I have a dear friend I communicate with every day via a video phone app. So when I felt incensed by something she said and considered not talking with her daily, I knew it would be a big change in her life as well as mine. I wasn’t sure that what I felt to be my entirely justifiable anger was worth the change in our friendship. 

My clenched stomach, however, would not let me just forget about her comments. Big feelings and angry objections swirled around in my thought. But I was wise enough to stop and think before I responded. I asked myself, “How would Jesus act in such a situation?” 

The Gospel of John relates an incident involving a woman condemned for sinning, in which Christ Jesus states that only an individual who had not sinned should be allowed to cast the first stone at her (see 8:1–11). This rebuke of self-righteousness protected the woman from harm when all of her accusers walked away without throwing a single stone. The fact that Jesus rebuked self-righteousness made me wonder if I needed to rebuke self-righteousness in myself.