Christian Guide to Media and Entertainment: Guarding Your Heart

Introduction

In this post, we will explore the importance of what you allow yourself to hear and see. We will be using the terms eye gates and ear gates to describe sight and hearing. This terminology emphasizes the spiritual nature of these senses.

Sight and hearing are the most influential senses because they shape your beliefs. Multiple studies have shown that sight is the most valuable sense, followed closely by hearing. These senses also open you up to spiritual influences, whether from God’s Spirit or an evil spirit.

Our senses go beyond just the natural realm and have genuine spiritual consequences, whether good or bad. So, let’s examine how to steward not only our natural selves but also our spirits as children of God.

The Importance of What We Allow into Our Minds and Hearts

The things we listen to and look at, whether we realize it or not, impact us. What we consume is what we ultimately become. You’ve likely heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” This phrase does hold some truth. The things you eat, as you eat enough of them, start to make up your cells and intern determine your overall health.

An article from iDsMed puts it this way:
“Every day, our body is busy making new cells to replace those that have ‘expired.’ And how healthy those new cells are is directly determined by how well we’ve been eating.”

In the same way, what you consume through media and entertainment affects your spiritual health. If you are viewing and listening to unhealthy things, you will be spiritually unhealthy. Conversely, if you are consuming healthy, God-honoring content, your spirit will thrive.

Biblical Foundation for Guarding Our Senses

The Bible is clear about the importance of guarding our senses. These two key verses stood out to me:

• 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
• Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

The main point we can see here is that God wants our senses protected, and what we take in is what will come out. When we guard our senses against evil and remain open to God, the only thing that will flow from us is good.

The Eye Gate: What We See Matters

Matthew 6:22–23 – “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

What we watch and read shapes our thoughts and beliefs. This passage emphasizes the significance of what we consume. When our eyes are healthy, our whole body is full of light.

It is important to ensure that what we read and watch aligns with God’s truth rather than the lies and schemes of the enemy. This applies not just to physical sight but also to the way we perceive the world. 

Two people can look at the same situation and see it differently. For example, one person might see a prostitute on the streets and feel desire, while another will see them and hurt for them with compassion in their hearts. 

So not just what you see matters, but the way you see it all the more. Even still the difference between the two is that one is looking for something, the other just happens to see. So don’t be looking at what you know you shouldn’t, the result will inevitably be sin. 

Examples of Eye Gate Inputs

• Videos – TV, movies, social media
• Reading – Books, articles, social media posts
• Entertainment – Gaming, online content

The Consequences of Eye Gate Inputs

• Good Inputs – Uplifting content, Scripture, wholesome entertainment

When we look into the Word of God with a pure and willing heart we will become more like Jesus. When we choose to watch a sermon rather than another movie, our eyes will be more enlightened to truth rather than vanity. 

When you read one of my blog posts instead of the daily wire, your eyes will be pleased with truthful and encouraging information rather than lies and evil things. And the fruit of all of this will be evident in your life. 

• Bad Inputs – Immoral or negative media, deceptive influences

When we choose to look at negative media, it starts to become the way we view other things as well. Have you ever known someone who all they can talk about is everything terrible that’s happening to them and those around them. It’s because that is what they are choosing to look at. 

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. What enters our hearts through our eyes will eventually come out in our words and actions. And if the light in us is darkness, then how great is the darkness?

The Ear Gate: What We Hear Shapes Us

• “He who has ears, let him hear” – said 15 times in Scripture

Throughout the New Testament this phrase “He who has ears, let him hear” is said 15 times! I think Jesus is trying to tell us something. This phrase is interesting, don’t you think? He who has ears. Well doesn’t almost everyone have ears!? 

Jesus obviously is not talking about your physical ears. He is saying that anyone who will hear what I have to say please hear it! He is saying that it is possible to hear with your physical ears and yet not hear a thing. 

Some may understand this more in their marriages. Have you ever been talking to your spouse for any period of time and then they look at you with this funny look and say, “Huh?” They really didn’t hear a word you said because their minds were on something completely different. How annoying can that be!

In the same way Jesus is pleading with us to hear what He is saying and not just hear what we want to hear. This must go for the opposite also. Don’t hear what the evil one has to say, because when you are listening to evil, the only result can be evil.

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Another wonderful verse. Our faith can only come from hearing what Jesus said. If we don’t have our ear gates open to Jesus then we cannot have faith and we cannot be saved. 

Examples of Ear Gate Inputs

• Music – Music may influence your emotions and worldview

Music is a huge industry with many held captive to it. The sounds in music often produce an emotional response in you that can either be really good or really bad. Something that should caution you is that the Devil was the worship leader in heaven before he fell. He then became the god of this world and now look at how great the music industry has become. 

