The Lord Jesus Himself gave us a warning about what we allow our eyes to gaze at. Many of us think that we can stay unaffected by what we watch, but the opposite is true: what we watch enters our minds, fills our thoughts, and eventually goes out through our words and our actions.
The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6:22-23,
"The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"
With that short word He effectively warned us to filter what our eyes look at. If our eyes are "good" or are looking intently at the right things, we will be "full of light," and be optimistic, hopeful, and expecting of good things. If our eye is "bad," however, we'll be full of pessimism, hopelessness, and might even be quick to see the evil in things.
We've got to be careful in choosing what we watch!
Choose to watch the right stuff
Friends, we've got to turn away from the wrong things. We can't deceive ourselves by saying we won't be affected by what we watch. Although we have the God-give power of freewill, we must not give any confidence in the flesh to allow an opportunity for sin to draw us in. (see Philippians 3:3; Ephesians 4:27; Romans 13:14)
That said, here are a few things we should avoid in light of what the Lord Jesus told us.
1) Wicked and perverse things
"I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness." (Psalm 101:3-4)
We must commit ourselves to avoiding any wickedness, especially intentionally watching any perversion. Some of us make the foolish decision to watch something wrong "in order to know what to avoid." Seriously, let's just avoid anything that the Lord Jesus didn't encourage us to think, say, watch, or do.
2) Worthless things
"Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way." (Psalm 119:36-37)
Ok, what we're looking at might not be sinful and evil, but it could be worthless, nothing but a waste of time and resources. The Bible tells us that we should be walking "circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time" (Ephesians 5:15-16).
The Bible also tells us to avoid all "fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness," and let "neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting" be named in us (see Ephesians 5:3-4). We should avoid watching and meditating on shows that have such things.
3) Anything that is not in line with Philippians 4:8
Philippians 4:8 gives us a list of things that we should be meditating on. Anything that isn't included in the list should be shunned and avoided, because we should be meditating only on what this short passage tells us to:
"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."
