'if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.’ [1] You put yourself above your own rule of conduct; and the law will come down upon your head before long with its full weight, and will crush you. See what strength, light, and truth are opposed, by these two verses of the Apostle, to your rash judgments!
(2.) It is clear then, that you judge your neighbour without authority to do so. But you also judge without knowledge.
You do not know the man you judge; you cannot see his interior; you do not understand his motive, which may perhaps justify him; and even if his crime is a public one, you do not know that he may not repent: — or even that he has not already repented, and become one of those over whom the angels rejoice. Therefore, 'judge not.'
'Charity is patient, is kind. Charity envieth not, is not puffed up.... Is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil.... Beareth all things, believeth all things; hopeth all things, endureth all things.’ [2] We know also that she 'rejoiceth not ’ in the iniquity of others, but that she does rejoice when all do good ‘ in the truth.’
