The technology that we have today is such that would appear to be space age only 57 years ago when Star Trek first aired as a television series. Their commutator looked like a flip phone that was invented only 27 years ago.
Today, we have smartphones that can do everything, from making telephone calls worldwide to FaceTiming with our loved ones on any day of the week. We can also search the internet and find anything we are looking for on this digital fruit. We can find good things as well as evil things.
Many Christians may use their smartphones to read the Bible or other Christian content. There are some though who have addictions to pornography who can find just about anything in this filthy sexually immoral world with just a few search words in a search engine. Then millions of pages of porn will appear at just a few words searched.
These smartphones can be called the “digital fruit of good and evil.” This is why parents should not be giving their children smartphones with internet access. A good parent would not give a child a loaded gun to play with. Why in the world would they allow their children to have access to some of the most vile images on the internet?
Possibly because the parent is naive, they trust their children and want to give them opportunities to be trusted. The problem I see with this is the same analogy of not giving your children loaded guns to play with. Patents need to protect their children so that they eyes and their minds will be protected from the evil of this world.
Even adults can be affected by viewing pornography. I know a man who struggled with pornography early in life. He was delivered from that sin once he fully came to Christ. Later in life, he got a smartphone. One day he was doing a search in a search engine and accidentally stumbled on a porn site. He tried and tried not to view the image but it was like an alcoholic taking a drink after 20 years. His addiction came back and he viewing pornography on a regular basis, but this time, it was so easily accessed on his digital device. It was only through much prayer and reading through the Word of God that he was able to break this addiction through Christ Jesus.
These smartphones are truly a “fruit of good and evil.” Be very careful how you use them. When I think back in Genesis, God gave both Adam and Eve one commandment, do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They may eat of any other tree, but not this tree. In Genesis 2:16-17, it reads, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Unfortunately, Eve disobeyed God at the suggestion of Satan, the snake, and ate of the forbidden fruit. Then she encouraged Adam to do the same. And then they both realized their nakedness, and they made coverings for their private parts and covered themselves because they were ashamed. And God came into the Garden and was looking for them. They hid from Him. When God found them and found out what they did, He banished them from the Garden of Eden.
I find it interesting that a certain digital company has chosen a fruit as their logo. As I was meditating before the Lord, this story came to my mind pertaining to digital fruit. Perhaps we should reconsider how we use digital fruit when we are searching the internet. The fact that evil is just a click away is concerning. Parents, if you truly love your children, wait before giving your child a digital fruit that contains “good and evil.”
I pray that you will consider these words written. These smartphones should only be given to mature older children. Once children see the evil that can be accessed, they cannot be unseen.
Photo Credit: TextArt
Written by Joseph T Lee for Marketplace Evangelism Ministries Inc. Copyright December 11, 2023. All rights reserved.
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