Ephesians 5:11-16: Should Christians Watch TV?
Short answer: The Bible does not address television by name, but Ephesians 5:11-16 speaks directly to how we use it. Paul writes, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them." Christians should evaluate television by whether it feeds truth, purity, and wisdom or trains the heart to enjoy what God calls darkness. This is not a blanket ban on screens, nor a shrug at content. It is a call to discernment: watch deliberately, reject what dishonors God, and let your viewing be governed by love for Christ rather than habit, boredom, or cultural drift. The command is moral, not technological.
What Ephesians 5:11-16 actually commands
Paul is writing to believers surrounded by a pagan culture saturated with sexual sin and idolatry. In the verses just before our passage, he contrasts light and darkness as two ways of life. The command in Ephesians 5:11 is not merely to avoid evil but to refuse partnership with it. The Greek word behind fellowship carries the idea of sharing or participating together. Deeds of darkness are called unfruitful because they produce nothing lasting, nothing good, nothing that survives God's judgment. To have no fellowship with them means I do not treat them as harmless entertainment, neutral background noise, or a private matter unrelated to my walk with Christ.
The second half of the verse presses further: "but rather even reprove them." The word means to expose, to bring to light, to show something for what it is. Paul is not asking every Christian to stand on a street corner denouncing every sin they see. He is saying that light does what light does: it reveals. When I refuse to participate in darkness, my life quietly exposes it. My choices testify that the thing celebrated on the screen is not good. The verse assumes that sin loves cover and that believers, by their conduct, pull the cover back.
Verses 12 and 13 explain why exposure is necessary. Paul says it is shameful even to speak of the things done in secret. Darkness prefers secrecy because secrecy protects it. Light makes things visible. This is why content matters. Television is not just pictures; it is a system of messages about what is normal, desirable, and satisfying. When it presents sin as glamorous and godliness as dull, it is doing the work of darkness. To watch without discernment is to let darkness do its work in the dark, where I cannot easily see what is being formed in me.
Then comes the well-known verse: Ephesians 5:14 says, "Therefore he says, 'Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'" Paul calls believers out of spiritual drowsiness. Television is a drowsy medium by design; it asks for passive attention. That does not make it evil, but it means we must be alert. The passage ends with a command to walk carefully, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Time is the currency; every hour spent is spent.
Why television is a discipleship question, not just a content question
The modern debate about Christian television usually centers on content: how much violence, how much sexual immorality, how much profanity. Those are real questions, and Ephesians 5:11 gives us a clear answer about not fellowshipping with darkness. But the passage also raises a deeper issue. What is the medium forming in me? What habits of attention, appetite, and affections does it build? Content is what I watch; formation is what watching does to me. Both matter, and both fall under the lordship of Christ.
Paul's command to walk as wise people is not limited to what we watch. It includes when, how long, and why. A Christian can watch an entirely wholesome program in an entirely foolish way, escaping from responsibility, numbing grief instead of bringing it to God, or spending hours that should have been given to prayer, family, or work. The command to redeem the time assumes that time can be wasted. Television is one of the most efficient time-wasters ever invented, not because it is uniquely wicked but because it is so easy to keep watching.
This is why legalism and license both fail. Legalism says the screen is inherently unholy and lists rules that God never gave. License says the screen is inherently neutral and my heart will be fine no matter what I feed it. Ephesians 5:11-16 rejects both. It treats the deeds as darkness, calls for exposure, and still commands wise living rather than withdrawal from the world. Paul does not tell the Ephesians to move to a monastery. He tells them to be light in the place where darkness is.
So the question is not simply whether I can watch a given show. It is whether my viewing is a form of fellowship with darkness, whether it dulls my appetite for what is good, and whether it makes me less able to reprove evil by a holy life. Those questions require honesty. They cannot be answered by a rating, a genre, or a network label. They are answered before God, with Scripture in hand and the Spirit at work.
Testing content by Philippians 4:8
Paul gives the church a practical filter in Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think about these things." That is not a rule about genres. It is a direction for the mind. What I habitually think about shapes what I love, and what I love shapes what I do. Television is, among other things, a machine for putting things into my mind.
Notice that truth is first on the list. Much entertainment is built on falsehood: false views of romance, money, power, and human nature. Even a well-told story can carry a lie at its center. The test is not whether a show makes me feel good but whether it trains me to think in line with reality as God defines it. Honor, justice, purity, loveliness, and good report follow. These are not prudish categories; they are the furniture of a healthy soul. When a program consistently inverts them, it is doing something to me whether I notice or not.
