$144,387,808. The numbers can’t lie. That’s the amount of money spent by moviegoers in watching the latest Valentine’s craze “Fifty Shades Darker” just this weekend. It’s movie that portrays loads of sexuality and even sexual violence packaged in a warm fuzzy love story between your everyday average girl and an eccentric tycoon.
We can’t deny that some of the people who bought tickets to watch the movie are Christians who think that it is nothing more than just a movie. And the question going around is “Is that okay?” Should or can Christians watch movies like “Fifty Shades Darker?”
One thing we must first establish is that anyone can do whatever they want. God has given us the free will to choose our own path and desire. He never tries to control us mindlessly to do whatever He pleases, and only influences our actions if we allow Him to.
As Joshua 24:15 says, “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
But one thing we must also be aware of is that if we aren’t to give our minds, souls and hearts to the lordship and control of Christ, we will belong to something else. What do you want to belong to?
There is power to thoughts, and whatever controls and influences your thoughts will greatly affect your view of things. That’s why Philippians 4:8 tells us, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
It’s true that “Fifty Shades Darker” is just a movie. It’s fiction. But the ideas it stands for and the beliefs it imparts can greatly affect us. The greatest idea that comes out of it is finding satisfaction in the lust of the flesh.
1 John 2:16 tells us, “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.”
Lust is not from God and therefore not beneficial in the way God would want it to be.
But the great news is that God gives us a better alternative: a love that goes beyond earthly satisfaction—one that satisfies even the soul. That love is the love that only He can give. He displayed that love publicly and dramatically through the death of His own Son Jesus Christ. In the violence of the cross and the radical desire Christ has for you, you were redeemed and restored.
If there’s any message that should be getting our attention this love month, it’s the message of God’s love for us all proven through Jesus Christ and His death, burial and resurrection.
