In the light of the new movie that came out a while back called, Fifty Shades Of Grey, I thought I would weigh in on the subject. I have seen and heard Christians bash the movie with the utmost hatred and disgust for the film. Though I have not seen the movie, nor read the book, I have some thoughts on the whole situation.

First, let me be clear that I do not agree with movies that paint a wrong picture of what true love is really all about…especially movies that give people a false sense of the reality of how love actually works. However, I am saddened with how some in the Christian community have attacked movies such as Fifty Shades of Grey. The problem doesn’t lie in the fact that they are disagreeing with the content of the movie, rather it lies in their method of disagreement;  going into attack mode to make their feelings known. Instead of promoting what true love really is from a Biblical perspective, it seems some Christians would rather be angry about what true love isn’t. Instead of giving others hope by sharing God’s view of love, some have reverted to just attacking the symptoms and not the root. Christians can’t be surprised that the world is misguided by romance when the world doesn’t even know what romance was actually made for. The symptom is the movie, the root is that people don’t know what true love, God’s way, even is.

The world is hungry for real love. But instead of giving it examples of true love and inspiring it with hope, many Christians are meeting the world’s view of love with anger. Instead of talking about how awesome true love is through God’s plan, many are only screaming about how the world is messed up. But we already knew the world was a mess. That’s why Jesus came! Now, we need to go into the world and share the Good News, the hope of the world, the true love the world is searching for. People are rarely inspired to seek a deep and fulfilling relationship with the God of lovingkindness by being yelled at. Inspiration comes from witnessing a life that exemplifies a model to desire.

People will not run from the Fifty Shades of Grey model (or  any other model of “love”) unless they have a better model to follow. You don’t yell at someone to help them turn from sin, you show kindness through your LOVE and example. Look at what the Bible says about what leads people to repentance…

Romans 2:4 (NLT)

Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

It is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. We are called to emulate that same kindness and grace to others by leading them. You don’t lead someone by screaming at them, you lead someone by inspiring them.

Maybe if Christians spent more time working on giving people an example to be inspired by, rather than yelling at them, we would see greater life-change. We need to have real grace with people as we love them to the cross rather than trying to force them to the cross.

Instead of yelling at Fifty Shades Of Grey, let’s start modeling Fifty Shades Of Grace, and give people a true love to follow.