Some Christians have used this verse to ban all fiction and drama. That goes beyond the text. Jesus told parables, which are stories, and the Bible contains poetry, narrative, and imagery that depict evil without endorsing it. The presence of sin in a story is not automatically a violation of Philippians 4:8. The question is what the story does with the sin and what it forms in the viewer. Does it expose evil or glamorize it? Does it leave me more sober, more compassionate, more truthful, or does it leave me entertained by what God hates?
A workable practice is to ask before and after watching. Before: What is this likely to put in my mind, and am I watching it because I want that? After: What did it stir in me? Gratitude, conviction, love, curiosity about what is good, or restlessness, envy, lust, and discontent? Paul does not say think about these things only at church. He says think about them, period. Television occupies a large share of the average Christian's thinking hours, which is exactly why it belongs under this command.
Walking wisely because the days are evil
Ephesians 5:15-16 reads, "Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil." The phrase about days being evil is not despair; it is realism. Paul knows the environment in which believers live is morally hostile. He does not tell them to panic but to walk carefully. The image is of someone navigating a dangerous road, attentive to where they step. Television is a road with many turnings, and the wise traveler watches the road, not just the scenery.
Redeeming the time means buying up opportunities, the way a shopper buys up a bargain before it is gone. Opportunities for what? For worship, for service, for rest that restores, for relationships, for growth in Christ. If the average evening is consumed by screens, those opportunities are not purchased; they are spent on something else. Many Christians testify that the single most freeing decision they made was to turn off the television for a season and discover how much time they actually had.
This is where faithful Christians differ, and we should say so plainly. Some believers are convinced the wisest course is to have no television in the home at all. Others watch selectively, using filters and limits, and find real value in documentaries, news, sports, and well-made stories. Scripture does not settle the exact line for every household. It settles the direction: toward light, wisdom, and redemption of time. A family that prays together and watches some television together is not thereby disobedient. A family that never misses a show but never opens the Bible has a problem no rule can fix.
The wisdom question also involves community. Proverbs assumes that wise living is learned from others, not invented alone. If I cannot stop watching something, that is worth telling a trusted believer. If my viewing habits embarrass me when described out loud, that is information. If my spouse or children are being shaped by what plays in our home, I am a steward of that. Walking wisely is not private; it is lived before God and among his people.
What about "Christian television" itself?
There is a particular irony in the phrase Christian television. A screen is not made holy by a religious label. Programs marketed as Christian can be true, honorable, and pure, and they can also be the opposite: sentimental, manipulative, money-driven, or doctrinally careless. Ephesians 5:11 does not exempt religious broadcasting from the test. If anything, it demands more scrutiny, because false teaching with a Christian label is more dangerous than obvious worldliness, not less.
At its best, television can serve the church. A well-taught sermon reaches shut-ins who cannot attend worship. A documentary can show believers what God is doing in another country. A broadcast can plant a question that drives someone to open a Bible. These are real goods, and we should be grateful for them. Paul did not treat every available medium as compromised. He preached in synagogues, reasoned in marketplaces, and even quoted pagan poets when it served the truth. The medium is not the sin.
At its worst, religious television becomes Christian-shaped entertainment with no cross in it. It flatters viewers, promises health and wealth without warrant, and asks for money in ways that would embarrass the apostle who worked with his own hands. It can make people feel they have done something spiritual because they watched, when watching is not praying, repenting, or loving a neighbor. Paul's command to reprove the unfruitful deeds of darkness applies inside the church's own programming as much as outside it.
The practical result is that the label matters less than the content and the fruit. Does this program lead me to Christ, to Scripture, to holiness, and to love for people? Or does it replace those things with a feeling? A steady diet of religious content is not the same as discipleship. The goal is not Christian television but a Christian mind, formed by the word of God and directed toward what is above. Screens are tools; the question is what they are building in us.
Setting the eyes of the heart above
Colossians 3:1-3 calls believers upward: "If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God." The Christian life has a direction. It is not primarily a list of prohibitions but a pursuit. Paul does not merely say stop looking at darkness; he says set your mind on things above. This is the positive side of turning off the television. If we only subtract, we leave a vacuum, and vacuums get filled with something. The redeemed heart needs something to love.
Romans 12:1-2 supplies the framework: present your bodies as a living sacrifice, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Television is one of the most powerful conforming forces in modern life. It does not merely inform; it normalizes. It teaches us how people like us talk, dress, spend, and decide, and it does so hour after hour. The renewing of the mind is the antidote, and it happens as the word of God is read, taught, memorized, and obeyed.
Psalm 101:2-4 gives us a personal resolve that fits this topic: "I will be careful to live a blameless life. When will you come to me? I will walk within my house with a blameless heart." Notice the phrase within my house. The psalmist's integrity is not for public display; it is proven at home, where no one is watching except God. For most of us, that is exactly where the television is. The battle for a blameless heart is fought in the living room, not on the platform.
