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This week, while I was scrolling through Instagram, I came across one of the influencers I follow conducting a Q&A in her stories.

(For those not on the ‘gram, I’ll catch you up. A social media influencer is a content creator who develops a following by sharing quality content that inspires, entertains, informs, or connects them with their followers. Influencers drive engagement and set trends which help them to work with brands on sponsored content.)

The question I found intriguing in her Q&A was “Are you a Christian? And if so, do you believe having sex before marriage is wrong?” And the answer she gave was shocking to me, and yet, sadly, not so shocking. Her answer was something to the effect of: “Yes, I am a Christian. And I mean, yeah, technically it’s wrong. But so is speeding (breaking the law), and judging people, being mean, and taking the Lord’s name in vain, etc. But we still do those things. We all doin’ it.”

While I can appreciate her recognition that a sin is a sin, no matter what, and that God views all sins as missing the mark, her conclusion on the matter was very disappointing to me. It was almost as if she remembered that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23) but forgot that “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). And it’s sad to think about, but I couldn’t help but think…has the Influencer now become the Influencee when it comes to this topic, since in her words, “technically yes, it’s wrong, but we all doin’ it.”?

But wait… are we all doin’ it? Are we all sinning in these ways she listed? I’d like to hope not. I am reminded of Jesus’ sermon on the mount, when He says, “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” (Matt. 5:13-14) As Christians, we’re supposed to be different. We’re supposed to make a bland earth flavorful, a dark world lit. We’re supposed to have an influence. And our actions, even though it may not seem like it sometimes, really do matter.

As we go into the first real week of our new sermon series in the gospel of John, I can’t help but be reminded of John the Baptist. Talk about an influencer! That man, as weird as he dressed, made straight the way for the Messiah. He used His platform to promote Jesus and his actions glorified God. (John 1:19-26)

So what’s the goal? I think the goal is to hit “peak Influencer status.” What’s peak influencer status? Well it’s a term I made up, just now. But to me, it means that people can see your good deeds and say “Look! The Lamb of God!” (John 1:29,35) (Matt. 5:16) Imagine a world where whatever everyone did was for the glory of God… and then we could bring a new meaning to the phrase “we all doin’ it.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)