To illustrate my point I did something I don’t normally do and directly criticized a particular book (Fifty Shades of Grey). I have subsequently thought it might be helpful to make some comments about how we decide what books to read or reject, or movies to see or avoid. You know the kind of thing.
 
There are two obvious perils here. The first is legalism and the kind of cultural hostility that frowns upon engagement with anything ‘secular’. The other is antinomianism, where we let anything go, and end up as captives to our culture rather than witnesses to and against it. In my lifetime I have experienced something of both these perils – the evangelicalism of my childhood in the 1970s was still very much of the, “no alcohol, no cinema, no dancing” school, but in more recent years there has arguably been a swing in the other direction.
 
Much has been said on this subject, and much depends on the particular sins and challenges of particular cultures in particular times and places, but it should be possible to make some fairly simple general principles. So here goes (and please excuse the Wilson-style enumeration!)…
 
1. For me, how to work this stuff out is bookended by two apparently contradictory statements in the Johannine literature. The first (John 3:16) tells us that God loves the world, with the implication that God’s people should too. The second (1 John 2:15) explicitly tells us that we are not to love the world. Of course, there is no contradiction here. Rather, disciples of Jesus are to love the world in the sense that we are to see the creation as God’s gracious gift to us and human beings as precious image-bearers of God who need to hear the saving message of life in Christ; yet at the same time we are to hate the worldly systems that keep people locked in sin and idolatry and headed for hell.
 
2. Christians are meant to live lives of purity, which we do in anticipation of Christ coming to claim his bride who he is making pure. (Titus 2:11-14; Heb 12:14; Eph 5:25-26; et al.)
 
3. Christians are meant to stay engaged in a world that is not pure. (1 Cor 5:9-10)
 
4. Grace means I can do anything I choose, but grace also means that I will choose the way of purity because I am not a slave to sin but to righteousness. (Rom 6:17-18; 1 Cor 6:12)
 
5. This grace means that what defines sin is very often the context within which a particular action takes place. Here is a great example of what I mean by that:
 

 

6. So, the quick-check question to ask myself when confronted with a choice about whether or not I do something is, “Will this minister grace to myself and others?” Sometimes this means that reading a book or watching a movie that contains scenes which depict sin will not in itself be sinful. Sometimes such scenes are necessary simply to give the story coherence and honesty. (Ever read the book of Judges?!) We live in a messy world and should not always shy away from the mess. However, we need to have our eyes open to the fact that very often books are written and movies produced not to tell a story that exposes the sins of the world but to draw us into sin. Anything that produces lust in us or causes us to celebrate violence is not merely helping us to “understand the culture” but drawing us away from grace.
 
7. Different ones of us have different measures as to what we can handle (and I use that word very cautiously). Some are stronger, and others weaker (1 Cor 8-9), which means that one person might be led away from grace by a particular book or film in a way another wouldn’t. And some are just more sensitive in certain areas than others. A personal example – when listening to music I very often do not ‘hear’ the lyrics at all, whereas my wife is very sensitive to the lyrics, and this means there are some things I can listen to which she can’t. Of course, we can be very self-deluded about this kind of thing and imagine ourselves stronger than we are, and end up far from grace and deep in sin. Which brings us back again to the importance of Christian community.
 
8. And the importance of Christian community means that because I can go to the pub and drink three pints and not sin that does not mean I should be encouraging my brother to accompany me who could not drink a single pint without sin. And it means that sex is absolutely wrong in every context – except in the context of marriage where it is definitively right. And it means that there may be times when for me to use ‘swear’ words is in some way appropriate but to wear clothing branded ‘fcuk’ is thoughtless and inappropriate. And it means that I should always stand ready to be “warned, encouraged and helped” (1 Thes 5:14) by my Christian brothers and seek to do all I can to build them up in a similar way.

All of which means that godly discernment about these kind of things is not about a list of rules, but neither is it fifty shades of grey. If I am helped to be a disciple, receive and minister grace, and live as a missionary in my culture by the things I read, watch and do, then great. But if as a result of these things my conscience is hardened and my weaker brother damaged and I become indistinguishable from my unbelieving neighbours – and if I am offended should another Christian question my habits – something has probably gone wrong.