Solomon’s Twitter Guidelines
Twitter can be great. I often find good articles, good lines, and good laughs during my daily Twitter scroll.
But Twitter—like any other social media outlet—can be a cesspool of vanity and vice.
I’ve probably broken these rules more than I realize, but here’s how I think about what I should and shouldn’t tweet. A big shout out to King Solomon for his help is putting these 25 guidelines together.
1. Think before you tweet, and don’t be afraid to just delete. There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Prov. 12:18)
2. It’s okay to unfollow some people, block them, or ignore them. Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge (Prov. 14:7)
3. Turn the volume down from 11. Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly (Prov. 14:29).
4. Don’t make things worse. A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention (15:18).
5. Their platform is pointless if it makes an end run around humility. The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor (Prov. 15:33).
6. There is nothing impressive about being a hothead. Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city (Prov. 16:32).
7. Make good news public, and keep bad news as private as possible. Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends (Prov. 17:9).
8. Most Twitter brawls are a waste of time. A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool (Prov. 17:10).
9. Don’t mess around with trolls. Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly (Prov. 17:12).
10. Seriously, don’t get into fights on Twitter. The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out (Prov. 17:14).
11. Just because you think it, doesn’t mean you have to say it. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent (Prov. 17:28).
12. Get the facts first. If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame (Prov. 18:13).
13. Don’t rush to get your hot take out there as soon as possible. The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him (Prov. 18:17).
14. Relax, it’s probably not a big deal. Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense (Prov. 19.:11).
15. Learn from those who have something to teach. Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future (Prov. 19:20).
16. There is no shame in ignoring your mentions. It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling (Prov. 20:3).
17. Think twice (or three or four or five times) before you make a statement or an accusation that could ruin a person’s reputation. A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold (Prov. 22:1).
18. Don’t go chasing waterfalls. Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day (Prov. 23:17).
19. Don’t embarrass your Mom and Dad. Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice (Prov. 23:25).
20. Be concerned if you are happy over bad news. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles (Prov. 24:17).
21. Haters gonna hate. Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out (Prov. 24:19-20).
22. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him (Prov. 26:12).
23. Stay out of trouble. Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears (Prov. 26:17).
24. Don’t exaggerate the failings of your enemies or the successes of your friends. A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin (Prov. 26:28).
25. For heaven’s sake, stop retweeting compliments and embedding quotations about your awesomeness. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips (Prov. 27:2).
I have previously shown that any Christian who desires to may at any time experience a radical spiritual renaissance, and this altogether independent of the attitude of his fellow Christians.
The important question is, how? Well, here are some suggestions which anyone can follow and which, I am convinced, will result in a wonderfully improved Christian life.
1. Get thoroughly dissatisfied with yourself. Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress. The contented soul is the stagnant soul. When speaking of earthly goods Paul could say, “I have learned to be content” (Philippians 4:11); but when referring to his spiritual life he testified, “I press on toward the goal” (3:14). “So stir up the gift of God that is in thee” (2 Timothy 1:6, KJV).
2. Set your face like a flint toward a sweeping transformation of your life. Timid experiments are tagged for failure before they start. We must throw our whole soul into our desire for God. “The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12).
3. Put yourself in the way of the blessing. It is a mistake to look for grace to visit us as a kind of benign magic, or to expect God’s help to cone as a windfall apart from conditions known and met. There are plainly marked paths which lead straight to the green pastures; let us walk in them. To desire revival, for instance, and at the same time to neglect prayer and devotion is to wish one way and walk another.
4. Do a thorough job of repenting. Do not hurry to get it over with. Hasty repentance means shallow spiritual experience and lack of certainty in the whole life. Let godly sorrow do her healing work. Until we allow the consciousness of sin to wound us, we will never develop a fear of evil. It is our wretched habit of tolerating sin that keeps us in our half-dead condition.
5. Make restitution whenever possible. If you owe a debt, pay it, or at least have a frank understanding with your creditor about your intention to pay, so your honesty will be above question. If you have quarreled with anyone, go as far as you can in an effort to achieve reconciliation. As fully as possible make the crooked things straight.
6. Bring your life into accord with the Sermon on Mount and such other New Testament Scriptures as are designed to instruct us in the way righteousness. An honest man with an open Bible and a pad and a pencil is sure to find out what is wrong with him very quickly. I recommended that the self-examination be made on our knees, rising to obey God’s commandments as they are revealed to us from Word. There is nothing romantic or colorful about this plain, downright way of dealing with ourselves, but it gets the work done. Isaac’s workmen did not look like heroic figures as they digged in the valley, but they got the wells open, and that was what they had set out to do.
7. Be serious-minded. You can well afford to see fewer comedy shows on TV. Unless you break away from the funny boys, every spiritual impression will continue to be lost to your heart, and that right in your own living room. The people of the world used to go to the movies to escape serious thinking about God and religion. You would not join them there, but you now enjoy spiritual communion with them in your home. The devil’s ideals, moral standards and mental attitudes are being accepted by you without your knowing it. And you wonder why you can make no progress in your Christian life. Your interior climate is not favorable to the growth of spiritual graces. There must be a radical change in your habits or there will not be any permanent improvement in your interior life.
8. Deliberately narrow your interests. The jack-of-all-trades is the master of none. The Christian life requires that we be specialists. Too many projects use up time and energy without bringing us nearer to God.
If you will narrow your interests, God will enlarge your heart. “Jesus only” seems to the unconverted man to be the motto of death, but a great company of happy men and women can testify that it became to them a way into a world infinitely wider and richer than anything they had ever known before. Christ is the essence of all wisdom, beauty and virtue. To know Him in growing intimacy is to increase in appreciation of all things good and beautiful. The mansions of the heart will become larger when their doors are thrown open to Christ and closed against the world and sin. Try it.
9. Begin to witness. Find something to do for God and your fellow men. Refuse to rust out. Make yourself available to your pastor and so anything you are asked to do. Do not insist upon a place of leadership. Learn to obey. Take the low place until such time as God sees fit to set you in a higher one. Back your new intentions with your money and your gifts, such as they are.
10. Have faith in God. Begin to expect. Look up toward the throne where your Advocate sits at the right hand of God. All heaven is on your side. God will not disappoint you.
If you will follow these suggestions you will most surely experience revival in your own heart. And who can tell how far it may spread? God knows how desperately the church needs a spiritual resurrection. And it can only come through the revived individual.
