Will Smith Oscar Slap | Biblical Response

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Did you see that? Are you aware of what's been going on over the last several days in terms of the controversy and the discussion that's been going on about the

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Will Smith Oscar slap? I'm sure some of you out there are like, well, why does there need to be a video on this?

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Here's why I'm going to make a video. I think a number of us Christians out there, men, maybe married, maybe not, maybe getting married or thinking about it.

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We're thinking to ourselves deep down, yeah, but you know what? He honored his wife. At the end of the day,

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Will Smith got up there. Some guy was making fun of his wife's medical condition, whether Chris Rock realized it or not, and Will Smith had to do something to defend his wife's honor.

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That's biblical. Let me tell you why it's not. Welcome back.

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Got a brand new video for you. My name is Nate Sala, and this is Wise Disciple, and here at Wise Disciple, we're all about living effectively as Christians in today's culture.

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Now, if this is the very first time you're interacting with me, I'm very glad you're here. Definitely check out some of the other videos that I have for you.

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If you look at the playlists, there's some really good things there. Definitely the Debate Teacher React series is the most popular thing that I'm doing at the moment, but I also like to look at culture because I think there are moments that sort of stand out in the regular milieu, if I can use that word, that are beneficial.

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As Christians, we can approach them and try to understand them through the Christian worldview, and today is one of those examples.

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Will Smith, at the Oscars the other night, slapped Chris Rock. If you don't know what happened, let's take a look.

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You know who's got the hardest job tonight? Javier Bardem and his wife are both nominated.

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Now, if she loses, he can't win! So Chris Rock is the host of the

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Oscars for 2022, and everything's starting out as it should. I guess there's a whole separate discussion about whether or not

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Christians should be watching the Oscars, or if they should even care, or maybe that's a separate video, but the point is, everything's going the way that it should be going in terms of Hollywood and the

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Oscars. Now, it's the job of the Oscar host to tease, to poke, and to say a few things that are challenging to get some laughs out of the crowd.

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So Chris Rock is doing his job at this point, and then he says this. He is praying that Will Smith wins, like, please,

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Lord, Jada, I love you, G .I. Jane too, can't wait to see it, alright?

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Now look at that. So Chris Rock makes the joke, looks over at Jada Pinkett Smith, notices that her head is basically shaved, and says, hey, can't wait to see

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G .I. Jane too. Everybody else in the room appeared to be laughing. Will Smith is even laughing. Jada Pinkett Smith is not laughing, and here's why she's not laughing.

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She actually has a medical condition. She has alopecia, and so, you know, one of the symptoms of alopecia is you suffer hair loss, and so she's dealing with that.

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She probably is sensitive to it. Chris Rock, I mean, either he knew that and made the joke, which seems incredibly insensitive, or he didn't know that, which

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I think is probably what was going on, he didn't know. Chris Rock is pleased with himself, I mean, you can see that right there.

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But at some point, Will Smith changes his mind. He probably looked over, when the camera was off him, looked over at his wife, realized she was upset, and that made him upset, and then this is what happens.

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That was a nice one, okay. I'm out here. Uh oh. Richard. Oh, wow.

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Right. Wow. I mean, so here's the thing, right, like, what is going on in Will Smith's mind as he's walking up to Chris Rock, you know?

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I don't think anything logical or rational is going on in Will Smith's mind at the moment.

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I think what's going on is he's just very emotional. He's reacting to everything that's going on in his mind, and I think that's what's going on very emotionally. It's funny, because, I mean,

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I keep talking about this, and I keep bringing this up, because I think we as Christians need to properly understand this.

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Why? Because it's going to help us as we get out there and communicate our Christian faith. It's going to help us as we try to love the people that God has placed in our lives.

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The reality is, and the Bible teaches this, and social psychology or behavioral psychology is just starting to articulate these things on a scientific level in the last several decades.

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But the bottom line is, we are largely driven by our emotions. We largely do things based on emotion, and then after the fact, ad hoc, we try to rationalize what it is that we did, okay?

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And that's exactly what I think happened in this particular situation. Will Smith felt emotion.

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He looked over at his wife, obviously he cares about her, and he got up to do something about it with no game plan whatsoever.

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Now that's a huge mistake, okay? And clearly, you see what happens when you get up to do something with no game plan.

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You end up striking somebody on the face, and then having to apologize and walk it back later.

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So, this was not a good moment, and I'll tell you, this was not a Christian moment either.

