Matthew 7:12 The Golden Rule: Do unto others, as you would want them to do to you.
This would also mean that we would not want bad things to happen to others.
I also don't think that we would want to be laughed at when we crash or fall down.
A television show called "America's Funniest Videos", and many YouTube videos display people laughing when people fall off of a ladder, have a swimming pool accident or some other type of fall/crash. They also show people laughing when cats fall off of furniture, etc. In many of these videos, it's obvious that real injury is possible.
I have never been able to laugh as such dangerous events. Injury isn't funny. Accidents are not funny.
My wife feels the same way. It's not funny.
I never understood why people like to see people get hurt.
Today we will examine this.
Schadenfreude is a German word that originates from the two words "joy" and "harm". It's the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another person.
Schadenfreude has been detected in children as well as adults.
Matthew 24:12 Love Wax (Increase) Cold
Romans 12 (Entire chapter)
:15 Mourn with those those mourn, and rejoice when they rejoice.
Proverbs 24:17–18 Rejoice not when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles: Perhaps the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
Ezekiel 33:11 God doesn't really want to punish people. He would prefer that people repent.
If we are visiting someone at their home, and they have to punish their rebellious child, we are glad that the parents correctly discipline their children, but we don't laugh at the children for being punished. We don't laugh or rejoice at the punishment.
We should apply this same principal toward wicked people who bring death or destruction upon themselves, or when God punishes them.
The bible speaks about how that in the last 41.5 days of Wrath, that the wicked will suffer horribly from their sins of worshipping stones and demons, etc. We are glad that God punishes the wicked children. But we don't laugh or rejoice at the punishing. God would rather see them repent and we also would rather see them repent. We would rejoice over the repentance, not the punishment.
What I am talking about today is actually laughing at innocent people when they fall or crash, as if it's funny. I am not talking about being glad that the enemy failed in their pursuit of evil, or got fired, or got what was due/deserving to them.
We are not happy that Nancy Pelosi's husband was attacked with a hammer. Even as many conservative leaders are condemning the attack. We are not like the Democrats who rejoice when Republicans are attacked or injured.
We also don't rejoice when someone sins.
However, we do rejoice in the fact that most Twitter employees are being fired and losing their jobs, as this helps to restore our freedom of speech and the distribution of truth. They can get new jobs at McDonald's, Taco Bell, Facebook, Pinterest, PayPal, etc. They won't suffer by being fired from Twitter.
It's acceptable to be glad when an evil nation/president loses a war. Or when an evil person loses an election. I will rejoice greatly when/if the Democrats loose their jobs by losing their control of congress on Nov. 8, if they don't cheat to keep control. But they are all millionaires and won't suffer by losing their seats in congress. No person will be injured or harmed by these millionaires losing their jobs. It would be a great victory for America. Although, only a symbolic victory, because Biden won't sign into law any legislation passed by the new Republican congress.
But I did not rejoice when a local man died, who had previously been my friend. He was a Democrat who absolutely refused to believe that Obama was evil or that the Democrat party is evil. He would not listen to reason. I had to dis-fellowship from him and told him to never return to me until he repents. I don't regret saying that. I made the right decision.
But it saddened me when he died in sin. I'm sure that he was probably vaccinated since he was so gullible to the Democrats.
I'm sure that he was probably a victim of his parents' brainwashing.
I believe that there are several things that are causes of people laughing at people when they fall/crash:
- Adults trying to make children laugh by acting like they are injured or hurt. We need to not do that! It's teaching them to laugh at people getting injured.
It is childish behavior to laugh when someone else falls.
- "Slap-stick" comedy of people hitting people and people tripping and falling. Such as “The 3 Stooges”. Programmed by Hollywood. It's a childish type of comedy.
If it's yourself and you laugh at yourself, it's because you're embarrassed, or you though that it was silly that you wasn't being careful. That's different and is acceptable to laugh at yourself.
It could be a subconscious mechanism for reducing the perceived seriousness (and hence long term mental reaction) of an accident. Nevertheless, we need to control our reactions.
Also possible: In school, it was the "cool" thing to laugh at other people's unfortunate accidents. A little kid falls and a group of "tough" kids laugh, so some other kids, wanting to distance themselves from the person being laughed at, join in.
As we mature, we no longer do that. So it's also a matter of maturity in this situation.
I never understood the mentality of people who at school would cheer on a fight. They wouldn't know who started the fight, who was the victim or the aggressor. They would just automatically cheer on the fighting. It's demonic!
People would fill the Roman coliseums and cheer the killing of the victim by the gladiator or lion. Why would anyone cheer that? It's demonic!
People shouldn't make fun of people with Down Syndrome. They shouldn't call them “retarded”, etc. People should treat people the way that they themselves would want to be treated.
We shouldn't laugh at other people's misfortune.
Full sermon audio: https://soundcloud.com/isawthelightministries/oct-29-2022-why-laugh-when-people-fall
Copyright 2022 I Saw The Light Ministries
www.isawthelightministries.com
RSS Feed