Be very careful of the music you listen to. Not just the sounds but the words have a great impact. If all you hear is adultery, fornication, drugs, alcohol, murder, depression, and much more that many secular songs talk about, then what do you think you will be thinking on and living out? 

Ephesians 5:3 says, “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” 

These things should not be on our minds or in our mouths or in our ears or anywhere near us. Now to clarify this does not mean run as soon as someone in the world says a curse word. We are not supposed to hide from the world, we are to be lights in the world. This simply means that among the saints, and in your own personal life, these things must not be present.

People – Conversations, advice, friendships

The people you allow influence in your life really matters. You should not look up to someone whose language is full of vanity, cursing and depravity. Again you are here to be a light, but this does not mean open your ear gates to the things of the world. Make sure you only call those who are open to the testimony of Christ your friends, but do not call yourself friends with the world.(James 4:4)

Entertainment – Podcasts, radio, spoken content

Make sure that the content you are listening to for entertainment is in alignment with God’s word and not just “fun” or “funny” content. 

The Consequences of Ear Gate Inputs

Good Inputs – Worship music, godly counsel, biblical teachings

Just like your sight affects and ultimately forms your beliefs, so does your hearing. When we receive worship music, godly counsel, and biblical teaching into our ear gates the result will be life and life abundantly coming out of us.

Bad Inputs – Gossip, ungodly conversations, corrupting music

When we open our ear gates to gossip, ungodly conversations, and unholy music our lives will be full of all kinds of evil. In the least our righteous souls will be tormented. 

The Armor of God: Protecting Our Minds and Hearts

Ephesians 6: Helmet of Salvation – Guarding our thoughts

Something my fiancée taught me recently is putting on the armor of God every morning. I work as a barista and oftentimes the music that plays can be discouraging, or the things the customers always say can be taken to heart a little too much. I would come home feeling drained and sometimes depressed. But one day as I brought this struggle to her she said she used to always put on the armor of God in the morning and that she needed to start doing it again. 

And since then that’s exactly what I have done. Every morning as I do my morning stretch routine., I put on each individual piece of armor and say thank you father for your armor and protection. And since then I have seen such a difference in my everyday life. The things that used to bother me don’t bother me anymore because I know I have the protection of God over me. 

It isn’t the idea that you are actually putting on real armor, it’s that you are posturing yourself bright and early to have your senses and your soul protected. You are putting your eyes on Him, on light, and then your whole self is full of light. 

One that I very specifically pay more attention to is the helmet of salvation. Just think a helmet protects your head, your eyes, your ears, your nose and mouth. A helmet keeps your senses safe. So when you are conscious and aware of the fact you are saved, and that you are not condemned like the devil wants you to think, then all your senses are protected. The lies of the enemy can’t get into your ears, your eyes are dead set on the goal not shifting to the left or to the right and you are leading the narrow path that Jesus spoke of. 

Conclusion

We must be intentional with what we are allowing into our lives. We should not be consuming the same things as the world and expect to be lights in the darkness. Let’s choose to listen and watch what we know is Holy and pure. Let us not get trapped in the secular and sacred divide, but let us live as sacred in everything we do. Put on the full armor of God every day so you can be ready to go against the evil schemes of the enemy. 

Let’s make sure we are constantly reading the Word as much as we have opportunity to. Because the Word of God is what is going to transform and renew our minds, to better discern what is and what isn’t good for us to be consuming. Let the word of God be like food to you, let it become something you can’t go a day or even a few hours without. The result will only be a life full of light and love and faith and Joy. 

Lastly, make sure to seek godly wisdom. Go to the Word of course, but also seek counsel from your pastor or godly friends. If you aren’t sure about a certain song or type of music, or there is a tv show you’re not so sure about, ask them and see what they say. Or you can message me, I’d love to hear about what God is doing in your heart and mind and would love to help in any way that I can. 

References:

• Im, D. (n.d.). Input vs output goals for discipleship. Retrieved from https://www.danielim.com/2017/08/15/input-vs-output-goals-discipleship/
• PMC. (n.d.). Evaluating whether sight is the most valued sense. Retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6777262/#:~:text=As%20shown%20in%20Figure%201,04%20after%20Bonferroni%20correction).
• iDsMed. (n.d.). Is it true: You are what you eat? Retrieved from https://www.idsmed.com/news/is-it-true-you-are-what-you-eat/461.html
• Bible Gateway. (n.d.). BibleGateway.com. Retrieved from https://www.biblegateway.com/