“You judge according to the flesh;”
“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.”
John 7:24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
Psalms 82:2 “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?
Proverbs 17:15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.
Proverbs 24:23 These also are sayings of the wise. Partiality in judging is not good.
Isaiah 11:3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
James 2:1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
James 2:9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin
Habakkuk 1:4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Judging is an easy trap to fall into. Sometimes we judge by appearance and other times by what we hear. We make assumptions when we do this. If we see a person dressed very nicely we may think they are successful and just the opposite for someone not dressed so well. In fact we may even treat them both differently. The bible has examples of this in the new testament. Jesus was talking about the man who pleaded with God for forgiveness, simple stating forgive me a sinner. Another stood before God and said I am thankful I am not like that person. Another example was with the man who gave money and made sure those around knew how much he gave. This was compared to the old poor woman who gave 2 pennies. In the first example the man asking for forgiveness did so with humble (fear) respect and reliance on God and the other man did so with pride in self. In the second example the old poor woman gave all she had where the rich person gave out of his abundance. It is so easy to judge by appearance and yet it is so wrong. Another example would be of the two who were being crucified along either side of Jesus. Standing back in the crowd one might judge them all as worthless sinners deserving this punishment. Yet one would join Jesus in paradise and the other condemned to hell. When it comes to a mans heart only God truly knows. We do well to treat all mankind with grace, mercy and love proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, salvation and eternal life.