On Judging Others
As soon as you feel pride taking hold of you because of the good works you have done, at once call to mind your sins, so as to calm your foolish arrogance. Do the same when you see your neighbour going astray: at once call to mind his virtues too.
Do not love to listen to evil spoken of others; speak of your own sins, and blame yourself, not people. Of Optina
Judge only yourself, and you will stop judging others. Barsanuphius the Great
Do not mock or judge one who has fallen into temptation, but pray the more, so that no trial befall you too.
He who is far from evil notices evil least of all.
Let us give up judging our neighbour, and we shall not fear blasphemous thoughts, for the cause of the second is the first.
When will the grace of the Lord cover us? Only when we try to cover the sins of our brothers.
If you cover your brother’s sin and do not make it known, God too will cover your sin.
It is folly for a man to leave his own dead and go to weep over someone else’s. He who feels the weight of his own sins does not look at the sins of his neighbour.
And truly, who knows another’s conscience? You judge him, but God has already forgiven him; so now you are judging an innocent man, whom God has justified — a future saint…
Do you want to avoid the sin of judging your neighbour? Imitate that ascetic father who, when he saw that a brother had sinned, sighed and said: “Woe is me! As he has sinned today, so I shall sin tomorrow. He repents of it, but I — who knows — perhaps I shall not have time, perhaps I shall not have the strength for repentance.”
If someone judges his neighbour in your presence, say to him: “Stop, brother, I fall into grave sins every day: how can I judge another?” With this medicine you will heal both yourself and the one who judges another before you.
But we, accursed as we are, judge our neighbours indiscriminately, and what is worse, we are not content with our own guilt but want to harm others too, by telling them of others’ sins, and so we bring the sin of judging into their hearts. If we had love, seeing the failings of our neighbour would stir sorrow and compassion in us, as it is said: “Charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8).
As the wind puts out a lampada, so judging puts out the grace of God.
Whoever wishes to overcome the sin of judging, let him ascribe the sins he sees in his brother not to him but to the devil, who prompted him.
This is the shortest road leading to life — judge not!
Whatever we judge our neighbour for, or blame him for, into that same sin we shall fall, whether it be of the flesh or of the spirit.
Try not to grow used to rebuking and correcting others, lest you yourself remain unrebuked and uncorrected.
When your soul goes forth, you will be asked only about what is yours, not about another’s.
If you see that a brother has sinned, do not hate him, do not turn your back on him and do not judge him, for by this you will first of all deliver yourself into the enemy’s hands.
Judge no one among mortals, so that the Lord may hear your prayers.
He who shows curiosity about the sins of others and judges his brother on suspicion has not yet begun to repent, nor has he taken care to come to know his own sins.
From self-love and self-reliance another evil is born in us too, one that does us great harm: the harsh judging and condemning of our neighbour, whom we count as nothing, despise, and when we get the chance even mock. We think ourselves something great and have a high opinion of ourselves, and so we look down on others and judge them, do not love them, and imagine that we are far from the failings which, in our opinion, belong to others. But you have no right to this, and by claiming it you deserve judgement and condemnation not before weak men but before the Almighty Judge, the Lord.
The beginning of salvation is judging oneself.
Let us impress it on ourselves: let us not judge others, for there is quite enough in us of what we dislike in others.
Whose work is it to put people in an awkward position, to judge and to harm, if not the devil’s? And here we are, helping the demons to destroy both ourselves and our neighbour. Why does this happen? Because there is no love in us! For charity covers the multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8). Abba Dorotheus
Seek the cause of every trial not in other people but in yourself, and say: this has happened to me because of my sins.
