Are You A High-Definition Christian?

Are You A High-Definition Christian?
John R. Petrilli

As of June 18, 2009, all full power television stations (for CNY that includes but is not limited to channels 3,5,9, 24, and 68) will be required to replace their current analog signal with digital signals exclusively. For lower-powered stations, the deadline for the changeover from analog signal to digital signal will be February 19, 2010. The changeover promises to deliver optimum visual and audio to the television-viewing population. With all the talk and hype about the upcoming changeover, I stopped to think about the interesting parallels between high-definition television and the Christian’s life and witness. Here’s what my study of Scripture yielded.

HIGH-DEFINITION CHRISTIANS PROVIDE A HIGH-RESOLUTION PICTURE OF JESUS CHRIST TO A WATCHING WORLD. Phil. 1:20
“For in nothing I shall be ashamed, but in all trust as evermore and now, Christ shall be magnified in my body, either by life, either by death.”

Many consumers have begun the scramble to purchase high-definition televisions or converter boxes. They want the best picture possible, and the high-resolution capabilities that digital television offers is the answer. High-def T.V. seems to bring you right into the picture with its true-to-life color and clarity. It’s like seeing everything in a real time, live state, a close-up version of the broadcast.
Paul and was a faithful letter writer. He used letters to do much of his follow-up work with the young believers he had placed under the pastoral care of fledgling churches. Through these letters (we now call books of the New Testament) he maintained a pastoral role of teaching reproving, correcting, strengthening and encouraging the flocks he had started all across the Mediterranean world. His letters also reveal that he was an excellent correspondent, using these letters to update readers on the welfare of their believing friends in other parts of the world.

Paul chose the occasion of his letter to the church at Philippi to explain what it was that he lived for, and was ultimately willing to die for (20-21). He uses the word “magnified” to describe the way he wanted his life to bring Jesus Christ up close and personal to others. For Paul it was about a lot more than preaching, it was also about living the truth, and he wanted to do that with such incredible passion! He wanted Jesus to be lifted up, for his life to act like a giant telescope bringing Jesus out of the realms of religion and into the realm of personal and tangible reality.
How is it with us? Do we want everything we do count for the glory of God and serve the immediate purpose of exalting Jesus Christ? If so, then we can claim the title of “High Definition Christian”!


HIGH-DEFINITION CHRISTIANS GRAPHICALLY DISPLAY THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL TO A WATCHING WORLD. 2 Corinthians 3:1-3
“You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ.”

Owners of high-def TV will enjoy the best graphics technology can offer. With the addition of thousands more pixels per square inch, high-def graphics possess a clarity far superior to that of analog TV. Their TV screens will display a picture that is superior in quality in every way.
In this interesting passage Paul says that the Christian’s life should be a living edition of the truth of the Gospel. He encourages his new converts in Philippi by reminding them that THEY were the proof of his ministry’s authenticity. Their changed lives were the only evidence needed to substantiate the legitimacy of his ministry. They were what Paul called “living letters”, people whose lives were preaching “Jesus”, “Jesus”, “Jesus” in everything they said and did. They weren’t just selling the truth, they had totally bought into it, and lived daily lives that bore that truth out in graphic, unmistakable terms.

Someone has insightfully written a poem, “The Gospel According To You”. “There's a Gospel according to Matthew; To Mark; To Luke; and John too. There's another gospel that many are reading... The Gospel according to You. You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day; By things that you do; by things you say. Others read that gospel, Whether faithless or true! Say! What is the Gospel According To You?” This poem points out that many people will never flip a single page of the Bible, but they will be reading your Christian life. Our personal witness by actions and attitudes speak far louder than anything we could ever speak with our lips.

HIGH-DEFINITION CHRISTIANS DELIVER A BIG-SCREEN IMAGE OF CHRISTIANITY THAT ATTRACTS A WATCHING WORLD. Titus 2:10
“Teach them to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”

We’ve all done it. We walk into a “Best Buy” or some other store, get captivated by the big screen TV’s, and saunter right over to view the larger than life images. It’s irresistible and almost hypnotizing! I’m afraid we often and unintentionally present a “small” God to our world. By our pettiness and emphasis on the sometimes trivial and inconsequential, we unwittingly do some serious damage to the Name of the Lord. We naturally lean toward that which is secondary while missing what’s most important. Like the scribes and Pharisees of old, we slip into the trap of majoring on minors and minoring on majors. Jesus makes it simple, love God first, and your neighbor second. Anything that does not jibe with either or both of these two governing life principles must be discarded in the circular file as refuse.

