It’s totally possible that every time you post a picture of someone online without their knowledge and consent, you may be at odds with the teachings of Jesus.
We live in a strange time, and a strangely dehumanizing time. As a speaker and preacher, I am baffled when people whip put their phones and grab a picture while I’m speaking or get a quick video to post online. Typically these pictures and videos are accompanied by kind words or with someone mentioning how much they love their church or are gaining so much at an event.
On its face, that seems fine, but, we hardly ever ask one another if that is okay to do.
We have become so numb to our digital habits and online expectations that too many people, including Christians, don’t think about what we have become, or what we have un-become.
Recently, I attended a workshop. As is typical, the workshop leader divided us into groups. He gave us prompts to discuss within our groups, and we moved on with the day. Later that same week, I saw videos he shot on his iPhone of our group discussions — just a panoramic video above his caption exclaiming how much he loved doing this kind of work.
Seems typical right? Nothing out of the ordinary, correct?
Yet that’s what bothers me most. Neither he, nor anyone else, stopped to consider that he had used our time together, not only as a meaningful time of learning and growth for us, but also as a commercial for himself. We signed no waiver for the use of our name, image or likeness. Our tickets did not release our image to the event or the event owner. Yet, in a digital age, where social media pretends to be real life, we no longer see other humans as people. We are stars and other people are fixtures.
Increasingly, humans have ceased to be humans to other humans, we have become props on one another’s stage. And that’s where we run afoul of Jesus and his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
Our Lord warns, “Anyone who looks at another person in order to lust has already committed adultery in the heart” (Matthew 5:28). Lust in this context isn’t only sexual—it’s the habit of seeing a human being as a thing to be used or displayed for our gratification. A few verses later Jesus sums up healthy relationships: “treat others the way you want to be treated” (Matthew 7:12). When people become props we quietly swap Jesus’ ethic of honor for a culture of objectification. The unspoken inner logic says, “everyone here is here for me to do with what I will, to use.”
Neil Postman saw the trend early. In Amusing Ourselves to Death he argued that when entertainment values invade every corner of public life, “serious discourse” dissolves into amusement. In 1985 he was talking about television; the logic fits TikTok and Instagram like a glove. Put bluntly, we are coached to treat people less as neighbors and more as props for our personal highlight reels.
The Result…
Moments are captured for clicks before compassion has time to kick in.
“Disposable” videos travel the world while the subject never even knows.
Nuanced conversation drowns in an attention economy that prizes spectacle.
Jesus’ two sentences offer an antidote.
Honor the image-bearer (Matthew 5:28). If staring at someone to gratify ourselves violates their dignity, so does broadcasting them for digital applause. In fact, we are maximizing that gaze in our attempts to share it as broadly as possible.
Flip the lens (Matthew 7:12). Would you want a clip of your worst hair day, or a poor angle, or a private moment looping on strangers’ phones? If not, the Golden Rule tells us to pause before we hit “post.”
Read together, these verses insist that consent is not optional; it is woven into love of neighbor. Translating that wisdom into the digital age takes both heart change, care for others, and maybe even good policy.
The European Union treats digital objectification as both a moral and legal issue in three ways: (1) Under the General Data Protection Regulation (DSA), any photo that can identify a person counts as personal data. You need a clear legal basis—usually explicit consent—before taking or posting it. People can also withdraw consent later, forcing removal. (2) EU member states, backed by European Court of Human Rights precedent, recognize a “right to the protection of one’s image.” Even in public spaces, publication without permission can be challenged if it harms reputation or privacy. (3) Starting in 2024, the DSA requires social-media companies that serve Europeans to explain takedowns, provide appeals, and remove non-consensual intimate images “without undue delay.”
The EU is stating morally what Christians have forgotten: People are not props!
Coming Back to Jesus
Technology will keep evolving; so will laws. The Sermon on the Mount, however, remains stubbornly relevant. Jesus did not give a social-media policy, but He gave a filter: every picture, post, or share should reflect the value of the person on the other side of the lens. Our daily choices—phone in hand—show whether we believe Him.
The next time your desire for clicks, sales, or applause tempts you to turn a person into a prop, remember the Rabbi’s words echoing across your feed: “Whatever you wish others would do for you, do also for them.” Honor over humor, consent over clicks—that’s how we stop amusing ourselves with other people’s image, work, likeness, privacy, and dignity and start treating them like the neighbors Jesus says they are.