“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment<\/em>” (John 7:24).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When we’re evaluating other people, we need to be careful. Jesus spoke to this issue when He said, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” We owe it to those around us to avoid snap judgments based on first impressions and outward appearances. Getting at the truth requires digging below the surface, but it’s work well worth doing.<\/p>\n
When we have a strained relationship, we often try to improve it by being patient with the other person, adopting a more positive attitude, and learning better communication techniques. Without a doubt, practices like these can be helpful. But in too many cases, we fail to work on what would yield the greatest results: learning to see the other person more fully and more accurately.<\/p>\n
As Stephen R. Covey used to emphasize in his teachings, “The way we see <\/b>the problem is<\/strong> the problem.” If you and I are having a relationship problem, it is probably caused, to a great extent, by at least one of us viewing the other in an inadequate or untrue way. Now, if you are viewing me wrongly, there may not be much I can do about that. But what I can do is “whittle on my end of the stick.” I can ask my conscience whether\u00a0my\u00a0<\/strong>view of\u00a0you<\/strong> is hurting the relationship. If that is even partially true, when I start seeing you differently, the relationship will improve.<\/p>\n
But let’s go even deeper. When we assess other people, what is revealed? I suggest that what is revealed, more than anything else, is ourselves<\/strong>. Our assessment of others is influenced greatly by our own personal characteristics. (For example, if treachery is one of our own character traits, we’ll be more than a little suspicious of everybody we meet. “You can’t trust anybody anymore” will be our motto.) So if I need to see your character more positively, the best thing I can do is work on my own character. And, friends, that is one of the best reasons for us to grow up in Christ. We can’t see <\/b>others as we should if we won’t be <\/b>what we should. So do we want better relationships? Then let’s make it our main passion every day to upgrade the godliness of our character – our principles, our values, our conduct, our motives, our hopes, and our aspirations.<\/p>\n
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Gary Henry via WordPoints.com “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24). When we’re evaluating other people, we need to be careful. Jesus spoke to this issue when He said, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” We owe it to those around us to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[713],"class_list":["post-94242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-judging-others"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8258,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-you-judge-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":94242,"position":0},"title":"How can you judge others?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Christians are not supposed to judge, only your God is supposed to. In the constitution, it states \"Freedom of Religion.\" I guess people that believe in Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. are going to hell I suppose right?\u00a0 If your a real \"Christian\" then you don't judge people by their religion,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64496,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-being-judgmental\/","url_meta":{"origin":94242,"position":1},"title":"Am I being judgmental?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I had a dear friend who used to preach in the Lord's Church. When his daughter was married, he had an open bar at the reception. I was so upset and shocked. I was told I was judging. Is this something we should warn those we love about? The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90831,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-much-should-we-judge\/","url_meta":{"origin":94242,"position":2},"title":"How much should we judge?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know that it is not our job to decide who goes to heaven or hell. Still, my boyfriend says that my family will not be saved because God will not accept the worship that they offer, because they are using instruments and teaching false lessons, such as once\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32120,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-right-to-say-rest-in-peace-in-regard-to-a-known-sinner\/","url_meta":{"origin":94242,"position":3},"title":"Is it right to say “Rest in Peace” in regard to a known sinner?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like to ask a question regarding a statement left by many of my friends, as well as my Christian brothers and sisters in Christ. The statement is \"Rest in Peace\" to Whitney Houston. I know according to the Bible that no one is in Heaven yet. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53688,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-to-judge\/","url_meta":{"origin":94242,"position":4},"title":"How to Judge","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford If there is any verse in the Bible that our society knows, it's Matthew 7:1. Even people who have never cracked open a Bible in their lives are able to quote from the King James Version, \"Judge not that ye be not judged.\" I'm not sure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3330,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-catholics-go-to-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":94242,"position":5},"title":"Will Catholics go to hell?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Will Catholics go to hell? Answer: \"Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}