Making Fun of People

Have you ever thought about what you're really doing when you make fun of someone?

When you mock someone, you're setting yourself over them as a superior, and then talking down to them in judgment as an inferior.

Many would say you're doing that because of an inferiority complex, or because you feel bad about yourself / have low self-esteem so, in order to make yourself feel good, you make others feel bad. Fine, but I think there's an important theological lesson here, too.

When you look down on another person, you have some reason(s) for doing so. There is something good about you that you see as superior, and therefore, these good things give you justifications for elevating yourself above the person you're about to mock.

However, don't forget that every single good thing you can point to, you cannot take even an ounce of credit for because "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17).

In other words, when I mock someone I am robbing God of the glory He deserves for every good thing that I am, I am pridefully taking that glory and giving it to myself, all the while conveniently forgetting that if it weren't for God's grace to me, I would be the person I'm making fun of.

In the end, the only difference between me and the nerd, the dumb jock, the outcast, the slut, the idiot, the punk kid, the fightin' fundy, the jihadist, and the nihilist is God's grace towards me.

I think we forget and disbelieve that precious truth when we make fun of someone, what about you?