Facebook and 1 Thess 4:1-8

My wife called me yesterday and said, "Chris you need to send an email to a boy in our youth group..." After finding out why, a surge of anger seemed to almost melt my inside out. Long story short, this boy, on Facebook, "invited" my wife to be part of an ENTIRELY inappropriate Facebook group. I'll spare you the details, but trust me, NOT appropriate, and definitely not a group that you would expect to see any sold-out Christian to be in.
Facebook seems to be a readable form of some people's lives. On the front page you see all of the good things, the "praises" of people, the Christianese quotes and statuses. But once you go deeper into the page, you start seeing some things that perhaps don't equate. Jesus spoke of this same thing regarding Pharisees in Matt 23:25-26 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean..."
Here's the issue: DON'T SAY YOU ARE WHAT YOU DON'T APPEAR TO BE. I don't look or act like an elephant, so I don't go around telling people I'm an elephant. If I did, all of the elephants in this world would be mad because I'd be giving them a bad name!
1 Thess 4:1-8 says:
"Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has no called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you."

Our lives ought to reflect the amazing and mysterious gift of the undeserved sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us. Paul is regarding those who are engaging in sexual immorality or immorality in general, but claiming the name, as disregarding the response of the Gospel: Jesus saved me, I now live to praise Him. When the response is this: Jesus saved me, I live however the heck I want to live; there is a BIG problem. We are not saved by our works, good or bad, but true salvation is followed by "works response." (James 2)
Are we perfect? No, we will make mistakes and daily cling to the forgiveness of God in our lives. But generally speaking, if someone is truly a follower of Jesus Christ, their actions are more and more, progressively becoming like the actions of Christ: That is our Sanctification.

Facebook has been God's light into this kid's sin, and I would be disregarding what I'm called to do as a brother in Christ if I were to watch this happen and do nothing. So I've written the kid and have expressed my concern on what his actions and items on Facebook are doing to the Name of Jesus. It is a mockery of Christ to claim his authority and live apart from it. It ultimately will be avenged by the Lord, of which I'm thankful. It is this righteous and holy anger that wells up in us that will be satisfied in the Day of the Lord with His vengeance. I want a front row seat to that show.

Let us always keep in mind how we represent the Name of Jesus. Are we giving Him the praise and honor that He deserves, or claiming his authority while we mock him with our lifestyle?

Stand up for the truth, and know that you have the right and authority in Christ to admonish those who are claiming the name, and living otherwise (1 Cor 5:12-13). It really is a facet to our evangelism, to make sure that those on our team aren't batting for the other.