen correctly. There is no greater need in the church today than learning to love God with the mind. Developing mental piety is the pathway to life and spiritual safety. Intellectual holiness will make us better teachers, communicators, and evangelists.

Again, there are no more important questions for us to answer than, who are we listening to? Who will disciple us? Who will teach us how to use our minds?

We must ask ourselves: What changes are we willing to make to become wise stewards of our minds? The process involves an honest self-assessment and repentance. We must identify harmful messages and messengers and turn from them. We must minimize and manage the foolish and trivial input and turn to input that is important and relevant for our Christian life.