On Filthy Lucre

     I certainly am no prude, but filthy and/or blasphemous language is like second-hand smoke to those who do not talk that way; it is very offensive. Because I am a big boy, however, I can take offensive things but rather not! The offence is not even against me but God. The apostle Paul wrote about filthy talk at least twice:

But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth (Col 3:8), and Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. (Tit 1:11) 

     The most applicable is the latter verse from his letter to Titus. “Lucre” is for profit and filthy lucre’s sake is filth for profit. Paid entertainment which is filthy subverts whole houses and families. That describes the entertainment industry today! Most entertainment subverts entire families because parents can’t seem to turn it off! “Subversions” are attempts to overthrow or undermine doctrinal systems from within. In the case of filthy lucre, subversion is entertainment’s attempt to undermine the Doctrine of Christ: “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God” (2 John 1:9).
     That means that whoever sits through entertainment which is filthy allow themselves to be subverted away from the Doctrine of Christ. They are sinning to be blunt! In reality, it is sheer stupidity that anyone would allow themselves to be drawn away from Christ by covert or overt means.
     There are hundreds of journal articles in psychiatric libraries about the pervasiveness of those with messages.  For instance, all songs contain messages whether they be religious songs or secular. That’s what songs are for! All movies have a message to purvey and often the message is covert. It’s just part of the entertainment and not the central theme. That method is subversion. Where have we read of that before?

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made… (Gen 3:1), And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Gen 3”4-5).

     Eve was saying, We’re not supposed to do that. Satan was responding cunningly, It’s okay; God is merely making you miserable with His stupid rules! Eve didn’t understand death because no one had ever died before. She thought that the entertainment was worth the risk. (Gen 3:6). When people pay to watch filth, they may be entertained, but they risk the wrath of God. That verse in the Book of Titus seems geared for the modern-day entertainment industry! Indeed, Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
     The trend this decade is to use F-words, apparently for the shock value. Scripture could be written, Marvel not, you will hear the F-word in most movies. (A play on John 3:7). Then people go, and yet marvel at the instances of the F-word. Many movie review sites will even tell how many instances of the F-word is used. A recent western movie had the F-word used forty-eight times. Christians would often say, I can ignore it once, but how can they ignore it forty-eight times! They can because they have become acclimated to filth. What viewers now expect from Hollywood is filth, and that’s what they get! One woman asked me why there are so many R-rated movies. I answered, “Because you vote for them!” Purchasing a ticket or watching a commercial is payment for filthy lucre.
     The sound of the F-word is not shocking any longer, but they still use it to undermine God. Movie actors and producers have demonstrated time and again that they are instrumental in the doctrine of the devil (the law of sin.) They ridicule the Doctrine of Christ readily and perfunctorily yet Christian still marvel at the excesses as they eat popcorn in harmony with filthy lucre.
     The F-word itself is not what’s wrong; it is the cunning behind its use. Those in the entertainment industry want to subvert Christians. That’s because the Doctrine of Christ is so reprehensible to them that they must proselytize Christians away from their doctrine. They are good at their job; look how many entertainers were once church-goers and proclaimed Christ. After subversion from that industry, they become mouthpieces for Satan; to wit: Jennifer Lawrence who trained for acting in a church now calls the cross a pitchfork and gives millions to Planned Parenthood.
     Another is Caty Perry who groomed her voice in the church choir as the daughter of a Baptist preacher and today is just another filthy entertainer who sold her soul for filthy lucre. Christians who pay to watch and hear them pay tribute to the Devil as the actors trade their souls for the love of money and for fame!
     Any honest psychologist will tell you that you become what you take in. The reason people indoctrinate with books, music, plays, movies, politics, and so forth is so that the hearer or reader is persuaded by what they take in. To be honest, that is what the Word of God does as well (Acts 26:28)! However, God does not subvert the reader but is transparent – that none should perish. Subversion is so that more will perish. 
     I’ve had Christians tell me that they filter-out the filth. Even psychologists would disagree with that lie to the self. I have tried to filter-out filthy lucre and almost freak out at my inability to do so! God had twelve good fruits on his Tree; he had none that needed filtering-out. On the Tree of Knowledge were  good fruits and evil fruits, and as we found out, Adam nor Eve were unable to filter them out. They chose to do evil, thinking they were sophisticated! The method the Serpent used to deceive them was subversion. He used subtilty, or cunning, (Gen 3:1) to have them do what their spirit told them was wrong to do. Paul spoke on that paradox:

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. (Rom 7:18-20), or to put it simply, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. (Mat 26:41)

     Christians, you are being taken for a jolty ride because you become what you take in and fail to even realize it! I remember when Christians would not even watch television or go to movies because they could see where they were headed. I grew up mostly without a television because Dad saw the subversion in it. Now, the time has arrived. They are where Dad thought they would be long before the F-word was in vogue. 
     Filth is subversive. When I worked in Michigan, alongside many who were not Christians, I heard the gd’s and F-words continually. I never became acclimated because I didn’t want to! However, the lingering thought of continual bombardment interfered with worship and prayer at church. When I began to pray, filthy language would enter my mind because they had become embedded in my thoughts. Before I could pray for others, I had to pray for God to clear my mind of filth! Sometimes, I could not, and my worship would be in vain. Filth cannot be blocked out unless in a sanctuary from it. For me, my sanctuary is in church, but even there I hear God’s name in vain at times. That doesn’t hurt me, but it does God. Filthiness and vanity is why Jesus agonized before he died. He was about to die for those who profited from filth and even for those who blasphemed his Name! 
     Filthy lucre is also insulting. It assumes that everyone talks that way and cares not that it is spoken. In my world, people care, and filthy lucre is an insult to our God. We do not care to hear God insulted! 
     Filth is an insult to our intelligence as well. People who cheer at the films full of filth have limited appreciation for good scripts. The use of F-words and blasphemous language is a substitution for intelligent plots and true entertainment. If you are entertained by filth, you may have not only a spiritual problem but lack intelligence as well. The writers assume that you are so stupid that like seals, you’ll clap at anything – even their filth. Guess what; you will and do! They will provide more of the same because shallow people will always pay more for the filth. Their movie stubs validate that!
     I don’t want to go to filthy movies for three reasons: (1) I don’t appreciate subversive tactics, (2) I don’t want to be accomplice to discarding the Doctrine of Christ, (3) and neither do I want to insult God. He didn’t die that we could watch filthy lucre but so that we are saved from it!