Matthew 7:1-2 "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
The scriptures give us clear instruction concerning the things we should judge. In John 7:24 Jesus tells us to not judge by appearance, but to judge righteously. In Romans 14:13, Paul tells us that we should not judge one another anymore, but instead to judge that no man deters another in their efforts to walk with God. One thing this admonishment is not is a blank check for everybody to do as they please.
What we cannot judge is the heart of others. While we may be able to tell by a person’s walk whether they are a disciple (follower) of Jesus, we do not have the ability to see or know the work that God is doing (or will do) the heart of another. We who are kept by the grace of God have a difficult time with the concept of how truly sinful we are by nature. Consider the very worst individual that you can think of and then try to realize that the difference between us and them is only the grace of God in our lives.
Our judgments can be skewed by many things. I grew up in a very conservative area of hard-working people who had strict ideas about how a man was to look. For many years, that caused me to make some extremely poor judgements. I will share one such occasion with you, and perhaps you can learn from it.
I grew up thinking that a Godly man dressed in a conservative manner, kept his hair cut neatly (not growing out over his ears or past his shirt collar), and while facial hair was tolerated, it certainly was not encouraged. I was blessed one evening to have the opportunity of seeing and hearing a popular Southern gospel group. When their lead singer walked out, he had a beard, his hair was halfway down his back, and he was wearing a trench coat, of all things! And to my shame, my first thought was, “Well, if that man is a gospel singer, then the woods are full of them.”
I had judged him already in my mind as one who could not possibly be sincere about serving God. And then he opened his mouth and began to sing. I have never seen a more beautiful countenance on a man than the look on his face as he began to sing praise to the Lord. I was immediately judged by the Holy Ghost and reminded again that I was in no place to judge who God could call to serve Him.
Dear ones, be wise about where you go and what you do. Never be afraid to call evil what it is. But God alone is a discerner of the hearts of men. Christ alone is our Savior. The judgement of men belongs to God, and it is to our shame when we forget this truth.