The greatest evil effected by judging others is that he who judges is deprived of [divine] love. James, the brother of God writes: Do not speak against one another, brethren. Whoever speaks against one of the brethren and judges speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge! Only one is the lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another? (James 4: 11-2.)
Regarding these apostolic words, St. Maximos says: “If ‘he who speaks evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law’ (Jas. 4:11), and the law of Christ is love, surely he who speaks evil of Christ’s love falls away from it … “” Therefore, “do not listen gleefully to gossip at your neighbor’s expense or chatter to a person who likes finding fault. Otherwise you will fall away from divine love and find yourself cut off from eternal life.” (27)
Abba Isaak says: “On the day when you open your mouth and speak ill of someone, even though your thought urged you to say something that seemed correct and for edification, reckon yourself as dead to God and void of all your works. For what need has a man to demolish his own house and set aright that of his companion?” (28)
According to St. Dorotheos there is no greater evil than to judge one’s neighbor. The Saint asks: “Why do we not rather condemn ourselves and our own faults, which we know about in detail and for which we shall render an account to God? Why do we usurp God’s right to judge? Should we not be afraid when we hear what happened to that great Elder who, when he heard that a certain brother had committed fornication, said, ‘Oh, he did wrong.’ Do you not know what a terrible thing is said about him in the Sayings of the Fathers? It says the holy angel brought the soul of the sinner to him and said, ‘Look, this is the person that you judged, he is dead, where do you command that I should put him, in God’s Kingdom or in Hell?…The holy father spent the rest of his life with sighs and tears and innumerable troubles, imploring God to forgive him for the sin,” (29) of judging a brother.
~Hiermonk Gregorios, Do not Judge: Understanding the Vice of Passing Judgment
26 Chapters on Love 1, 57. The Philokalia, vol. 2, London 1981. p. 58.
27 Ibid., 1, 59. p. 58.
28 The Ascetical Homilies, Homily 51. Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston 1984, p. 246.
29 Abba Dorotheos, Practical Teaching on the Christian Life, Lesson 6, 70, Athens 2000, p. 134.
