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Viewer's Discretion
Viewer’s Discretion
“Viewers discretion advised” is a preventative warning to the content of a certain program or video. It may contain sexual or violent acts which will not be suitable for any age person whether adult or child. Such a warning gives the viewer an opportunity to use discernment. It is an exercise in will and persuasion. Depending on the direction of the will, a person will avoid the evil or forsake the warning and watch what they are advised is unsuitable to see or hear.
God’s calling upon our hearts is to heed discernment. Develop a mindset that will allow us to distinguish between truth and error, right and wrong. In the Bible, we learn from the Garden of Eden there are two and only two ways (one allowed, one forbidden, Genesis 2:9,16,17): God’s way and all others. There are people who are lost or saved. There is no other condition. There is the broad and narrow way leading to eternal life or destruction. There are those within and those without. There is life and death, truth and lie, good and bad, light and darkness, kingdom of God and kingdom of Satan, love and hatred, and wisdom of the world and wisdom of God. Therefore, we need discernment.
Sobering understanding of who we are, and what we have become as Christians, will lead us to demonstrate in the world “What is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). Our calling came from God and the desire to change our thinking requires we submit to the wishes and warnings of the Father.
Keep in mind a daily, steady battle is before us. We are wrestling with an opponent who never ceases in his efforts to lure us away from the right way. Know of a certainty, our weapons of war are “mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4,5).
Our problem is not that we do not know right from wrong. We see the warning. We know the danger. We hear the advisory. We understand the consequences. We must see the need to turn away, stop, deny, refuse, decline, and turn down the offers, and think “How can I do this great wickedness and sin and against God?” (Genesis 39:9).
