Category: JUDGMENT

  • Moreover, one who judges others may be treated in the same way by people.

    As the saying goes, ‘Who sifts people, will be bolted by them’. One who always finds faults with the others is often treated the same, and as he reveals the weaknesses of the others, his own weaknesses are revealed by them. All are under the same weakness, he who condemns, and he who is condemned.

    Judge Not Others
    H.H. Pope Shenouda III

  • Do not judge the others then, not merely out of compassion for them, but out of compassion for yourself.

    Out of compassion for yourself avoid the consequences of judging others. You may be subject to be forsaken by the grace, to be condemned on the Day of Judgment, or to suffer falling in the same sin for which you judged your brothers as in the story of some old father who condemned hardly a youth who fell in sin, making him fall in doubt and finally leave the monastery to the world. God permitted that the old father suffer in his old age the sin he never experienced in his youth.

    Judge Not Others
    H.H. Pope Shenouda III

  • St. Dorotheus said:

    Who judges someone in his heart and opens his mouth against him will fall in the same sin for which he judged his brother as the divine help will have forsaken him.

    Judge Not Others
    H.H. Pope Shenouda III

  • A very important exercise to practice to attain the fear of the Lord is this: do not do in secret what you are ashamed to do before people. Do not have any thought which you cannot reveal before people. Say to yourself, “I should be ashamed from God who sees me and examines my thoughts, my intentions and the desires of my heart. 

    …

    Try, then, to be righteous before yourself as much as you are before others. Avoid any speculation which would make you embarrassed if others knew it, likewise with your deeds and emotions.

    Fear of God
    H.H. Pope Shenouda III

  • It may be useful to train oneself, initially, to the notion that
    sudden death and Judgment are imminent. This is because
    the principle of “love” might not be attractive to a frivolous person while, on the other hand, fear mixed with trust might be a viable starting point; experiencing love will follow.

    From Heart to Heart
    Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty

  • None of us is judged for what he does not know, any more than one is counted blessed because he is learned and possesses knowledge. It is rather in regard to these questions that each faces judgment: whether he has kept the faith and sincerely observed the commandments.

    —Athanasius, The Life of Antony

  • When you judge others, you judge God. Whether you’ve seen a thief, a loose woman, or a drunkard sprawled on the street, do not judge, because the Lord allowed their passions. Through these they should find the path to God—they should be humbled, see their own powerlessness, come to know the Lord, and repent. And are you pleasing to God? That means the Lord in His grace and mercy is restraining your passions. Know that if He lets them go you will fall into worse sins, and perhaps you won’t manage to climb out of those sins and you’ll perish. There for be humble and cautious. You saw that a person sinned, but did you see later how he repented? Then don’t judge! Like a thread passing through the eye of a needle, so man experiences the same sin that he judged in another. 

    —St. Gabriel the Fool for Christ of Samtavro

  • It seems that the sins that are not struggles for me are the very sins that I find most offensive in others. The commandments that are least difficult for me to understand and strive to keep are the very ones that cause the most offense in me when others do not seem to keep them.

    —Fr. Michael Gillis

  • I am aware of my tendency to divide people into good ones and evil ones, as if I could see into people’s hearts and know for sure why they act the way they do.

    —Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

  • The signs (marks) of one who is making progress are these: he censures no man, he praises no man, he blames no man, he accuses no man, he says nothing about himself as if he were somebody or knew something; when he is impeded at all or hindered, he blames himself: if a man praises him, he ridicules the praiser to himself: if a man censures him, he makes no defense: he goes about like weak persons, being careful not to move any of the things which are placed, before they are firmly fixed: he removes all desire from himself, and he transfers aversion to those things only of the things within our power which are contrary to nature: he employs a moderate movement toward everything: whether he is considered foolish or ignorant, he cares not: and in a word he watches himself as if he were an enemy and lying in ambush.

    —Epictetus, Enchiridion