One of the commandments of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount: “Thou shalt not judge.” St. Paul expands that commandment: “Do you suppose, then, you who judge those who engage in such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?” Living out this commandment is a challenge because making judgments is characteristic of human beings. We are constantly judging what is good or bad, worthwhile or useless as we go through life. What Jesus and Paul are warning us against is the tendency to transfer the judgment about things and applying it to people. We are not in a position to judge if a person is good or bad and every person has an infinite worth. Every individual has their own story of how God is present in their lives which we are not privy to. We cannot know anyone’s motivations or internal compulsions which drive their behavior. We can judge, for example, that welcoming the stranger is a good thing, a gospel value. We cannot judge whether anyone is guilty of violating that gospel value because of our own limited and flawed perspective.
