Screens & Soulsናሙና

The blessing of technology

If you see modern technology as a bad thing and not a blessing, consider this—before there were screens, there were scrolls. And we know that early Christians leveraged the latest technology for spiritual good.

Like the book of Romans. Around A.D. 57, the apostle Paul was in the Greek city of Corinth, about 750 miles from Rome. He deeply wanted to go to Italy, but first, he needed to deliver an offering for the poor in Jerusalem. In other words, Paul couldn’t physically get to Rome. So what did he do? He leveraged the technology of his day—like papyrus scrolls, smooth Roman roads, and the common language of the people—and he wrote the Roman Christians a letter.

Romans is really good. For 16 chapters, Paul paints the big picture of the Christian faith. Sin, salvation, God, Jesus, what he did for us, what we do to say thank you to him, Baptism, conversion, salvation, election, sanctification, glorification. From 750 miles away, Paul wrote, “No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law” and, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 3:20; 6:23).

In our day, technology is taking that same message farther and faster than ever before. So before we vent about the bad things or double down on our digital boundaries, let’s thank the Creator of the people who created our screens, modern means to share the message of Jesus.