Introduction:

1. Social media is an extremely powerful tool for good and evil.

2. The three R’s of social media ought to help us use it to God’s glory.

Discussion:

I. Relationships

A. The Lord is all about relationships (Matthew 25:31-46; Romans 12-14).

B. We have at least 23 “one another” commands in the NT.

C. Love is the foundation (John 13:34-35; 1 John 4:7-8, 20-21).

D. Its aim is mutual devotion and harmony (Romans 12:10-13, 16-18).

II. Responsibility

A. Every social media user is a public influencer.

B. All that we do is to be to God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31).

C. We must represent Him properly (Matthew 5:13-16; Romans 2:23-24).

D. This includes our speech (both spoken and written).

E. Consider a couple of passages in this vein.

1. Our speech must build up, not tear down (Ephesians 4:29).

2. Wise, gracious, strategic speech is the rule (Colossians 4:5-6).

3. We will all answer for every careless word (Matthew 12:36-37).

4. Let us always speak (type) the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

F. We also must keep our other content (i.e. pictures, videos, likes, shares, etc.) pure and holy to fulfill our responsibilities to God.

III. Respect

A. Respect is essential to every relationship.

B. Respect is central to defending our hope (1 Peter 3:15).

C. We must respect the good and the bad (1 Thessalonians 5:12; 1 Peter 2:18; Romans 13:7; 1 Timothy 2:1-3).

D. This puts guardrails up in our social media use.

1. Social media is a powerful tool in our hands.

2. We must respect our responsibility to our relationships with God and man as we use social media to His glory and humanity’s good.