7 Rules for Online Engagement According to 2 Timothy

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While praying through the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy one morning, the words in the chapter seemed to leap off the page and strike me in the heart. As someone who writes and reads online, I feel ever more strongly the need for wisdom and discernment in what I consume and say.

The digital world is the new Wild West: a place of bots and trolls, but also an opportunity to evangelize. You and I might be one of the only Catholic voices others hear (or read) online, and what are we communicating with our words?

When I think about the early Church, they didn’t win converts with snarky remarks and rage bait; they won by their charity, often even dying as martyrs in the process. And so, as I wrestle with what to write or what to say, what to believe or what I should allow to disturb my peace, I think St. Paul has a lot of wisdom that we could all benefit from.

Below are 7 rules for online engagement based on 2 Timothy, with some examination questions included.

Rule 1: Understand the words used in their proper context.

“Avoid disputing about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.” 2 Timothy 2:14

Don’t bicker over trivialities, but first assume good intentions. Do not slander someone over the few things you’ve heard them say online. Explain concepts; do not attack people.

Do I pick apart each word someone, or the pope, says?

Do I immediately attribute bad intentions to someone’s words?

Do I find my words are constantly ones of criticism?

Do my words build up or tear down?

Rule 2: Do not gossip. 

“Avoid such godless chatter, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will eat its way like gangrene.” 2 Timothy 2:16

Speak words that edify or point to God. When a correction may be necessary, don’t let it fall under “godless chatter.”

What is my purpose online?

Do the things I read or share have value?

Am I obsessed with likes and feedback?

Does what I say count as gossip?

Rule 3: Seek righteousness and a pure heart first. 

“So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.” 2 Timothy 2:22

What comes from the heart is what defiles.

Can I look back over the years of my digital footprint and see growth and maturity?

Do my words seek to build up others and glorify God?

Do I ask God to create a clean heart in me that could stand up to scrutiny?

Rule 4: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

“Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.” 2 Timothy 2:23

Do I look for things to outrage me, in order to justify my own self-righteousness?

Do my words and actions mirror the convictions of the early Christians?

Do the debates I engage in affect my daily spiritual life?

Rule 5: Seek to win souls to Christ. 

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth.” 2 Timothy 2:24-25

The Church exists to evangelize (Evangelii Nuntiandi 14). People are won over by love and gentleness, not quarrels.

Do I prefer kindness to quarrels?

Can I correct with gentleness?

Do I want to win souls, or simply get the upper hand?

Rule 6: Do not be a proud, arrogant lover of self. 

“For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people.” 2 Timothy 3:2-5

At the end of your life, you will be judged on how well you loved, not only on the internet but also in real life.

If I substitute my name, am I any of those things?

Whom do I worship — a God made in my own image, or the God in whose image I am made?

Do I love the pleasure of tearing someone else down in the name of defending religion?

Rule 7: Seek the truth, whether convenient or inconvenient. 

“Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke and exhort, be unfailing in patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.” 2 Timothy 4:2-4

Sometimes the truth hurts, but we must still be faithful to the Church’s teachings. Learn the truth so you can recognize the counterfeit. Be humble and repent for the times you have been led astray.

Do I allow myself to be challenged by differing points of view, or do I live in an echo chamber where everyone agrees with me?

Do my beliefs align with the teachings of the Catholic Church, the Catechism and Scripture?

Maybe we know these rules and follow them. Maybe we can think of five people who need to use these rules but don’t think we do ourselves. Maybe we know but ignore them, excuse our behavior and make justifications. Maybe we don’t engage in online commentary but are passive consumers.

Maybe, just maybe, we need less time online and more time loving people in real life. That’s where the change will always happen.