The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse which concealed Greek soldiers. After the horse was taken within the gates of Troy, the soldiers emerged under the cover of night to lead an ambush on their unsuspecting Trojan foes.

Today, when someone calls something “a Trojan horse,” they are referring to hidden strategy to take down a foe.

What if the Trojan horses in our lives weren’t big wooden animals, but concealed within the media we consume?

I’m not saying all media is bad. It’s not. There’s some really good stuff out there. But we’re naïve if we think that all media is neutral. We live in a world in which Satan has considerable influence. Jesus calls him “the prince of this world” in John 12:31 and elsewhere. He loves to sneak behind enemy lines (our front doors) and infiltrate from within.

They key is to be wise.

I interviewed Adam Holz from Focus on the Family’s ‘Plugged In.’ [Link below.] He highlighted Philippians 4:8: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

If our media points us to God in these ways, then it can be good; but if not, we had better re-think our media consumption.

Do we really think the creators of all the content we consume have Jesus at the top of their priority list? I don’t think the devil is around every corner. But he’s around more corners than we think.

Close the gates to naiveté, ambush, and the thieving prince of this world.

Don’t let your Trojan horse be a screen.

Be wise. Pursue (and consume) “excellent and praiseworthy” content for the glory of God.

---

Notes:

—Here is my interview with Adam Holz as an episode of The Pulse Podcast. Our talk is called “What is media discernment?”

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.