In The Internet, But Not Of It
We went on a foreign holiday this summer and amidst all the uniqueness and differences, I noticed one thing that was all too familiar: we still had to dodge people who were too busy looking at their phones to notice where they were walking. I rolled my eyes at them, but then I remembered that one of the first things I looked for in our airbnb was the wifi password. Like it or not, the internet is ubiquitous, and even when we’re not using it our minds can easily turn to the things we’ve seen there, or the things we might post later. This is the way our world works now. But that doesn’t mean we should simply accept the internet’s new role in our lives without thought, or blindly take it on its own terms. There are still decisions to be made, and they are not insignificant. One of the biggest choices is where we will build our lives.
We now have the option for the first time in history of building our lives primarily online. This option appears to have advantages. It’s much easier to shape your image online. Pleasures are instant, work is efficient, and relationships require less commitment. For all of these reasons and many more, it’s tempting to give our attention to building an online life for ourselves first, rather than focusing our energy on the slower, more labour-intensive and frustrating work of offline living.
As a Christian, I believe there are problems with this approach. God is the one who created our physical reality, and he made it to be more than merely a mechanism for our survival. It is a gift from God, the setting he crafted for us to live out his priceless gift of life. This is why many of the commands of our Lord in Scripture are impossible to fully keep through remote connections. For example, online worship might be personally edifying, but our relationship with God was never meant to be only personal—he made us part of his family, the community of faith, and he’s been very clear in his Word that his intention for us is to live in close contact and committed relationship with our brothers and sisters. And although I’m sure there are ways of showing hospitality and helping each other in times of need online, they are severely restricted compared to the welcome and help you can give in person. As we learned painfully in the pandemic, texts and emails and Zoom meetings are not a good replacement for face to face communication. There is still no substitute for lending an actual hand or offering an actual shoulder to cry on, and we all desperately need people who are close enough to see past our curated online profiles to the reality of our lives. The real world is not something to retreat from. Christians should be known as people who put in the hard work to live fully in the real world, and then bring the wealth of that experience to our visits online—not the other way around.
Jesus said, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it” (John 17:15-16). He wasn’t speaking about the internet, but it certainly applies. Let’s be people who are in the World Wide Web, but not of it. Not conformed to the pattern of its assumptions, ethics, and anger, but transformed by God’s word (Romans 12:2). Not fighting for good using the internet’s manipulative methods, but relying on the power of God’s Spirit (2 Corinthians 10:3-4). If we can learn how to be in the internet without being of it, we’ll have a much greater impact on it. The world doesn’t need more influencers and trolls. It absolutely does need more people who are willing to go all-in to the messy, difficult work of living and loving in the real world, following in the footsteps of Jesus.