1 John 2:15-17 adds a warning we cannot ignore: "Don't love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father's love isn't in him." This is not a command to hate creation or culture. It is a command about love and loyalty. The world here is the organized system of desire that opposes God, and television regularly stokes its cravings. The question is whether my viewing is shaping me to love the Father more or to love the world more. That question, asked honestly, will change what we watch.
Household habits that put Ephesians 5:11-16 into practice
Conviction without practice fades. So what does obedience look like on an ordinary Tuesday night? First, decide before you sit down. Choose what you will watch and for how long, rather than turning on the screen and letting it choose you. Second, review afterward. Ask the Philippians 4:8 questions. Did this leave me more grateful and more like Christ, or less? Third, put the remote down when the answer is no. This is what it means to have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness; it is a decision, not a feeling.
Fourth, guard the household. If there are children in the home, the adults set the table. A home where the television runs all evening is a home where everyone is being taught by someone else. This is why the psalmist's resolve to walk within his house with a blameless heart matters so much. Fifth, replace rather than merely remove. Fill the time with Scripture reading, prayer, family meals, books, and service. Six, be honest with at least one other believer who can ask you how it is going. Habits change faster in the light than in secret.
None of this requires a specific set of rules that all believers must adopt. A single man in his twenties and a family with three children may make different decisions. A nurse who works nights and unwinds with a documentary is not sinning because she watches television. What matters is that Christ is Lord of the screen, that darkness is not fellowshipped with, and that time is being redeemed. Where brothers and sisters differ on the details, they should extend grace without pretending the question is unimportant.
Finally, remember the goal. The purpose is not to be the person who watches the least television. The purpose is to be light in a dark world, to walk wisely, and to let Christ shine on us and through us. If cutting back on screens frees you to love God and neighbor more, that is fruit. If it only makes you proud, it is not. Paul's command to reprove the deeds of darkness begins with a life that has been exposed to the light of Christ and made honest by it.
Biblical fidelity check
What does Ephesians 5:11-16 establish? It establishes that darkness is real, that it has deeds, that those deeds produce no fruit, and that believers must not share in them. It establishes that light exposes, that wisdom is needed, and that time must be redeemed because the days are evil. It does not establish a list of approved media, a rating system, or a rule that every Christian home must own or not own a television. The passage gives a moral direction and a pattern of wisdom, not a regulation about devices that did not exist in the first century.
A common misreading is to treat the command to reprove the deeds of darkness as permission to police other people's entertainment. That is not Paul's point. The verb is about what light does by existing and shining, and the context is the behavior of the believing community. Another misreading is to treat Christian liberty as permission to watch anything, as if the cross removed the call to purity. Both miss the text. The passage calls each believer to examine his own walk, to reject fellowship with darkness, and to live wisely before God.
Other passages that speak to Ephesians 5:11-16
Several related passages deepen this study. What does Psalm 23 mean for Christians today? reminds us that the Lord shepherds his people, and a shepherd leads rather than leaves. What Does 1 John 1:1 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application explores the light and darkness themes that run through John's letters and Paul's. Scriptural Christianity: A Bible Study from John Wesley's Classic Sermon asks what a genuinely scriptural life looks like in practice. The Almost Christian: A Bible Study from John Wesley's Classic Sermon presses the difference between almost and altogether, which is precisely the question television forces on us.
Frequently asked questions
Is watching television a sin?
Scripture never names television, so it does not condemn the device itself. What Ephesians 5:11-16 condemns is fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness. Television becomes sin when we use it to participate in what God calls evil, or when it becomes the main thing that shapes our thinking and eats our time. A Christian may watch television to the glory of God with a clear conscience. The same Christian may need to stop watching particular programs or cut back heavily on hours. The issue is lordship and discernment, not the existence of screens.
What about Christian television networks and programs?
The Christian label is not a free pass. Ephesians 5:11 applies to religious broadcasting too. Some programs faithfully teach Scripture and serve shut-ins and seekers well. Others are sentimental, manipulative, or unsound in doctrine, and can leave viewers feeling spiritual while never being confronted by the word of God. Test them as you test anything else: does this lead me to Christ, to Scripture, to holiness, and to love for people? Do not lower your discernment because a program uses Christian vocabulary.
How can I help my family use screens wisely?
Start with your own habits, since children learn what they see. Then set the evening together: choose what will be watched, agree on time limits, and keep meals and conversation screen-free where possible. Replace the time with something better, such as reading Scripture aloud, praying together, or being outdoors. Talk about what you watch, asking the Philippians 4:8 questions out loud. Finally, treat this as discipleship rather than policing, and extend grace when someone slips.
