But throughout my board-hopping, there's something else I've found on Pinterest - something rather troubling. It is the inspirational quotes.
I'm not talking about quotes by orthodox theologians, explaining truths of the Bible or expounding the character of God. I'm not talking about quotes from good books, emphasizing virtues or the beauty of nature. I'm not talking about edifying song lyrics that point us to the glory of God. And I'm definitely not talking about Scripture verses.
I'm talking about quotes that are meant to make you feel mentally comfortable and inspire you with self-confidence outside of the Word of God. In other words, quotes that may sound good but are actually deep in the mires of theological inaccuracy. I'm talking about quotes like:
God sees in you what you can't see in yourself.
This sounds encouraging, doesn't it? And in a roundabout way, it's true, but not in the way the author intended it. We live in the flesh right now and so even as Christians, our best intentions and works are tarnished by sin. We harbour sin in our hearts. God looks at us and sees us as righteous because of Christ, but He sees no moral goodness in us in and of ourselves. The fact that God sees deep into our hearts should not inspire us with self-confidence but should drive us to our knees in humble repentance.
Or quotes like this one from Joel Osteen:
There will always be negative voices trying to talk you out of your dreams. But God is saying, “You’ve got what it takes.”
It sounds nice at a first glance. I feel inspired! But then I match up what this supposed Bible teacher is saying against what the Bible says, and it doesn't seem as nice. The Bible never refers to God as a "positivity coach," who's encouraging you to pursue your dreams. Never once. The Bible talks about God as the self-sufficient, self-existent, creating King, who needs no one, who pursues His own glory, and demands that everyone do the same. And He knows that we are desperately dependent creatures. We cannot do anything without His grace. We most certainly do not have what it takes.
And there are thousands of these inspirational quotes swimming through the Pinterest world, and beyond - to the blogs and the websites and then playing themselves out in books and movies and lives. We live in a culture that says, "Name it, and claim it!" Or "if you can dream it, you can achieve it." "If you just have the faith, you can accomplish anything you want to do!"
We live in a culture saturated with inspiration apart from God. People who do not know God need something. They need something to fight away the negativity, the senselessness, the injustice that envelops their world. Vague ideas of faith and peace and positivity and dreams and hard work are used to attempt to fill the void. Out of these thoughts come the web of inspirational quotes.
And Christians should run from them. We have a responsibility to be theologically accurate, or, in other words, to be true to the Word of God. We have a responsibility to be discerning, to examine words to see whether they line up with Scripture. We should run from laziness, from swallowing these inspirational quotes hook, line, and sinker.
I am guilty of this laziness. Sometimes these quotes look so good (plus, when they're laid out against backdrops of mountain lakes and sunsets, it's hard to examine them critically). Sometimes my emotions get in the way. Sometimes my friends post these quotes and I think they're okay because, well, my friends liked them.
But these are only excuses. I, along with every Christian, am called to be salt and light. We need to separate ourselves from the mainstream, from the merely "positive thinkers" of the world. There is more to this life than positivity - much more. It lies in the Word of God, the story of God's redemption through Christ's atoning work on the cross. And so we need to run from quotes that attempt to inspire us without the gospel.
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