4 Signs God Is Telling You to Block Someone on Social Media

As a point of clarification, throughout this article you might want to substitute the word “block” for “unfollow.” Depending on what social media platform you are using and whether your goal is to no longer see their social media posts or your goal is for you to block them from seeing your social media posts, choose whatever option fits you best.

My point in this article is to simply point out 4 common signs that will be present when God wants you to stop interacting with someone on social media.

1. If Someone Is Deliberately Seeking to Cause Divisions in Your Life on Social Media, This Is Often a Sign God Is Telling You to Block Them

Social media is not inherently good or bad. I believe it is a morally neutral tool that is used for good or bad by people. Social media simply magnifies the type of person you are. Kind and respectful people post kind and respectful content online. Rude people who want to cause problems post content that riles others up and spreads hate.

If someone is argumentative and divisive, following them on social media is like putting a megaphone in their hand and letting them setup shop in your living room. You can’t change people like this, but you can take the microphone out of their hand and remove them from your living room by blocking them on social media.

As Titus 3:10-11 explains, “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” If someone falls into this category, you “still have something to do with them” if you are following them on social media. To obey this command of “have nothing more to do with them,” you must block them on social media.

(For more on this topic, you may want to read, What does the Bible Say About Social Media?

2. If God Has Told You Not to Reconcile with This Person in Real Life, This Is a Sign You Should Also Block Them on Social Media

Ideally, social media increases your exposure to positive people who encourage your walk with God like 2 Timothy 2:22 commands. However, if you are not careful, it can also keep you connected to people God wants you to be disconnected from.

Forgiveness is a command for all Christians. There’s never a time where God calls us not to forgive someone when they sin against us. Colossians 3:13 states, “. . . as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

But we must be careful not to confuse forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is when you release the person of the spiritual debt they owe you because of the sins they committed against you. You release any hate you have for them and you choose to wipe the spiritual slate clean of the wrongs. This does not mean you don’t report criminal activity or you pretend like you were not wronged. But forgiveness is a sign that you have the faith to believe Jesus’s death on the cross truly paid for the sins of the world (John 3:16).

Reconciliation is very different though. Reconciliation is when the relationship is restored to what it was before the offense took place. God has not commanded us to always reconcile. In essence, forgiveness is supposed to be unconditional but reconciliation is very conditional.

You are not called to reconcile with someone who has not repented or continues to mistreat you. You are not called to reconcile with someone who broke your trust so severely that it can’t be restored. People can do things where they should never be trusted again. Whenever possible we should seek to reconcile. People can repent and earn your trust back if they grow and mature. But sometimes it’s not possible. As Romans 12:17-18 states:

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”

If God has told you that you should not reconcile with someone in your life, this means you should also put up new boundaries on social media too.

3. If This Person Is Posting Sexual Content, This Is a Sign You Should Block Them

In Matthew 6:22-23 Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.” This is obviously a very relevant Bible verse to guide our social media use. Social media is a very visual medium, so we have to be very careful who we follow and what content we allow to show up on our screens.

Sadly, one easy way for people to attract lots of eye balls is to post sexual content. While this person who posts this content will be judged for these sins, we also need to take responsibility for our own eyes and not let these people force their temptation in front of us.

As Psalm 101:2-4 states, “I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.”

Job 31:1 (NIV) also says, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.”

And 1 Corinthians 6:18 commands, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

4. If Seeing This Person’s Content or Messaging with Them Is Preventing You from Moving Forward in Life, This Is Often a Sign God Wants You to Block Them on Social Media

Relationships can be messy and painful, but the wounds only worsen when we sit there and pick at the scabs. If you are trying to move on from someone who you used to date or someone who you really liked but now know you are not called to date, it will be very hard for you to see their content on social media. It’s unwise to try to move on in your heart while not setting up healthy boundaries in the rest of your life too. Philippians 3:13-14 says:

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” 

This Bible passage is talking about following Jesus as you walk the road of sanctification, but its principles should certainly be applied to past relationships or desires God has told you to move on from. Don’t let someone’s posts slow down your growth. Don’t allow the fear of hurting someone’s feelings prevent you from obeying the Lord’s words to you to move on.

If God is telling you to move forward with him but seeing someone’s posts on social media is tempting you to keep looking back, this is a sign the Lord is telling you to block this person.