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But let's go ahead and finish the video here. Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me.

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Keep my wife's name out of it. Wow, dude.

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Yes. It was a G .I. Jane joke. Keep my wife's name out of it.

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I'm going. So again, I mean, just going back to this idea that I think what was going on was,

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Will Smith immediately laughs at the joke, turns and looks at his wife and realizes that she's unhappy, realizes probably, not even in a well -articulated way.

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I need to do something, right? Which ladies, come on now, a lot of our thoughts, a lot of men thoughts are not well -articulated.

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Let's just be honest. But anyway, gets up to do something about it, and I think over time, with every single step, including smacking him, he's just getting more and more angry.

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To the point where he turns around and now comes back and sits down, and then you see him starting to, in his voice, get even more angry.

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I think right at this moment, he's the most angry. Okay? So again, no game plan.

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I'm just going to get up and do something. This is what can happen. Oh, okay. That was the greatest night in the history of television.

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Okay. Okay. Now, in a moment, I'm going to be getting to how we as Christians should be thinking about this and sort of understanding what really happened, and if we're thinking of a particular

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Bible verse, what verses should pop into our mind and all of that, but directly after the event, some celebrities jumped into the conversation and gave their thoughts about Will Smith.

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Take a look. Hey, Will. Well, sometimes when you're speaking about somebody's wife, you know, you can't really help that.

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So that's what I would say. So you got celebrities that are stepping in and weighing into the discussion here, and Tiffany Haddish is on Will Smith's side.

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Will Smith's son is on his side. Pop star, whoever this is, is on Will Smith's side.

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I believe whatever he felt that he did, he had the right to do. Out of a horrible moment, there was a little bit of beauty in what came on, and I'm sure everyone's very apologetic about what happened.

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Shouldn't have happened. But ask yourself, what would you do in the same situation? Right. And so that is the key question,

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I think, that Christians are probably asking themselves is what would you do in this situation? And obviously, whatever it is that we do should be filtered through what the scripture teaches us to do, what

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God's desire is for us as Christians to do. Now, one last thing before I get to the answer,

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Will Smith gets up and he actually wins an Oscar, which is probably one of the most bizarre moments in Oscar history, which is you got a guy who gets up, smacks the host, like physical altercation, gets up, is almost ejected from the whole entire event.

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There were reports that came out after the fact that revealed that Academy Awards officials were really seriously considering kicking

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Will Smith out of the event night before even receiving his award, which that would have been interesting if they would have announced his name and there was an empty chair.

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But the bottom line is, then you have like a half an hour later, Will Smith getting up to receive his award, and this is what it looked like.

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Now, I know to do what we do, you got to be able to take abuse.

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You got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you got to be able to have people disrespecting you, and you got to smile and you got to pretend like that's okay.

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I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees.

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This is a beautiful moment, and I'm not crying for winning an award.

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It's not about winning an award for me. It's about being able to shine a light on all of the people,

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Tim and Trevor and Zach and Saniya and Demi and Anjanue and the entire cast and crew of King Richard and Venus and Serena, the entire

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Williams family. Art imitates life.

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I look like the crazy father, just like they said. I look like crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams.

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But love will make you do crazy things. Being able to love and care for my mother and my family, my wife,

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I'm taking up too much time. Thank you for this honor.

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Thank you for this moment, and thank you on behalf of Richard and Oracene, the entire

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Williams family. Thank you. I hope the Academy invites me back.

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Thank you. I think Will Smith's Oscar acceptance speech goes to show what it is that I was saying a few minutes ago, which is,

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I just don't think he thought this through. I think this was an example of someone who was very emotional and got up and did something based purely on his emotion and started thinking logically and rationally after the fact about, why did

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I do that? I think you find him searching for his words here to try to rationalize and explain why it is that he did what he did.

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It's about love. I love my wife. I know other people have looked at this and said, oh, wow, he's sort of saying problematic things and contradicting himself, because on the one hand, he says he's a vessel of love, and then on the other hand, he's physically violent against somebody just for saying something that he didn't like.

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I mean, that's technically what happened. And I get all of that. That's what I'm trying to say. I think Will Smith is trying to think through and rationalize after the fact what it is that he just did.

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And so he's finding the words, he's trying to, and even then, I think he's trying to get to a point where he can formulate a true apology.