The word Paul uses here for “attractive” is most instructive. It’s the Greek word “cosmeo”, which is the same word from which the English word “cosmetics” derives from. Just as a woman makes her face attractive to others by applying cosmetics to her skin, we’re to make the Gospel of Christ attractive to our world by living out the faith we profess. Who wouldn’t be attracted to a person who loves them like Jesus loves, is honest with them like Jesus was, is hard-working like Jesus was, is forgiving toward them as Jesus was, who’s as concerned about their welfare and justice as Jesus was, and who is humble toward them as Jesus was? Nobody!

HIGH-DEFINITION CHRISTIANS SEND OUT A CLEAR BROADCAST SIGNAL TO A WATCHING WORLD. 1 Thess. 1:8
“The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.”

While we’re on the topic of changes in the broadcast signals I thought it would be interesting to bring out the fact that the believers in the church at Thessalonica were the very first “Christian broadcasters”. The Greek word for the phrase “rang out” is “exerchomai " , which literally translates as, “to go out or forth", "to spread abroad." Their broadcast signal reached far and wide to all the territories around them in every direction. In the world of broadcasting there are sections of the topography (“footprints”) that a particular signal covers (which is one reason why you lose a station’s signal when traveling a far distance). They had a broadcast footprint that was nothing short of enormous! Paul wasn’t exaggerating when he stated that their life and witness for Jesus Christ had reached out to the entire Grecian peninsula and beyond! Now that’s what I call a “super-church”!

And just what was the content of their telecasted signal? Why, how they turned away from worshipping and serving lifeless idols to worship and serve the one true and living God in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ (v.9)! So what kind of “signal” do our lives send out? If we bicker and complain like the world, they won’t want to hear what we have to broadcast, they’ll just turn their dial to something else that offers them false hope and false peace. Let’s take care in monitoring the message we’re sending to a watching world! Let’s make sure it’s a clear message of the gospel, not some convoluted aberration that’s been distorted and diffused by a poor testimony on our part!

HIGH-DEFINITION CHRISTIANS SEND OUT A STRONG BROADCAST SIGNAL TO A WATCHING WORLD. 1 Pet. 2:9,12, 15
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light….live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us… for it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.”

If, like me, you don’t have cable or satellite TV, then you know the frustration of having your favorite program interrupted by bad weather. Or how about having your favorite radio station interfered with by another station’s signal competing for the same broadcast footprint area.
Peter wrote this letter to comfort and strengthen believers who were displaced by wholesale and widespread persecution, courtesy of Nero. Nero was on the loose, and their lives meant nothing but sport to him and his blood-lusting associates. In chapter one of First Peter, the apostle describes a band of war-weary Christians who had suffered some of the most extreme types of persecution, up to and including the loss of their Christian loved ones and Christian friends to martyrdom. They were the targets of lies and false accusations (“they accuse you”), and indecent behavior, for which their good works would openly refute. Peter inspires them to continue doing good in spite of the bad press they were being given. Their Christian signal of godliness and doing good was to remain strong through the subterfuge and storms of worldly opposition and inaccurate reports. That signal and the truth about their lifestyle would one day be substantiated by God Himself.

Christians worldwide today face an increasing wave of bad press. The name “Christian” has fallen on hard times, largely because of inaccurate portrayals of our faith. But we mustn’t lose heart, for we know Who it is we serve, and He ALWAYS exonerates His own. Meanwhile, we must go on slugging it out, always representing Jesus Christ to the best of our ability, allowing His light and love to shine in the darkest of places. Like that strong radio or TV signal, we must not allow competing signals to drown out our signal or block our programming from reaching the eyes and ears of a lost world. When the “bad weather” of opposition or the “interference” of outright persecution threatens to drown out our signal, we’re to go right on broadcasting for the Lord.