In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives one of his particular commandments: “Stop judging.” St. Paul picks up that commandment in his first letter to the Church at Corinth: “do not make any judgment before the appointed time.” This New Testament theme seems difficult to understand at first but in context it makes perfect sense. What the Bible teaches us is that we can’t judge persons. Of course we can judge a behavior — this is a good action, this a bad. But what is going on in another’s heart, what motivates them, is beyond us. We leave that in God’s hands. Good thing too — for God is kind and merciful, slow to anger and rich in forgiveness.
