Signing Up with the Mob

It is always dangerous when a follower of Christ is sitting among Christ's enemies without letting it be known what he is.
...It is more than probable that when Peter sat down [among the others at the fire after Christ's arrest] the air was ringing with jest and laughter about Jesus; but he did not interrupt: he kept silence and tried to look as like one of the scorners as he could. But not to confess Christ is the next step to denying Him. ~ The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ: A Devotional. James Stalker.


I had never considered the fact that Peter was likely surrounded with an air of jest and laughter over Christ. This puts me in the mind of something that we do, which, all in all, is as harmful to Christ as it is to blatantly joke about Him.
I was thinking how easy it is for us to, in one way or another, make a laughingstock of others. Generally speaking, I have heard (and been guilty of, naturally) people make sport of whomever is not present in the room---or, with the wit of sarcasm, make good fun of the people who are in the room. 
To an extent, this is not perhaps always harmful. But then again, the sport of teasing can quickly have the sting of truth and mutate into something destroying----especially if the person can hear it, and especially if people take the torment to heart if the subject is not there. The act of having someone be a laughingstock is not honorable. 

I have heard it said from non-believers a great amount of shock when they hear that someone they were listening to was indeed professing to be a believer. They could not hear it in the person's words; the spirit of life in their actions. Then, of course, there are those that non-believers know, without a doubt, of God's touch in their lives. 
Let us consider Jesus' walk on earth. Who did He treat with sarcasm, scorn and frankly mocking words? Who did He treat with kind, compassionate words, gentle words to turn the person from the wrong heading? 
If we desire to treat people poorly, to not monitor our words, gauge the words' actions against someone in (or out) of the room, we are more than deserving of the words poured out against the Pharisees.  We might love to claim that we would not forsake Jesus that night as the 12 did---or that we, gracious creatures, would stand up against the crowd about the fire and speak that yes, we are a follower. We are, in most likelihood, lying through our teeth...
Do you recall the saying, "look not to how a man treats his superiors, but his inferiors"? If we are treating those about us with sarcasm and contempt...we may as well sign up to be in the mob that arrested Jesus. 
Watch yourself...as I will watch myself.