Let us begin by trying to understand the nature of malicious gossip and passing judgment on others. “Malicious gossip is to talk about your neighbor’s sins and mistakes, for example, to say that someone lied or became angry or committed fornication … Saying any of this is denigration, that is to say, speaking maliciously against somebody, talking maliciously about his sin. Passing judgment is when you condemn the actual person, saying he is a liar, or that he is bad-tempered, or a fornicator. For in saying this, we are condemning the entire disposition of his soul and drawing a conclusion about his whole life, saying that he is like this and condemning him accordingly.” 3
Such categorical judgment is worse than malicious gossip, because “it is one thing to say ‘he got angry’, and another to say ‘he is bad-tempered’ and to pass judgment on his whole life.”4 However, because malicious gossip is the first stage of condemning someone, we will not refer to the difference between them, but rather treat both as one vice.
The venerable Fathers teach that passing judgment on others is a horrible vice, spurred on in us by the Devil. St. John of the Ladder says: “The demons push us into sin. Or if they fail to do this, they get us to pass judgment on those who are sinning … “5 For “malicious gossip” writes the Saint, “is the offspring of hatred, a subtle yet coarse disease, a leech lurking unfelt, wasting and draining the blood of charity. It is simulation of love, the patron of a heavy and unclean heart, the ruin of chastity.”6
In general, people “ignore the good actions of their neighbor, even when these are many and great, but if the neighbor manifests some fault, however insignificant, it is noticed immediately,”7 and they pass judgment on their brother for it and condemn him. “There is no sin worse nor easier than condemning others … Other sins require time, expenditure, care and accomplices, … condemnation however requires none of these … Therefore, since this evil is easy to commit…and hell and punishment are dreadful and there is nothing to be gained, … let us judiciously avoid this illness, cover the sins that others have committed and stay away from publicly exposing the guilty to shame.”8
Because “to judge others is a shameless arrogation of the Divine prerogative; to condemn is the ruin of one’s soul,”9 we must try in every possible way to eradicate this vice from within ourselves. “If you see someone falling into sin at the very moment of his death, even then do not judge him, because the Divine judgment is hidden from men. Some have fallen openly into great sins, but they have done greater good deeds in secret; so their critics were tricked…”10
~ Hiermonk Gregorios, Do Not Judge: Understanding the Vice of Passing Judgment
3 Abba Dorotheos, Practical Teachings on the Christian Life, Lesson 6, 70, Athens 2000, p. 134.
4 Ibid.
5 Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 10, 13.
6 Ibid., Step 10, 2.
7 St. John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood, 5, 5.
8 Ibid., Homilies on the Obscurity of the Old Testament, 2, 10.
9 St. John Klimakos, Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 10, 14.
10 Ibid., Step 10, 8.