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So in the Oscar acceptance speech, he apologizes, but one person that was glaringly omitted from his apology was

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Chris Rock. So Will Smith, in the moment, apologizes to the

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Academy and all the people that run the Academy, but not to Chris Rock. Now, Will Smith today posted this.

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He said, violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night's Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable.

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Okay, good. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada's medical condition was too much for me to bear, and I reacted emotionally.

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Okay, there we go. This is what I'm saying. I would like to publicly apologize to you,

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Chris. I was out of line, and I was wrong. I'm embarrassed, and my actions were not indicative of the man that I want to be.

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There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness. That is exactly the

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Christian response. It came late, but that is the heart of the

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Christian's response. The bottom line is that we as Christians are followers of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ taught us that when someone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek.

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Jesus says in Matthew 5, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, do not resist the evil one.

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But if someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. That is the

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Christian's, it captures the Christian's attitude towards retaliation. Vengeance is the

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Lord's, and the Lord's alone. It is not our job to retaliate, especially when someone says something that we do not like.

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Paul says in Galatians 5, now the works of the flesh are evident, enmity, strife, fits of anger.

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Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

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There it is. Where was self -control Sunday night at the Oscars? Actually it looks like Chris Rock had self -control.

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In other words, the Christian who is the true follower of Jesus Christ should not be controlled by fits of anger, but we should be slow to anger, slow to speech.

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Quick to listen. So I guess the question is, well, then what should the Christian have done in that particular moment in time?

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I would argue that the Christian should let it happen. Let those words come out. You don't have to laugh when somebody says something that you don't like.

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You can show your disapproval by not participating in the laughter that is taking place around you.

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But the bottom line is that as we approach those that we disagree with, it must be communicated in a manner of love and concern for the person that we're talking to.

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Why? Because we don't need to defend ourselves. Jesus Christ is our defender.

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We have right standing with God because the blood of Christ has covered our sins past, present, and future. So it's not necessary for us to try to micromanage every single thing that comes out of people's mouths.

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As a matter of fact, I think Will Smith is sort of a microcosm of a greater problem that's been going on in our society for a while, and that is that we are so easily angered with each other.

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There is no space to be patient with each other in the moment. Now, Will Smith did the right thing after the fact, and I praise

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God for that. I praise God when somebody does things that reflect what I know to be true from the

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Scripture. He apologized to Chris Rock. Hopefully it wasn't just in the Instagram post. Hopefully he actually apologized face -to -face and was truly contrite and all of that.

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But the bottom line is, if we could just be way more patient with each other, if we could seek to understand each other, to love each other in the midst of hearing things from others that we don't like, we would be doing a lot better as a society, and I see the opposite going on, and Will Smith, I think, sort of exemplified that Sunday night.

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Even if somebody mocks my wife and dishonors her? Yes, even if someone mocks your wife and dishonors her.

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Romans chapter 12 says, Do not repay evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of everyone.

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Oh, but is that saying that, well, I only do what is honorable in the sight of everyone when somebody honors me or my wife?

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No, that's not what it says. It says repay no one evil for evil. In all circumstances, especially in the face of something that is wrong, when someone throws their words out at you in a mocking fashion, do what is honorable in the sight of all.

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By the way, all includes the Lord. The Lord has desires on our hearts as Christians.

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That's all I'm trying to tell you. If you watched the Will Smith Oscar slap and you're thinking to yourself, yeah, but he kind of had a point.

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There was something in there that was good. You're wrong. Don't go down that path. Don't be like these other celebrities that reacted and said, well, you know,

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I understand why he did what he did. You had to do something, right? You had to do something. No, you don't. If you are found in Christ, you are vindicated before the living

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God, and there is nothing that anybody can say or do that will take that away. You have right standing before the

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Lord. It doesn't matter what somebody does with their words, even if it's in front of cameras for millions of people.

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All right, those are my thoughts, but I'm very curious to get yours. Let's have that discussion. Do you think that Will Smith had a point?

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Was there some kind of good thing in the midst of all of this that you saw that we should discuss?

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Throw them down in the comments below. I would love to get your thoughts on this. I apologize.

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I've been trying to respond in comments and do those more. I've been really super busy at my local church lately, but I will absolutely respond in comments to these because I think this is actually a very beneficial discussion.

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Don't forget, we've got more videos coming at you real soon, including a brand new debate teacher reacts. Look for all of those things.

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I will communicate them in the community tab, so thank you for being patient, but in the meantime, I'd love to get your thoughts.